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ALBANY — The campaign has all the hallmarks of a grass-roots effort: boisterous rallies, emotional testimonials and appeals to remember working-class New Yorkers, as lawmakers weigh a total rewrite of New York City’s rent laws.

But the campaign’s organizers are not tenant activists or community groups. Instead, they are a group often cast as the polar opposite: the real estate industry.

Confronted with a Democratic takeover of the State Legislature and emboldened progressive activists, the city’s landlords and developers — long accustomed to ruling New York through political donations and expensive lobbyists — are adopting the tactics of their activist foes.

They have sent buses of electricians and boiler repair workers to Albany to protest the proposed changes. They have organized rallies outside public hearings. They have paid for mailers urging constituents to call their representatives, and informally referred to organizing “Worker Wednesdays” in the Capitol to counter activists’ tradition of “Tenant Tuesdays.”