In the latest installment of From the Lobby‘s Meet the Team series, host Joanna Pasceri welcomes Ralph Ortega, the veteran New York journalist who most recently led City & State New York as editor-in-chief and now joins O’Donnell & Associates as Vice President of Public Affairs. Across more than three decades in newsrooms, Ortega has covered City Hall, Wall Street, 9/11, and the dramatic political arcs of Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams. In this conversation, he reflects on the Watergate-era inspiration that pulled him into journalism, what it was like steering coverage during one of the most turbulent stretches in modern New York politics, the unfinished work of advancing Latino representation in government, and the stories — including the death of a young boy on a sled — that have shaped his sense of fairness as a reporter. He also shares the personal pursuits keeping him grounded: a vintage computer collection, a book in progress about his parents, and an enduring conviction that Rocky is a perfect film.
Joanna Pasceri
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to From the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell. This week, another episode of our Meet the Team series, where we introduce you to the people behind the work at O’Donnell and Associates. Today’s guest is someone many New Yorkers already know, even if they’ve never met him. For more than three decades, Ralph Ortega has been telling New York’s story from inside newsrooms, from the front lines of breaking news, from the center of some of the biggest moments in state and New York City history. Most recently, Ralph served as editor in chief of City and State New York, where he helped shape coverage of everything from the Cuomo fallout to Mayor Adams’s rise, and where he became a familiar face moderating conversations and interviewing key political players across the state. Now, Ralph brings that journalist’s eye and the deep understanding of how politics actually works to our team. Ralph, we’re thrilled to have you here. Welcome to the Lobby.
Ralph Ortega
Well, thank you, Joanna. I really appreciate being here.
Joanna Pasceri
You’ve been a reporter and editor for more than 30 years, covering everything from City Hall to Wall Street to international stories. When you look back, what first pulled you into journalism?
Ralph Ortega
Well, I am a child of the 70s and the 1980s. So when Watergate happened, I was a kid. I was really in grade school throughout the 70s, but I remember it, and my father obsessed with it on the news, reading books about it, watching it on television. There was a huge increase in the interest in journalism. People started going into journalism schools and becoming journalists, all because of Watergate, the way it inspired so many people to seize on this career.
The 80s come around, and I’m going to college and university, and my mother’s a doctor, and I thought, well, I have to follow in her footsteps, of course. But I was miserable. And my mother was saying to me, “My gosh, why don’t you just embrace what you do so well, you love writing.” And I did. I mean, I love journalism. We were in a household where we got all the papers — the New York Times delivered to our front door. My father was able to come home for lunch with the Daily News under his arm and then the New York Post in the afternoons, late afternoons when he’d come home from work because it was an afternoon paper. And then in the evening, we were watching Walter Cronkite. So we were a real journalism family. And my folks were immigrants pursuing the American dream. When my mother said all that to me, I decided to change my major to journalism.
And I love this story that I grew up watching the original television, George Reeves Superman, black and white episodes. What I loved about that show is I also loved Clark Kent, except his superpowers were a typewriter and curiosity and holding government accountable. I love telling that story, especially when I became an adjunct at the CUNY School of Journalism. I’ve met a lot of young people that are so interested in getting into journalism, and that really encouraged me and inspired me to stay in this business for more than 30 years. I loved that story until I started watching this new show called The Paper. It’s a comedy. And the new editor who shows up at the paper comes with that same story about Superman and Clark Kent. And I said to myself, “Oh, my gosh, I feel so cheesy now.” I think some screenwriter heard me telling that story in a cafe.
I always told my children that I get to do for a living what I love most doing in life, which is writing and holding people in government and power accountable and standing up for our freedoms through the freedom of the press and expression. For me, there couldn’t be a better job. And to now be able to leverage that in government relations with O’Donnell & Associates to make things happen is an exciting time for me.
Joanna Pasceri
You were at City and State during one of the most dramatic stretches in New York political history — Cuomo’s downfall, Hochul’s rise, shifting power dynamics there. What was it like being in the editor’s chair during all of that?
Ralph Ortega
To watch Andrew Cuomo ascend the way he did and then become a commander in chief was quite exciting — commander in chief during the pandemic. He was for a while there on a real high. For someone whose reputation, a lawmaker once said to me, “He’s a really sharp guy, really smart guy, young and dynamic” when he was coming up through the ranks. And now, with all this power, he unfortunately is a hammer. He really could come down on someone pretty hard to accomplish what he wanted to. Another journalist who covered Cuomo, they used to call him the Prince of Darkness. To watch that ascension and then such a dramatic fall from grace with so many people lining up to make these allegations against him — it was truly a remarkable time.
Coming into that story with a team of reporters and editors, very young, extremely smart, award-winning — we were ready to tackle that story and we did. The governor knew it. We made national headlines with some of our stories.
To pivot over to the Eric Adams administration — these are stories of people who have risen in power, then to watch them fall incredibly hard. It was unfathomable what happened to Adams. For someone who won with so much excitement and then to have two camps of people working for him: the career bureaucrats who were there to leave a legacy behind, to really make an impact on New York City — yes, that will have ripple effects for years, which will lead to, hopefully, more apartments, more affordable living, rezoning that will allow for things like that, that was really needed. We had a cover story on our magazine that basically said, “Hey, you know, he wasn’t such a bad mayor after all.” The other camp that he surrounded himself with were all his friends, people with baggage and unfortunately loaded with corruption. To think that after he already had left Gracie Mansion, they were still indicting people from his administration. It’s sad to see him fall so hard, to see him a little bitter now.
Our journalists in New York City, they were on top of him, and City and State was there the same way. These reporters and editors there, they were perfect for what happened next — covering the Mamdani campaign and the surprise win. The dawn of a new era. The honeymoon looks like it’s starting to end. I’m really happy to now be watching it as a reader. And I’ll never give up those roots, my journalism roots. Once a journalist, always a journalist. I’m definitely looking forward to doing some writing, interviewing some people in my role at O’Donnell, and to continue reading the great work the City and State is putting out.
Joanna Pasceri
You set a high bar there, I’m sure. Ralph, you’ve covered politics from every angle. What do you think people outside of the political world most misunderstand about how it really works?
Ralph Ortega
A journalist’s perspective of a politician is, of course, going to be very different from the general public. What I’ve learned is, what do politicians think the moment they win an election? What’s the first thing they think after winning an election? How do I get reelected? And I believe this is really true across the board. It’s just a fact. It’s what defines a politician. The only way you can get things done is to have access to power. And that’s what I liked about City and State’s lists that they produce, because they’re all about access to power. The more power you have, the higher you are in a ranking. Looking from the outside in, what most people should realize is that politicians are going to gravitate to these jobs because they want to get things done, they want to make things happen. I believe they do start off with a noble purpose, except the only way to do that is to have access to power.
Joanna Pasceri
You’ve reported on a lot of historic moments in New York and New York City history, from covering 9/11 firsthand to international assignments. What moment or story still stays with you the most?
Ralph Ortega
I have made it in the last few years a tradition to cover the day of service that happens on 9/11. You have volunteers, thousands of people, tens of thousands of people across the country, including right here in New York, volunteering that day to pack meals that are distributed to the needy. It’s all in honor of 9/11 and remembering it in a positive way that embraces life. It’s the kind of assignment that you would hand a rookie reporter, but I worked for the Daily News, a tabloid, for almost eight years, and there I learned to appreciate those kinds of stories.
When I was a young reporter covering the death of a young boy who was on a sled that got run over by a car, I knocked on his father’s door, the door open, asked if I could come in to write about his son. He brought me in. He sat me down, and I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said, “All right, I’m going to let you sit down here and tell you about my son. And I’m going to just say one thing for you. Just remember that this might be the last thing anyone ever reads in print or anywhere about my child. Just remember that.” And I never forgot that. That helped define me as a reporter. When I interview people, we want to be objective as journalists, but everyone has an opinion, and unfortunately, it can be a bias. But if you go in with an open mind and give everyone a chance, that’s how you can be fair in this business. That happened maybe 25 years ago.
I met a lot of famous people and a lot of interesting characters, from a 600-pound man named Tiny to Richard Simmons, the exercise guru that was going to save him. I love people stories. Interviewing people in politics is a lot of fun. You can get into the policy, you can get into the politics, and then you can get into their story. And if you do it right, they’ll trust you and tell you everything — not just everything that they want you to know, but everything that you’re hoping to get out of that story.
Joanna Pasceri
So, Ralph, you’ve also been a consistent voice advocating for greater Latino representation in New York government. Why is this such an important part of your work?
Ralph Ortega
I’m glad you asked that question. I became most conscious of this watching the Adams administration. That’s one of the advantages of being the editor of a publication like City and State, because we really go into the weeds. One of the things that was pretty stark was the fact that his administration did not reflect a great high level of Latino representation, at least not a parity with our population. We were very fortunate to have a deputy mayor who is Latina. She came late into the administration, did not have a high profile, despite the importance of her work, and still made an impact. Ana Almanzar, she’s a Dominican woman, a nonprofit professional who joined the administration and did some great work. However, I really felt there should have been more. Ydanis Rodriguez was transportation commissioner, another Dominican. But it was a call that resonated throughout the city with others who believe the same — that we should have a greater representation of Latinos, not just in city government, across the state, but particularly downstate in our great city. I wrote a lot about it. People did reach out to me in agreement and grateful that I was giving it a lot of attention.
For full transparency: my father was from Cuba, my mother was from Chile. I was born in Manhattan. My parents did pursue the American dream as immigrants and were successful at it. I’m a product of that, and I want to see more of that. I’d like to see that rise to the level of politics. It has in the past, but it hasn’t had the full momentum that it really needs to be sustainable. It’s very hard to categorize Latinos as a unified community. We’re all from different countries with all different customs, with all different kinds of politics — a lot of which you’re seeing unfold right now with Venezuela. Cuba is probably next with maybe regime change. Cuba’s having a very hard time, and my family there is sending back many reports of food shortages, fuel shortages, power outages. Just because we’re all different doesn’t mean that Latinos don’t work together as a community. It requires some coordination on the political level.
There are also people who have already arrived in government, and they, like anyone, might require guidance. I’ve been talking to folks about developing a way to help people who are career government — they’ve paid their dues, they’ve worked 20 years, and they’re trying to decide, what’s my next move? Do I become a career bureaucrat like a deputy mayor, or do I run for office? A lot of that organization doesn’t really exist right now, at least locally, but I’m hoping that’ll change. We need to create a machine like that to help get folks to that next level and hopefully to coordinate as a more effective and impactful political operation. We’ve seen Latino voters for Trump. It lacks coordination. But I’m hopeful. We just saw a very strong moment for a Black administration with some disappointments to go along with it, but it was their moment. Now with Mamdani, it’s an Asian moment, an exciting time for Asians, South Asians. I’m hoping to see a Latino moment. We’ve seen some groundswell in the past, but it has not yet happened. I think when we see a Latino mayor, we would have accomplished finally what I’ve been talking about.
Joanna Pasceri
So, 30-plus years in journalism — I can confirm it takes up quite a bit of your life. What do you like to do outside of work, Ralph?
Ralph Ortega
I’ve always been nostalgic. I was a child of the first video game consoles and computers to come home. Everyone knows Atari, right? They had an expression when I was a kid: “Did you play your Atari today?” Fast forward to today. I have started collecting these machines because I love physical media. To have these computers back on my desk in my office, on display, operational, has been quite a hobby. The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, great institution, has a video game section, a hall of fame. All the computers they had behind the glass, it was almost the same thing I have here at home in my home office. Most of my machines work — that’s quite impressive for a machine that’s almost 50 years old, sitting right next to modern day technology.
My other pastime: I’m writing a book. It’s about my parents. They were pursuing the American dream, they were successful, and unfortunately they both contracted HIV and they died after that. It’s a sad story that a lot of people have asked me to write, and I’ve been writing this book telling their story because it’s quite a love affair that ends in tragedy. I’ll leave it right there.
Aside from that, I love watching movies. I’m a big movie buff. You’d want to play Trivial Pursuit with me, the movie edition. I like a lot of music also. I play the piano. And I’ve got four adult children that I have to keep up with. They’re all very exciting and dynamic. It’s a blast.
Joanna Pasceri
Well, we were talking to our coworker Diane about movies too. She’s a movie buff. So I guess I’ll ask you like I asked her — what is your all-time favorite movie?
Ralph Ortega
I’ll say Rocky, because I love underdog stories. It’s a movie that’s perfect from beginning to end. It mirrors real life. Not everybody wins at the end of the story. So I hope I didn’t give that away for anybody who hadn’t seen Rocky. I think the writing, the casting, the music, everything about that movie — it’s inspiring, it’s timeless, it’s shot on location, so beautifully portrayed, the cinematography. Overall, perfect movie, Rocky. But if I have to mention anything else, I love science fiction, so 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes. I’m a big Star Trek fan, so I had to throw out Star Trek II. But perfect movie — Rocky. Almost like Gone with the Wind perfect. Almost like The Wizard of Oz. Those are classic films that I love. Asked me to pick one that I think is the best, I always thought Rocky probably was, and still is.
Joanna Pasceri
Ralph, this has been such a great conversation, and we’re lucky to have your perspective, experience and storytelling instincts on the team. Welcome aboard.
Ralph Ortega
Thank you for having me. This was great.
Joanna Pasceri
That’s it for this episode of Meet the Team from the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell. Stick around as we feature more of the people behind O’Donnell and Associates. Thanks for listening, everyone. We’ll be back soon from the Lobby with Jack O’Donnell.
