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Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What Centrist Democrats Need to Learn From Zohran Mamdani
I covered New York City politics for quite a few years in my younger days, but instead of instilling in me a continuing passion about the city, it generally left me feeling as if I'd paid that check, as it were. New York politics hasn't interested me deeply for many years. This is partly because New York Democrats, once a mighty machine that set the direction for and helped transform the national Democratic Party, are a shadow of their old selves. The city once produced mayors who were, per the old cliché, larger than life. The last couple have been smaller than life. So Zohran Mamdani is the first interesting thing to happen in New York City politics for a long time. He's fresh, he's energetic, and he has swagger. I've been thinking a lot about that last word—swagger—because the national Democrats have none of it whatsoever. They have anti-swagger. They're as exciting as a knitting society. Mamdani makes for a breathtaking contrast with them collectively. I have some reservations about Mamdani, the assemblyman who topped Andrew Cuomo among many others in last week's Democratic primary for mayor. Questions about his lack of experience are entirely legitimate. I don't know how large a staff he has; I did see another New York assemblyman's website listing that that fellow has a staff of seven people. The mayor of New York runs a bureaucracy of more than 300,000. The mayor is also properly thought of as the CEO of several multibillion-dollar public corporations or trusts: one running housing, another schools, another colleges and universities, another hospitals, and a few (depending on how you categorize them) dispensing contracts and social services. If Mamdani wins this fall's general election—a contest that will include Mayor Eric Adams and possibly Cuomo, again—and becomes mayor, he's going to need to appoint highly competent and knowledgeable (more than ideological) people to run these operations, and he's going to have to be ruthless in ensuring that they do their jobs well. People see a mayor as the day-to-day manager of the city. Between now and November, Mamdani should be asked to speak in detail about these matters. Then there's the question of some of his rhetoric with regard to Israel-Palestine, most specifically around his refusal to renounce the phrase 'globalize the intifada.' He said recently on a Bulwark podcast that to him, the phrase means 'a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.' OK. But given that both intifadas did entail violence by Palestinians (in the face, of course, of constant Israeli violence against Palestinians), others, in a city with 1.3 million Jews, might reasonably hear the phrase more darkly. It's not a mayor's job to make foreign policy. It's a mayor's job, in a city with dozens of ethnic groups, to lead them all fairly, both in tangible terms—the awarding of community service contracts, which is a huge deal in New York—and rhetorical ones; to lower the temperature when things get hot through the force of his moral example. Mamdani has many prominent Jewish supporters. I've known Congressman Jerry Nadler and trusted his political judgment for 35 years, so when Nadler endorsed him, that got my attention. But Mamdani will need to go into Jewish neighborhoods between now and November and build some bridges. And having said all that … it infuriates me to see centrist Democrats, including the party's leaders in the House and Senate, keep their distance from him, or worse. The guy won (presumably—the official canvass is Tuesday). He did something absolutely stunning. He went from literally 1 percent to 43 percent. That never happens. When somebody pulls that off, people don't need to be fretting about it or attacking it; they need to ask why and see what they can learn from it. It didn't happen because he denounces Israel. And it didn't happen because New York Democratic voters are suddenly a bunch of Jeremy Corbyns. It happened because he focused aggressively and entertainingly on the only real issue, the issue that has a lot of perfectly normal people at the end of their ropes: the insane cost of living in New York. And he didn't just throw out a bunch of policies. He told voters a story that had good guys (everyone struggling to make ends meet) and bad guys (corporations and the overclass). He promised some things that will make their lives a little easier. No, Mamdani probably can't follow through on a lot of these things. He'll need the governor and the state legislature to agree on a number of them, and that's very unlikely. But let's judge that if and when he becomes mayor. For now, let's just consider how what he did worked. He told some very simple truths. He said: You're getting screwed. And it's not some invisible and undefinable hand of God that's screwing you. It's specific actors, and the politicians who are their handmaidens. He told people something that they already knew—but that they too rarely hear politicians, even Democratic ones, say. Right now in Washington, the Republicans are on their way to passing a bill that, as I wrote last Friday, will deposit $68,000 IRS checks into the bank accounts of people making more than $900,000 a year while it will cut billions of dollars in health care to Americans of few to moderate means. At every public university in the country right now with an in-state network of hospitals, the higher-ups are in a panic wondering how they're going to replace the many millions of dollars that are being picked out of their pockets—money that funds health care for those who can't pay, mind you—and dropped into the wallets of millionaires. The national Democrats talk about this at Capitol Hill press conferences and in cable news interviews. But they don't seem to be able to tell a story about it for the life of them. Why is it so hard? Democrats of all stripes, especially the centrist ones, need to think about this. Mamdani, like anyone, has flaws and shortcomings. But he has swagger. He's unafraid—unafraid of the 1 percent and their wallets, unafraid of offending those people once in a while, unafraid of maybe making a mistake, unafraid of taking a punch. His positions by all appearances are what he actually believes, not what focus groups told him to believe. He's not exactly in-cautious. He wants to win, so he hedges some bets. But he absolutely is anti-cautious: against caution as a first reflex. National Democrats should take note.
CBS News
27-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Andrew Cuomo staying on the ballot in NYC mayor race for November general election, sources say
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be on the ballot in the New York City mayoral race for the November general election, sources tell CBS News New York's political reporter Marcia Kramer. Cuomo has been considering whether to actively campaign, and sources say he will wait until next week when he sees the next round of ranked choice voting results from the Democratic primary. He previously announced he would run as both a democrat and independent so he could be on the ballot in November, whether he won the primary or not. On Wednesday, he told Kramer he was still weighing his options. "We're going to be looking at the numbers that come in from the primary, and then we have to look at the landscape in the general election, which is a totally different landscape," he said in an exclusive interview. "There are issues that came up -- the issue of affordability, which the assemblyman spoke to with offering a lot of free services -- and is that feasible? Is that realistic? Can that be done? So, basically, looking at the landscape in the general election, as it develops, and we'll take it one step at a time." Cuomo had until Friday to withdraw his name from the November ballot. Cuomo faces stunning primary challenge from Mamdani Late Tuesday night, Cuomo announced he congratulated Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani for winning the Democratic primary, though he stopped short of officially conceding. The former governor faced a stiff challenge from Mamdani in what became an increasingly close race against nine other Democratic candidates. The 33-year-old democratic socialist campaigned on lowering the cost of living, in part, by raising taxes on corporations and top earners. The first, unofficial primary results were released when polls closed Tuesday night, showing Mamdani with 43.5% of the vote over Cuomo's 36.4%. Mamdani appears to be the winner, but it won't be formally declared until all votes - including mail-in and others - are counted and certified. Cuomo and Mamdani would then face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November, along with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent candidate Jim Walden. Adams officially launched his reelection campaign Thursday after bypassing the primary by running as an independent. A new poll released by Honan Strategy Group had Mamdani favored to win the general election against Adams -- unless Cuomo ran as an independent, in which case, the poll had Mamdani and Cuomo statistically tied. The poll showed them both at 39%, followed by Adams at 13%, Sliwa at 7% and Walden at zero. Cuomo hoping to pull off political comeback Cuomo served as the state attorney general before he was elected governor in 2010. He was reelected twice before stepping down in August 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal. He was accused of sexually harassing nearly a dozen women, including some on his staff. An investigation from state Attorney General Letitia James' office found he created a hostile work environment with offensive, suggestive comments and unwelcome, nonconsensual touching. He denied the allegations -- at one point attributing his behavior to his Italian heritage -- but he ultimately resigned in the face of an impeachment investigation. His legal team later sued the attorney general's office and several of his accusers. Cuomo's administration was also accused of lying about the number of people who died in state nursing homes during the early days of the COVID pandemic. He testified before the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic as recently as last fall, after which lawmakers referred him to the Department of Justice for allegedly making false statements to Congress. The DOJ opened an investigation into the matter in May. Cuomo acknowledged the scandals that forced his resignation when he reentered politics with his run for mayor. "Did I always do everything right in my years of government service? Of course not," he said in a video announcing his campaing. "Would I do some things differently knowing what I know now? Certainly. Did I make mistakes, some painfully? Definitely, and I believe I learned from them and that I am a better person for it and I hope to show you that every day." Cuomo built a campaign based on experience Cuomo joined the crowded mayoral race on March 1 after much speculation. "I know what needs to be done and I know how to do it. Experience matters," he said in his campaign announcement. "Leading New York City in the midst of a crisis is not the time or the place for on-the-job training." He repeatedly touted his experience on the campaign trail, not only in leading the state of New York but in standing up to President Trump during the COVID pandemic. He also called out Mamdani for lacking that level of leadership. A big endorsement in the race came from former New York City Michael Bloomberg, who had largely stayed quiet in mayoral elections since leaving office. Political experts called it a "huge" win for team Cuomo. "Bloomberg talks to a specific type of voter -- down the Upper East Side corridor, down the Upper West Side corridor, up to Park Slope and Brooklyn. He talks to voters that come out in large propensities that are Democrats, that will cross over to vote Republican," political expert J.C. Polanco explained. "By endorsing former Gov. Cuomo, he gives them the green light -- you can support this guy, forget about the baggage you've heard about, he's the guy that I trust -- and they trust Bloomberg." "It adds credibility, it adds money and it adds stability at a time when we see New York's future uncertain," added political analyst O'Brien Murray. Cuomo also received a stunning endorsement from fellow Democratic candidate, state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who was once among his critics but said she now believes he's the best person to take on Mr. Trump. Other endorsements came from labor unions, Jewish groups and former New York Gov. David Paterson. contributed to this report.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What are Zohran Mamdani's policies? Where he stands on rent, city-owned stores, more
Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman and democratic socialist, defied expectations when he pulled well ahead to presumed victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York City's June 24 Democratic mayoral primary. While there were 11 candidates on the ranked-choice ballot, preliminary polling named Cuomo and Mamdani the front-runners by a large margin. Cuomo frequently polled above Mamdani in the weeks leading up to voting day, but the former governor ultimately ended up calling his opponent on Tuesday night to concede. Mamdani led Cuomo 44% to 36% among first-place votes, with 96% of ballots counted as of around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25. The Democratic nominee will begin the general election as the favorite in the overwhelmingly Democratic city. Considered the more progressive candidate of the two, Mamdani's platform has included stances on rent and housing, cost of living, safety, infrastructure and relations between the city and President Donald Trump. Here is a brief look at Mamdani's stance on major city issues, based on his campaign page and reporting from USA TODAY. Mamdani is a 33-year-old politician and member of the Democratic Socialists of America party. He was born in Kampala, Uganda but moved to New York City with his family when he was 7 years old, where he attended the Bronx High School of Science, according to his assembly biography. Mamdani is currently the three-term representative for Assembly District 36, located in Queens, in the New York State Assembly. He is the first South Asian man and Ugandan to serve in the assembly and the third Muslim person to do so. He worked as a foreclosure-prevention housing counselor prior to serving in the assembly, according to his biography. Interestingly, he also worked a stint in film, writing and as a rap music producer. He is the son of Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, and Mira Nair, an Indian filmmaker. If elected, he would become New York's first Muslim mayor, as well as the city's first Asian and Millennial mayor. In a city with sky-high rent prices, cost of housing was a major tentpole in all mayoral candidates' campaigns. Mamdani's vision includes freezing rent on rent-stabilized apartments and building more affordable housing. Besides "immediately" freezing rent for rent-stabilized tenants, Mamdani's platform also outlines a plan for constructing 200,000 new "affordable, union-built, rent-stabilized" units over 10 years and fast-tracking approval for "affordable" developments. It also promises a "revamp" of the mayor's tenant protection efforts to bolster 311 services (non-emergency city services), allow tenants to request and track inspections and enable the city to step in when landlords are not meeting city standards. It would also create a new "Office of Deed Theft Prevention" for homeowners. Free and faster buses are a major talking point in Mamdani's campaign. He says he would eliminate fares on all city buses and would improve their speed by building and expanding priority lanes, bus queue jump signals and dedicated loading zones. Watch any NYC campaign commercial and you'll hear candidates talking about safety on the streets and subways. Mamdani plans to create the Department of Community Safety, a proposal that includes increased investment in mental health programs and crisis response, expanding "evidence-based gun violence prevention programs" and increasing funding to "hate violence prevention programs" by 800%. Another cost of living strain on New York families, beyond rent, is the price of essentials, like groceries. Mamdani has said he plans to address the cost of food by creating city-owned grocery stores that will pay no rent or property taxes, buy and sell at wholesale prices from centralized warehouses and partner with local vendors to keep prices down. On childcare, Mamdani's campaign says it will offer free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years. He will also seek to implement the distribution of baby baskets to parents of newborns, which would include items like diapers, baby wipes, nursing pads, post-partum pads, swaddles, books and local resource guides. Mamdani has also said he will aim to raise NYC's minimum wage to $30 by 2030 and regulate delivery apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and Uber Eats to strengthen licensure requirements and expand resources to assist app workers. Mamdani's plans surrounding K-12 education, as outlined in his campaign, include ensuring equal distribution of money and resources to city schools, creating car-free "School Streets," expanding the Bronx pilot Every Child and Family Is Known program to address homelessness in the school system and, on a collegiate level, investing in the CUNY system. He also champions the Green Schools for a Healthier New York City initiative that seeks to renovate 500 public schools with renewable energy infrastructure and HVAC upgrades, make asphalt schoolyards into green spaces and build hubs in 50 schools for community emergency situations. Running on a platform of pushing back against the proverbial "big guys," Mamdani has proposed a 2% tax on residents earning above $1 million annually and raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5%. Mamdani has also promised to "fight corporate exploration" by banning "hidden fees" and non-compete clauses, "fighting" misleading advertising and predatory contracts, limiting tax dollars given to companies under NDA agreements and funding challenges to ConEd's price increases. He plans to do so via enforcement of consumer protection laws, pushing legislation in Albany and working with the City Council, according to his campaign's policy memo. Another topline talking point among all of the mayoral candidates was handling relations with President Donald Trump and, in many cases, laying out plans to resist or respond to his policies. Among Mamdani's plans to "resist" Trump are strengthening sanctuary city protections by ending cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and barring them from city facilities, increasing legal support for migrants, preventing personal data from being given to ICE, protecting abortion rights and increasing the budgets of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the NYC Commission on Human Rights. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Zohran Mamdani's policies: Where NYC mayoral candidate stands on issues
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
List: Republican candidates for NJ governor
The Brief Nearly a dozen candidates are competing for the chance to succeed Gov. Murphy. In the Republican primary, former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli has President Trump's endorsement. Primary election day is Tuesday, June 10. Polls close at 8 p.m. NEW JERSEY - Nearly a dozen candidates are competing in New Jersey for the chance to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. MORE: Who is ahead in the NJ governor race? Polls, candidates, updates MORE: How to vote in New Jersey In the Republican primary, former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli has President Donald Trump's endorsement. ***Click on each name to jump to their section. Jack Ciattarelli Jon Bramnick Mario Kranjac Justin Barbera Ciattarelli, a Somerville native and business founder, is making another run for New Jersey governor. This time, he has the backing of President Trump. Ciattarelli nearly unseated Murphy back in 2021 and finished second in the 2017 GOP primary. This time, he says he is focused on tackling New Jersey's affordability crisis, citing rising taxes, tolls, and fees. Spadea is an entrepreneur and host of the Bill Spadea Show on NJ101.5 FM. Spadea says he's focused on New Jersey's budget and ending the illegal immigration crisis, which he claims costs taxpayers too much. Bramnick says he wants to create a government efficiency panel with private residents and business leaders to identify waste and areas for improvement. He's been in the State Senate since 2022 and was an Assemblyman for nearly two decades prior from 2003-2021. Kranjac is the former mayor of Englewood Cliffs, serving from 2016 to 2024. He calls himself a political outsider determined to change Trenton. Since leaving office, he has continued as a corporate attorney and venture capitalist. Barbera is a contractor and real estate developer from Burlington County. A Marlton native, Barbera's career includes work as a general contractor, insurance claim mitigator, freight carrier, and owner-operator of a CDL A flatbed and commercial snow service operation. Primary election day is Tuesday, June 10. Polls close at 8 p.m. Click HEREfor more information. Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey: According to a May survey, 44% of registered New Jersey Republican voters said they would vote for former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, while 18% support talk radio host Bill Spadea. A month ahead of the primary, 23% of GOP voters said they were undecided. SurveyUSA: The poll conducted in May only asked voters about Ciattarelli, who "has favorability ratings of 40%-36% among the broader electorate and 63%-19% among Trump voters," accordin gto the New Jersey Globe. Trump endorsement: President Trump has endorsed Ciattarelli in May and campaigned for him in a virtual rally.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Governor hopeful Mario Kranjac eligible for GOP primary ballot, secretary of state says
Mario Kranjac, a former Englewood Cliffs mayor, was deemed eligible for June's GOP primary for governor by Secretary of State Tahesha Way. (Governor's office photo by Dana DiFilippo) Former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac will be on June's GOP primary ballot despite legal claims by one of his rivals that Kranjac did not file enough signatures from eligible voters to stay in the race, Secretary of State Tahesha Way said Thursday. Way, who is also lieutenant governor, agreed with an administrative law judge who said Wednesday that Kranjac collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. Kranjac in a statement attacked the attempt to boot him from the race as equivalent to Democrats' efforts to keep Donald Trump from running for reelection last year. 'I never thought 'Republicans' would try to use the same left-wing lawfare tactics popularized by Adam Schiff on me and my supporters in this gubernatorial primary,' Kranjac said in a statement. Schiff is an anti-Trump U.S. senator from California. Way had until noon Thursday to certify candidates for June's primary The effort to keep Kranjac out of June's primary was launched by the campaign for Republican Bill Spadea, a former New Jersey 101.5 host who is also seeking to become our next governor. The primary is June 10 (six Democrats are vying for their party's nomination). Candidates for governor must submit petitions with signatures from 2,500 registered voters. Spadea's team said Kranjac's signatures included some from voters who are not Republicans and that some of the people who circulated the petitions from Kranjac's campaign should have been registered as Republicans at the time (they were unaffiliated and later registered with the GOP). During marathon sessions Monday and Tuesday before a judge, hundreds of Kranjac's signatures were deemed ineligible. Way said after this process, about 2,600 valid signatures remained. Spadea and Kranjac are both seeking the GOP nod for governor by labeling themselves as the most pro-Trump candidate. Kranjac often touts the Star-Ledger's coverage of him as the 'Trumpy mayor' of Englewood Cliffs, while Spadea long championed Trump's policies while he hosted his morning radio show. In his statement, Kranjac took direct aim at Spadea, calling his case 'fake and fraudulent.' 'Other opponents should take notice: I'm in this race to win,' Kranjac said. A spokesman for the Spadea campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Burlington County contractor Justin Barbera, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli round out the Republican field. Twenty-one Assembly candidates also saw their petitions challenged. Of those, seven were removed from the ballot and one had their case remanded to the Office of Administrative Law. The remaining 13 were deemed eligible for the ballot. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
