REBNY VP Caught Tearing Down Schlossberg Sign, Resigns

An act of campaign sabotage during primary voting Tuesday landed REBNY’s vice president of legislative affairs for New York in hot water.

Dev Awasthi was filmed removing campaign signs for NY-12 Congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg from a streetlight post and throwing them in the trash earlier today. He no longer works for the real estate industry group.

The video posted to X by Politico reporter Jason Beeferman shows Awasthi removing the signs while chatting with a person in a shirt emblazoned with the name of Alex Bores, another candidate vying for the hotly contested seat in Congress to represent a large swath of Manhattan.

“These actions are completely inappropriate and this behavior does not meet the standards we expect from our employees,” REBNY Senior Vice President and General Counsel Carl Hum said in an emailed statement. “This individual is no longer employed by REBNY.”

Awasthi appeared to trash Schlossberg signs located near Third Avenue and 32nd Street, just a mile from REBNY’s Midtown office and squarely within the 12th Congressional district. Until his resignation Tuesday, he had served as the real estate group’s vice president of New York City legislative affairs since October 2024.

REBNY just named its next chair, Fried Frank partner Jonathan Mechanic, to lead the industry group starting in 2027 and succeed Two Trees CEO Jed Walentas.

Schlossberg’s platform includes a Housing Fairness Plan that seeks to allow tenants to deduct their rent from their taxes and to expedite repairs for public housing nationwide. The Kennedy family scion has also opposed the redevelopment by Related Companies and Essence Development of NYCHA’s Fulton and Chelsea-Elliott Houses as mixed-income buildings.

REBNY’s political action committee has not supported any candidate in the NY-12 Congressional race, according to a review of this year’s campaign finance disclosures.