The lineup in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary is far from ideal, but one thing is clear: Democrats need to keep Zohran Mamdani out of City Hall. Mamdani is unelectable: His economic policies would set New York City back and his stance on Israel bolsters hate.
The primary appears to be coming down to a two-man contest between Andrew Cuomo, the longtime governor who was forced to resign four years ago, and Mamdani, a junior assemblyman from Queens and a democratic socialist whose support of Palestinian rights also comes along with an anti-Israel agenda.
Mamdani’s strident stands like supporting the BDS movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the world’s sole Jewish state, and embracing hateful slogans like “Globalize the Intifada” feed antisemitism, a terrible and growing plague in city with more Jews than anyplace in the world outside of Israel.
We aren’t alone in considering BDS antisemitic. And “Globalize the Intifada” is being used in murderous attacks on Jews in this country. Mamdani even dodges the question of whether Israel even has a right to exist as a Jewish state by saying it has a right to exist as a state with equal rights for all.
Antisemitic rhetoric, and even violence, sometimes masked as anti-Israel bile, must be combatted, not coddled. History has shown again and again that what starts with hate of the Jews always spreads to other minorities.
On other matters, Mamdani, emerging as the standard bearer of the progressive wing, also has it wrong such as maintaining the city’s hard-earned financial stability. Balancing our tax base dependent on property values and personal income taxes with the city’s $115 billion budget is a top priority.
The same for policing; now that crime has been pushed back down, it must be kept that way. That means keeping the NYPD strong to protect the streets and the subways.
Mamdani’s budget-busting plans and doctrinaire leftwing advocacy would aggravate the city’s problems, not solve them.
The Daily News, in line with the ranked choice system voters use in local primaries, offers the following endorsements for the race. This decision comes later than typical in an election cycle as we wanted to let events play out in the field and the candidates make their cases during a particularly volatile campaign.
Rank No. 1: Andrew Cuomo
A mayor, like a governor and a president, needs to make hard decisions and lead. There are forecasts of tough economic times ahead, from dire budget cuts from Washington to many warnings of recession. Cuomo, who navigated 10 state budgets, is well-equipped for that task.
Cuomo, the frontrunner, did many good things as governor, like winning same-sex marriage and the $15 minimum wage. He rebuilt LaGuardia Airport and got the Second Ave. subway finally opened as well as Moynihan Station. He also pushed through congestion pricing. He blundered on banning hydrofracking and shutting the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester and closing down too many mental health beds.
Cuomo’s August 2021 downfall stemmed in part from anger over his handling of COVID, where in the pandemic’s early days in the spring of 2020 he was seen as hero to many, but by the summer of 2021 he was villain to many.
But the biggest matter that pushed Cuomo from Albany was losing all political support when state Attorney General Tish James published a report on 11 allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo. No criminal charges were ever brought by any of the five district attorneys who investigated. In the years that followed there have been a number of civil suits brought by female complainants against Cuomo that have not been resolved.
As for the AG report itself, a federal magistrate judge ruled it as hearsay, which was never subject to challenge. In the interest of transparency, we have called for years for all the interview memos prepared during the probe to be released. That has not happened.
In this present campaign, Cuomo has done his fair share of dodging and weaving, like supporting repeal of a significant statewide pension reform he won in 2012 called Tier 6 and calling for the hiring of 5,000 more cops, which seems on the high side. He alone among the major candidates is against using a Program to Eliminate the Gap/savings plan when taking office.
We endorsed Cuomo when he ran for attorney general in 2006 and governor three times, in 2010, 2014 and 2018. But what happened during his final term, when he resigned in a swirl of scandal in 2021, does give pause to us, as we were among those urging him to leave his high office.
Cuomo’s experience in government leadership and strong stance on antisemitism argues in his favor.
Rank No. 2: Adrienne Adams
Being City Council speaker focuses on the skills of collaboration and compromise, as Adrienne Adams has shown these past four years, but an executive must decide and make some people disappointed in the process.
Adams was late to join this campaign and her natural base among middle class homeowners doesn’t mesh well with her adopting some of the more leftwing causes of the Council.
She has yet to carve out a clear political identity, with her main message being that she can rise above the fray and is a calming presence after the tumult of the Eric Adams years.
As speaker, Adams ushered in the huge City of Yes zoning change to allow for the building for more desperately needed housing in every neighborhood. With better zoning in place, the next mayor will now have to get those homes going up.
Rank No. 3: Brad Lander
Brad Lander, coming off of four years as city comptroller, could serve competently as New York’s mayor. As a Brooklyn councilman, he helped steer the Gowanus rezoning, which is producing the largest number of new apartments anywhere in the city.
He is honest and earnest with a plan for everything, but his affinity for progressive causes means that he is not our first choice. His support for Mamdani is also cause for concern and drops Lander into the third position, even though that seems more a marriage of convenience in the effort to topple Cuomo.
Lander says that a top goal as mayor is ending street homelessness for people with serious mental illness.
That’s something that everyone can agree on and it would be a major achievement for a city where we are all sadly used to seeing obviously sick people needing help sprawled out on the subways and the sidewalks.
The rest of the field
The other candidates, Scott Stringer, a former comptroller, Zellnor Myrie, a Brooklyn state senator and Whitney Tilson, a businessman and investor, have not caught on as they hoped and will likely be weeded out early in the ranked choice hierarchy.
The incumbent, Eric Adams, is not on the ballot for the primary. In the wake of political fallout from the dismissal of his corruption case, Adams opted to run as an independent in November.
No to Mamdani, more reasons
Despite his troubling views on Israel, Mamdani has captured the support of a wide swath of voters these past months by keying in on the issue of affordability. Middle class families in New York are increasingly finding themselves priced out of housing, or struggling to juggle payments for food, health care or child care.
But his solutions are overly simplistic. Like candy, they may be attractive and tasty, but it’s not a balanced diet required for a healthy body (politic).
Mamdani’s call to permanently freeze stabilized rents during the entirety of his mayoral term attempts to repeal the law of economics. Costs rise and imposing a rent freeze will leave residential buildings unable to pay for heat and water and maintenance. That is no comfort for renters left in the cold in deteriorating units. He wants free child care, free buses and cheap groceries. Who doesn’t?
To pay for all that, Mamdani wants to jack up taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals (two initiatives that would need state consent, a consent that Gov. Hochul rightly opposes). He wants to blow open the city’s debt, borrowing far beyond what is legally permitted and threaten the city with bankruptcy for the first time since the fiscal crisis of a half century ago. Those were not the good old days.
Mamdani, alone among the candidates, actually opposes mayoral control of schools. Good grief.
The division in this year’s race reflects clear fault lines in the Democratic Party between the centrist and progressive wings. In considering their choices for this month’s primary, we urge voters to look more to the center than the left to keep the city on track.
As Democrats go to the polls or ready their mail-in ballots, they should skip Mamdani and side with Cuomo. That is the best course for the Democratic Party and the city.
