Posted on by Nathan Riley

Mamdani: Anybody But Cuomo

Pollsters tell us the #2 guy seeking the New York City Mayor nomination is a Muslim, a socialist, and, in this writer’s opinion, using the best political commercials in decades.

Nobody calls Zohran Mamdani a fringe candidate. Simply put, he is #2 in the polls because he’s smart, and the New York City system of allowing voters to rank their choices for candidates from 1 to 5 offers outsiders the opportunity to be real competitors.

Besides his special commercials, his promises to voters are unique—they are achievable. For example, he wants to open city-owned grocery stores in poor neighborhoods and offer the cheapest prices. A little more difficult to achieve but well within the mayor’s authority is Mamdani’s promise to make bus rides free. The mayor influences the MTA but only has the ability to ask, not order, free buses. On the other hand, the mayor controls the Rent Guidelines Board, and when he promises no rent increases, he can deliver. Mayor Adams, a friend to landlords, has allowed annual increases. The mayor before him, Bill De Blasio, froze the rent three times.

Mamdani is not the only Democrat supporting rent freezes for the 1 million New Yorkers who live in rent stabilized apartments. Five other candidates make this promise.

But Mamdani is the only one doing it with flair. Every New Years Day, the “polar bears” swim in Coney Island. This year, Mamdani joined them for a swim in his business suit and then boasted, “I’m freezing…your rent as the next mayor of New York City.” Choose your media—Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube—a picture of a wet and cold Mamdani reached hundreds of thousands of potential voters.

Most of the mayoral candidates issued a press release, but Mamdani turned it into a visual event and provoked the crucial question, “Who is this guy?” The latest poll has Cuomo at 53% once his second and third place votes are counted, while Mamdani is second at 29%.

The numbers require explanation. New York City fights the power of big money with two special election features. Public funding empowers small contributors to make big contributions. For every dollar an ordinary citizen contributes, up to $250, the candidates receive $8. A $50 contribution puts $400 into the candidates’ bank account. But it was still a surprise when Democrat Zohran Mamdani announced he was the first candidate to reach maximum funding limit. The primary election is from June 14th to June 24th. The assemblymen from Astoria, Queens made his announcement on March 24th, months before the election.

Whatever the results of the mayoral primary, Mamdani reaches voters, a crucial skill in a democracy. He will be a player for the foreseeable future. His commercials attacking Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo were the most riveting I have seen in decades. Two New Yorkers are having coffee. One of them pretends to support Adams by suggesting Turkey is a wonderful place. Turks reportedly steered money and gifted fancy airline seats to the Mayor, who urgently wishes the public will forget his corruption investigations. After needling the Mayor, the ad goes after Andrew Cuomo for shutting down mental health facilities at a time when mentally ill persons are linked to disruptive and scary incidents on the subway. Cuomo who fancies himself a frugal politician was willing to save money by denying services to the mentally ill.

The commercial is a direct hit against two prominent Democrats running for mayor, and then Zohran Mamdani sits down at the table and promises to be the best alternative. He wants rent freezes, public-owned grocery stores, fast & free buses, and universal childcare. It’s a dramatically different vision of public service.

This only makes sense if we understand that besides public financing voters have a chance to be heard, even if their candidate loses. Under ranked-choice voting, the city’s second pro-democracy reform, voters pick candidates 1 through 5. Even with 37% first choices, Cuomo must still get second or third place votes to bring him over 50%. A Marist poll found that the former governor would reach 53%. Mamdani had 29%.

The candidates are fully aware that the second and third, even fifth place, votes could decide who reaches the magic 50% and becomes the nominee. Mamdani’s most recent commercial is an eloquent plea for donations to the campaign of Adrienne Adams, Speaker of the New York City Council. She entered the race late and is short of funds. Mamdani said, “We are all running together to defeat Andrew Cuomo.” He was using his popularity to help Speaker Adams and stop Cuomo. It is a remarkable example of how the ranked-choice voting promotes Democratic Party unity and makes candidates short of funds credible. Before this system was established in 2021, it would be unthinkable for candidates to help each other raise money.

Mamdani demonstrates that ranked-choice voting (RCV) allows little-known candidates to become players in a Democratic primary.

Mamdani has received lengthy news stories describing his platform and recognizing his electoral strength. This would have been impossible without RCV.

Posted on by Nathan Riley

Get Behind Scott Stringer

by Nathan Riley

Scott Stringer didn’t fight back, he didn’t abandon his supporters although some turned on him following an allegation that 20 years ago he forced himself on another adult who he was dating.

Weeks later only one person has objected to his conduct, so give the woman full credit for expressing her reality, the notion that the City Comptroller’s sexual life is off the rails has little evidence and needs to be weighed against other serious considerations.

Most especially the role of the police. The current crime wave is as real as earlier ones. It rests on a new metric the number of people shot every day whereas the last crime wave coming out of the 70s was based the numbered murdered.

Although new, “persons shot” is a reasonable measure of community safety, and stopping it is a reasonable expectation.

The old alliance of media and the police is alive and well. The media depends on police stories and the police depend on favorable coverage to justify their large budget. In the old days mention of race would be explicit, while today it usually appears as a hint. What remains is the vicious image that police bring safety in a war against menacing persons most often with a different skin color.

On Thursday, Comptroller Stringer released plans to reform the police Department including placing 911 calls in the hands of a separate agency downgrading the role of the role of the police at the initial intake decision. He would build up separate programs for responding to quality of life issues like mental health crises and substance abuse and move police out of One Police Plaza so more detectives would work in the precincts.

On May 25th, Politico reported State Senator Jessica Ramos and Rep. Jamaal Bowman of the Bronx questioned the wisdom of yanking their endorsement. Bowman said he wished he had asked more questions before abandoning Scott Stringer. The controversy has made Conservative Democrats the leaders in the Democratic Primary.,

The top candidates for Mayor, Andrew Yang and Eric Adams, would bring back aggressive policing of black and brown men. Kathryn Garcia supports Charter Schools and worked closely with the sanitation unions when she was City Environmental Commissioner. The fear is she will befriend the police unions. A revival of police questioning of minority youths is more than a denial of equal protection under law. When stop and frisk was police policy, almost everybody they stopped was acting legally and the police notions of probable cause were feeble. Scott Stringer can create a coalition that will prevent the return of stop and frisk.

Eric Adams and Andrew Yang will yield to the Police Department when it comes to fighting gun fire in New York City. The essence of the policy is mass intimidation of young men so they will not walk around with guns. They will be searched randomly and often, so the guns stay at home. This positive result comes with an unacceptable price: the humiliation of fathers, brothers and children of people of color who are law abiding and should be free of police harassment.

It is a breech of trust. The Democrats must support their diverse coalition if humanitarian policies are to be enacted. We should remember the attempted takeover of the Capital in Washington D.C. is evidence that Democrats may be fighting to preserve to preserve popular elections. Democrats must not get locked into a policy where they turn on their allies. The police will target are law abiding citizens. They will stigmatize and intimidate the innocent to curb the ungovernable few. It is unwise in the extreme to ask for the support of these groups and then unleash law enforcement on them.

The best alternative to intimidation is establish a rapport with the folks in the community who will tell who is selling and carrying guns. In the simplest terms, the City should be nice to them.

That this seems improbable is a big problem for Democrats. It shouldn’t be hard to tell politicians: be nice to your voters. Otherwise, they stop voting or change parties. Scott Stringer is wise enough to recognize the problem and of perhaps greater importance he is adept at creating coalitions and generating support from other government officials. He isn’t flashy, he’s a hard worker.

Scott is a man of principle who was slammed by his political allies who stopped endorsing him and backed other candidates. But my political club and City Unions still believe he is the best person, his polling numbers are down, but they are not out. One official who pulled her endorsement of Scott Stringer has second thoughts. State Senator Jessica Ramos, who is developing a reputation for political savvy, states flatly “Scott Stringer’s still the most qualified person running for mayor.” But she hasn’t decided to reendorse him.

Politico tells us that the recognition that the left is split is causing new interest in Scott’s candidacy and perhaps new endorsements. “There’s a much greater chance that we’re going to hand over City Hall to two candidates that want to increase the police budget and run as tough on crime mayors,” said one anonymous observer.

People voting absentee should hold their ballots and wait two more weeks, the Mayoral Campaign is getting interesting.