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What to watch for this week in New York politics:

We're in the home stretch of the Presidential race -- and all the other races that are on the ballot November 8 -- with Tuesday marking two weeks until Election Day. As Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and other presidential candidates fight for votes, there are also a variety of races happening in New York. Some will determine party control of the State Senate; others will help decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives -- there are several swing districts in New York. In New York City, there's few, if any, competitive races for local Senate, Assembly, or House seats. [Read: Limited Down Ballot Choices for New Yorkers Come November 8]

Mayor Bill de Blasio spent time this weekend again campaigning for Clinton, this time in Virginia. Back in the city, de Blasio starts his week with no public events. De Blasio will hold a town hall meeting in the Bronx on Thursday evening and will appear at a live event on WNYC radio on Friday morning from the station's The Greene Space.

Governor Andrew Cuomo begins his week on Long Island, campaigning for Democratic state Senate candidates.

This week will see the four-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy hitting New York.

And, along with a variety of committee hearings this week -- details of which are below -- this week the City Council holds its second of two October full-body Stated Meetings, at which new bills are introduced and bills that have passed through committee are voted on by the full Council.  

As always, there's a great deal happening all over the city, with many events to be aware of - see our day-by-day rundown below.

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The run of the week in detail:

Monday
At 10 a.m. on Monday, the State Assembly’s Ethics and Guidance Committee will meet.

On Monday at 11 a.m. in Corona, Queens, ""First Lady Chirlane McCray and American Psychiatric Association President Maria A. Oquendo, M.D will be joined by elected officials, advocates and health leaders to announce a major investment in the health of NYC’s communities."

At 11 a.m. Monday, Public Advocate Letitia James will attend the ribbon cutting ceremony for the NYPD Candidate Assessment Center.

At 1 p.m. on Monday, “Council Member Rory I. Lancman and the New York Democratic Lawyers Council (NYDLC) are rallying New York lawyers to protect the right to vote against suppression and intimidation efforts in this fall’s election in New York and in swing states.” Council Member Lancman, Council Member Costa Constantinides, and Representative Hakeem Jeffries will be among those who participate.

"On Monday evening, Mayor de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray will host a reception at Gracie Mansion with business, non-profit and philanthropic leaders who participated in the Ladders For Leaders program. They will celebrate a record-breaking year for the City's Summer Youth Employment Program. This event is closed press."

Tuesday
Tuesday marks two weeks until Election Day.

Starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Crain’s New York will hold its 2016 Family Business Summit. This event will “explore how New York family-owned businesses have managed to survive in the city while growing their businesses through the generations.”

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, “City & State’s Borough 50 Series will recognize top 50 community leaders from Queens at a breakfast.”

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, there will be a “New York Building Congress Breakfast Forum with Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen.” The event will “feature the release of the latest Building Congress research report, New York City Construction Outlook 2016-2018.”

On Tuesday at 10 a.m. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will participate in a Women and Girls and Civic Engagement panel at The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem, an event being hosted by Generation Citizen.

On Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in Manhattan, "Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman will announce a first-of-its-kind gun trafficking report...The report analyzes tens of thousands of crime guns recovered by law enforcement, illustrating gun trafficking trends that undermine New York’s strong laws."

At 11 a.m. Tuesday outside the David Dinkins Municipal Building, "Public Advocate Letitia James will call on New York City and New York State to expand access to 3-D digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) technology, a new breast cancer screening technology proven to increase early detection of breast cancer."

At 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and Police Commissioner James O'Neill will attend Team Up! at The Hunts Point School in the Bronx. At 6:30 p.m. Fariña will attend a District 20 Town Hall at P.S. 204 in Brooklyn.

At 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Vera Institute of Justice will hold an event on the question of what drives jail growth.

On Tuesday at 1 p.m., "lawmakers and immigrant advocates from around the country will host a call to discuss the significant progress that has been made and to describe what more states and cities can do. The call is coordinated with the release of a new Center for Popular Democracy report, Promoting Equality, that highlights innovative policies that cities and states have passed to promote community safety, inclusion and equality, such as language access initiatives, municipal IDs (NYC has issued almost one million), access to counsel programs for people facing deportation, and policies to prevent co-optation of city and state police for federal immigration enforcement." Participants on the call will include Cristina Jimenez, Co-Founder, United We Dream; Nisha Agarwal, Commissioner, New York City Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs; Natalia Aristizabal, Lead Organizer, Make The Road New York; John Avalos, Member, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, District 11; and Shena Elrington, Director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice, Center for Popular Democracy.

At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the New York City Board of Elections will hold a Commissioners Meeting.

At 6 p.m. Tuesday, the New York City Bar Association will hold its “Barbara Paul Robinson Series: Profiles of Leaders in the Law, with U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Sonia Sotomayor.” Charlie Rose of CBS News will moderate the discussion with the two justices.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, there will be a fundraiser for State Senate Democrats, hosted by Senators Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Michael Gianaris, with Governor Andrew Cuomo the special guest, according to Politico New York.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Brooklyn Historical Society will hold “Criminalizing Poverty: A Dirty Truth.” This event will explore the question of whether being poor really is a “crime.” A panel discussion will be moderated by Alysia Santo of The Marshall Project and Peter Goldberg, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, will give opening remarks. Public Advocate Letitia James is scheduled to speak as well.

At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Urban Democracy Lab will hold a discussion on “The Politics of Documenting Neighborhood Change.” Zaheer Ali (Oral Historian, Brooklyn Historical Society), Heather Dalmage (Professor of Sociology and Director of the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice at Roosevelt University), Max Holleran (PhD candidate, Sociology, New York University), and Rebecca Amato (Historian and Associate Director of the Urban Democracy Lab at New York University) will speak at this event. Jack Tchen (Associate Professor and Director of the A/P/A Institute at New York University) will be the moderator.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday at Gracie Mansion, "Mayor de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray will host the third annual UpStander Awards at Gracie Mansion."

Wednesday
At the City Council on Wednesday:

• The Committee on Aging will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss “a Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to providing legal counsel for senior citizens subject to eviction, ejectment or foreclosure proceedings.”
• The Committee on Juvenile Justice will meet at 10 a.m. for a tour of The Ryer Limited Secure Placement in The Bronx.
• The Committee on Governmental Operations will meet at 10 a.m. for oversight of the New York City Board of Elections.
• The Committee on Consumer Affairs will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss several proposed laws on food vendors.
• The Committee on Higher Education will meet at 1 p.m. for oversight of CUNY Pathways.
• The Committee on Courts and Legal Services will meet at 1 p.m. for oversight: “Evaluating the Progression of Justice Reboot.”
• The Committee on General Welfare will meet at 3 p.m. to discuss several proposed laws.

The New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics will hold a meeting on Wednesday.

At 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance will speak at a Citizens Budget Commission breakfast. Vance will “discuss the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative and his office's efforts to invest in public safety, crime prevention, and the justice system.”

At 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Center on Media Crime and Justice at John Jay College will hold a briefing on domestic violence in New York City. Deputy Chief Martin Morales, the Commander of the NYPD Domestic Violence Unit, will be the keynote speaker.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the Center for New York City Affairs will host a panel on New York City Public Schools that have successfully achieved racial and economic integration.

At 1 p.m. Wednesday, New York Law School will hold “Master Class: NYC’s Land Use and Zoning Laws.”

At 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Brooklyn Historical Society will hold “Voting Against Hunger: Presidential Elections and Food Assistance in the US.” There will be discussion of “how figures like FDR, JFK, and Ronald Reagan have dramatically changed the course of hunger in our country.”

Thursday
At the City Council on Thursday:

• The Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Elections will meet at 10 a.m. to continue discussions from its October 20 meeting.
• The Committee on Finance will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss a “resolution approving the new designation and changes in the designation of certain organizations to receive funding in the Expense Budget.”
• The City Council will hold a Stated Meeting at 1:30 p.m. It will be prefaced, as usual, by a pre-stated press conference led by City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

At 8 a.m. Thursday, City & State New York will hold “State of NY Health.” Discussion will focus on both advances and risks in health-related issues in New York State. State Senators Liz Krueger and Kemp Hannon will participate.

On Thursday at 6 p.m., the Brennan Center for Justice will hold “Corporate Citizen? A Book Talk with Ciara Torres-Spelliscy.” Torres-Spelliscy “will explore this resistance and offer reforms to support these new understandings of the corporation in contemporary society.” She will be joined by Alyssa Katz from the New York Daily News.

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the Department of City Planning will have its first kickoff meeting for the Gowanus Neighborhood Planning Study. Among other things, this study “seeks to foster a thriving neighborhood by reinforcing and encouraging a robust local economy anchored by a mix of uses and businesses, while creating opportunities for new housing with affordable housing in appropriate locations.”

At 7 p.m. Thursday, Mayor de Blasio and City Council Member Rafael Salamanca, Jr. will hold a town hall meeting in the Bronx.

Friday and the weekend
At the City Council on Friday:

• The Committee on Transportation will meet at 10 a.m. for oversight of “the future of driverless vehicles in New York City.”
• The Committee on Environmental Protection will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss “a Local Law to amend the building code of the city of New York, in relation to establishing requirements for the selection, installation and maintenance of plants for green roof systems.”
• The Committee on Veterans will meet at 1 p.m. to discuss a “resolution calling on the United States Congress to pass, and the President to sign into law, the Fairness for Veterans Act of 2016.”
• The Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management will meet at 1 p.m. to discuss two issues related to snow and ice removal.

Over the weekend of October 28, Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray will be hosting weekend Halloween Parties at Gracie Mansion.

At 10 a.m. on Friday, State Senators Liz Krueger and Brad Hoylman, and Assembly Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz will “present a moderated discussion on the financial and fiduciary implications of divesting New York State's pension fund from fossil fuels.”

On Friday, beginning at 4 p.m., “State Senator James Sanders Jr. (D-Rochdale Village, Far Rockaway) will host his Annual Hurricane Sandy Remembrance and Recovery Walk...Attendees will gather at Rockaway Beach at Beach 67th Street where there will be a prayer and moment of silence, reflections by elected officials, community leaders and residents and a singing and mime performance by youth from Battalion Pentecostal Assembly Church. Attendees will then walk from the beach to Battalion Pentecostal Assembly Church.”

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez will hold his annual “State of the District” event.

At 8 p.m. on Sunday, Time Warner Cable News and NY1 will televise the only U.S. Senate Debate between Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Republican Wendy Long. The debate will be held at Union College, and Errol Louis and Liz Benjamin will moderate. 

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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

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by Brendan Birth and Ben Max
@GothamGazette