July 2, 2025
NEW YORK CITY SOCIALIST MAMDANI IS NOT SURE BET TO BE ELECTED MAYOR
An old adage states that if you are young and not a liberal then you have no heart, and if you are old and still a liberal then you have no brain.
As demonstrated in New York City in the June 24 Democratic mayoral primary, if you are young and socialist and voted for Zohran Mamdani then you think you have a brain and if you are older/old and wealthy and voted for Mamdani then you have no brain.
Mamdani, a 33-year old Socialist whose critics have said is an anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas supporter of a global Intifada, which calls for people from around the globe to participate in rising up against Israel, won the primary (see CHART) 432,305-361,840 over ex-governor Andrew Cuomo getting 43.5 percent.
He won by promising a whole lot of free stuff to everybody who doesn’t have stuff to be paid for by everybody who has already earned some wealth to accumulate a lot of stuff. That is the very essence of Socialism/Marxism/Communism. You know, that historically failed experiment about a Utopia of comrades where it’s “to each according to his/her needs and from each according to his/her abilities.”
It’s wealth confiscation and government redistribution. And it’s contrary to human nature. Human beings are intrinsically greedy, selfish, egotistical, self-centered and narcissistic. It’s ME-FIRST now and forevermore. And anybody who says otherwise – “I care about you” – is a lying hypocrite who seeks the power to control you (or your vote).
Mamdani decrys societal “inequality’ and ties it to “affordability.” After all, why shouldn’t college grads drowning in debt or degrees paid for by mom and dad be allowed to have cheap rent on a NYC apartment? And let the landlord absorb the gas, electric, water and property taxes? Mamdani is fervently anti-capitalistic, the premise of capitalism being that those who are ambitious, skilled/educated and competent succeed and acquire wealth and those that are not do not.
Mamdani, who has no executive experience, promises (1) rent control, (2) defunding the police and replacing NYPD street officers with social workers, (3) no cash bail (already a state law) and emptying prisons, (4) fighting private healthcare insurance, (5) maintaining NYC as a Sanctuary City, which costs $5 billion annually and also no co-operation with ICE and Trump, (6) free daycare, (7) free needles and injection sites for drug addicts, (8) expanding gender-affirming care, (9) free abortion and contraceptives, (10) grocery stores run by the city with price controls, (11) a $30-an hour minimum wage and (13) free public transit. I think he forgot about a guaranteed minimum income, maybe 5K a month for every New Yorker? Imagine the cost. That’s next.
And who pays for this? You know the answer: TAX THE RICH. Mamdani has suggested that richer and Whiter neighborhoods – like on Staten Island or parts of Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx – should pay more taxes. That sounds sort of racist. Why not the rich White liberals on the Lower East Side? But they voted for him. So, incredibly, did a lot of rich Jewish people in Manhattan. Those who DID NOT vote for him were Blacks, Latinos and working-class Whites.
Mamdani has an easy solution: Just tax every NYSE or commodities transaction. Or impose a city income tax. But you can’t tax wealth already accrued. This guy is either an idiot or a total fraud – or both.
Haven't New Yorkers learned anything from the mayoral election in Chicago?
The election is Nov. 4. The Dem primary turnout on June 24 was 993,546. Mamdani got 432,305 votes, so 561,241 Democrats did not vote Socialist. There are about 1.9 million RVs in NYC. Mamdani got a fifth of them. So about 1.5 million either did not vote or did not vote Socialist.
On the ballot will be mayor Eric Adams, who won’t be going to jail because Trump’s DOJ dropped his pending bribery/corruption charges. He’s running as the “Anti-Socialism” and “Safe/Affordable” parties’ candidate, with 2 ballot lines. (Note that NYC has a partisan system and lets candidates get on the ballot under whatever party/name they want.) Cuomo, although he lost, is still on the ballot as the “Fight and Deliver” Party candidate.
Mandani is the Democrat/Working Families Party (WFP) candidate. WFP is the city’s Socialist Party. The Republican/Conservative is Guardian Angels anti-crime gang founder Curtis Sliwa, who got 312,385 votes in 2021, or 27.8 percent. As set forth in the CHART, mayoral elections in 1965and 1969 (as well as 1933,1950 and 1973) were won with under a majority.
My prediction: Two-thirds of New Yorkers don’t want Mamdani. But split that 3 ways and Mamdani wins, but expect a close race.
HURRY UP AND WAIT: Now that governor JB Pritzker (D), has deigned to bless us with the privilege of having him as our governor until 2031, it’s shelter-in-place for every other statewide Democratic officeholder – Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Treasurer Mike Frerichs and Comptroller Susana Mendoza. In other words either run for re-election in 2026 and wait to run for governor in 2030. Or run for Chicago mayor in 2027.
And that is exactly what Mendoza, who lives in Portage Park, is likely pondering – which is running against Johnson. Cook County Democratic slatemakers meet July 17-18 to endorse a county and state ticket and Mendoza has promised that if she seeks re-election she will NOT run for mayor. That’s both commendable and astute. Two Democrats are already lusting for her job; Margaret Croke, a former top aide to Pritzker and now a state rep from the Lincoln Park area, and Marcus Evans, a state rep from the South Shore.
And a Mendoza departure would create a “Too-Many-White-Guys” problem (which never fazes Republicans). There are 6 statewide officials, of which 4 are men, 3 are White (Raoul is Black); and two women, one Black (lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton) and one Latina (Mendoza). Stratton is running for U.S. senator with JB’s full support (and money) against an Asian-Indian congressman and a Black congresswoman.
If this is complicated and befuddling then you’re not a Woke Democrat for whom identity politics is a religion.
There were 4 aspirants for the LG job: Andy Manar, a former Downstate state senator and now deputy governor, Chicago city clerk Ana Valencia, who lost to Giannoulias in the 2022 primary; state rep Jehan Gordon-Booth from the Peoria area, who is in the House leadership; and state rep Christian Mitchell, from Chicago’s South Side.
Pritzker picked Mitchell.
On the county level Board of Review (BOR) commissioner Samantha Steele continues her campaign for slating for assessor, although incumbent Fritz Kaegi is certain to be re-slated.
Steele defeated BOR commissioner Mike Cabonari entirely because of her gender (meaning ballot name). That’s her hope and strategy for 2026. Liz Nicholson will be slated for her BOR seat.
Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com
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