White collar attorney Jim Walden made his official entry into the mayoral race Monday, launching his campaign in Brooklyn.

“One of the reasons I’m jumping in the race is because the city of New York deserves better,” he explained.

Billing himself as the independent voice, Jim Walden — a partner at corporate law firm Walden Macht and Haran — officially threw his hat into a very crowded field of candidates gunning for Mayor Eric Adams’ job.

Hitting the mayor for having a habit of rewarding his friends with high level City Hall jobs, Walden promised a shakeup.

“We should have a mayor who picks every single member of his cabinet based on quality and merit, not loyalty,” Walden explained.

He stopped short of calling for Adams’ resignation.

“He has a right to defend himself and he is innocent until proven guilty. If he can’t run the city and since the indictment came down, it seems like he’s done a better job of appointing better quality people,” Walden said.

But among Walden’s supporters was also a longtime friend of Adams: former Democratic Gov. David Paterson.

“We still have poor housing, crime, unemployment and unemployment, poor healthcare facilities and basically a failed educational system. We need somebody who will be willing to put himself or herself - but in this case himself — in a position to make those changes for us,” Paterson told the crowd during Monday’s launch in Brooklyn Heights. “He’s someone who cares more than just about everyone else.”

That relationship extends back to Albany. Paterson became lieutenant governor in 2007, as Adams started serving in the state Senate. He endorsed Adams’ 2021 mayoral bid and backed the embattled mayor, donating to his legal defense fund earlier this year.

However, he also praised Walden on Monday.

“Yes, he’s an underdog but John Lindsay was an underdog, years before him Fiorello La Guardia was an underdog and years after him, David Dinkins was an underdog — they all became mayor of the city of New York. there’s no reason that Jim Walden can’t as well,” Paterson said.

Paterson told NY1 he is now working as a paid campaign consultant for Walden.

“He retained me to help him figure out the part of campaigns that are always difficult when you start from the grassroots level, which I will devote my time to,” he explained. “But in the end, it’s really about what he brings to the discussion, what he brings to the situation.”

A former assistant U.S. attorney, Walden has spent the better half of his career in private practice.

“As a private lawyer, I chose to take on the government. Whether it was Republicans or Democrats, when I saw that they were doing something wrong. And I went after every single administration — I went after Bloomberg for handshake deals with developers and I won,” he said.

Walden said for now, he’s running without either Republican or Democratic affiliation.