Sides are already being drawn over who the next City Council speaker will be — as outside interests push candidates they think will best stand up to Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

Julie Menin, who reps the Upper East Side, and Crystal Hudson, who reps swaths of Fort Greene, have emerged as the current leading contenders to take over for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams come January, The Post has learned.

“Someone like Julie Menin running for speaker could be a moderating force,” one source said.

The source noted that while Menin is a “very progressive person” in terms of social issues – who shares a lot of endorsements with Mamdani, like the heavyweight Hotel Trades Council – she would be seen as “the adult in the room” in terms of fiscal policy.

“They aren’t explicitly pushing her, but it is well understood that she is the pick of the business community and could moderate the Mamdani agenda,” the source said.

Mamdani, the frontrunner in the November general election, is already sure to have trouble getting concessions from Albany to pass his freebie-filled agenda, if elected.

His $10 billion agenda hinges on getting the state Legislature to raise taxes — an idea Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is up for re-election next year, has repeatedly slammed.

But beyond Albany, Mamdani will face additional challenges from more moderate members in the next council, political operatives said.

A source also noted that while the council’s progressive caucus had a 35 member veto-proof majority at the beginning of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, 15 members jumped ship over its calls to reduce the “size and scope” of the NYPD in 2023.

The caucus now only has 17 members in its rank out of the 51 total city council members.

Mamdani currently supports maintaining the NYPD headcount — but he previously called for “defunding the police” as an assemblyman.

If elected, he wants to create an eye-popping $1.1 billion Department of Community Safety whose staff would respond to mental health calls instead of cops.

The majority of the funds for the new department would be fueled from existing programs, but an extra approximately $455 million would also be needed, according to his campaign website.

If elected, he wants to create an eye-popping $1.1 billion Department of Community Safety whose staff would respond to mental health calls instead of cops.

“As soon as a ‘community safety officer’ inevitably gets injured or worse by an emotionally disturbed person doing a job a cop used to do, that policing experiment has failed,” said Ken Frydman, a longtime police union consultant.

“Everyone who does business with City Hall is thinking about a counterbalance as speaker to a Mayor Mamdani. Including unions,” Frydman said.

“To that end, I’d advise police unions to get behind Julie Menin, not progressive caucus members Hudson, [Amanda] Farias, [Carmen] De La Rosa or [Christopher] Marte.”

Hudson is a member of the progressive caucus.

But one source noted she also has an establishment background working in city government and bested a DSA candidate with the endorsement of Brooklyn Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, in her 2021 race.

“Crystal Hudson would be the perfect person to stand up to Mamdani. She’s really not that progressive, she’s a moderate, but regardless it would be bad politics” to challenge her, the source said.

Sources also pointed out that challenging the election of either Menin or Hudson as speaker, could create optics issues for Mamdani.