For all of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s grandiose plans, they will come to very little if Governor Kathy Hochul does not cooperate. Mamdani ran on an “affordability agenda” that includes, among other expansive social programs, more “affordable” housing, free universal childcare, free bus service and city-run grocery stores, all to be funded, he said, by significantly increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations.
Yet, although not widely known, there is very little a NYC mayor can do respecting most of them in terms of new programming and tax revenues without specific authorization from the NYS government. However, while she endorsed Mamdani for mayor, Governor Hochul has also explicitly stated she would “hold the line on taxes,” citing “philosophical differences.” She has emphasized that her support for Mamdani was intended primarily as a bulwark against what she said were federal threats by President Trump to withhold funding from New York. And therein lies an important tale.
According to news reports, however, following the election, liberal politicians and Mamdani’s allies in the N.Y.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America “warned” Governor Hochul to more fully back Mamdani’s agenda – which many interpret as “threats” of a primary challenge in next year’s gubernatorial election – if she doesn’t align with Mamdani.
NYS Senator Jabari Brisport, a leading NYC-DSA member, has publicly warned Hochul saying, “Kathy Hochul, if you get a third strike, you’re out!” implying a primary challenge if she blocks their legislative goals. He noted that “there is no way to get universal child care without raising taxes on the rich,” which she twice refused to support. “So, if she [Hochul] does sabotage the higher taxes and blocks [universal childcare] then I think the plan is that she has to go,” he said.
Plainly, the DSA takes Mamdani’s mayoral win as a mandate and is fully prepared to exploit any advantages it brings to promote the changes it seeks in the way we lead our lives. And from our perspective, we think the notion of New York being remade in a socialist image is ominous.
But there is also something of even more concern that may be in play. In recent days we have noted discussions in the media about information from exit polls to the effect that Mamdani strongly led with foreign-born New Yorkers, receiving 62% of those votes and 81% of those who had lived in NYC for less than 10 years. Further, he also did extraordinarily well in majority-immigrant neighborhoods.
So, there are those who are persuaded that, given the laborious process for becoming a citizen and the other demographics, it would seem to behoove us to pursue whether the 81% number includes those who were not legal voters and if so, to what extent. This is especially so given the extreme changes to our traditions and way of life that are being sought and the leveraging of our elected officials that seems destined to become a commonplace.