Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City
by Pauline Park

Eric Adams is the most incompetent and corrupt mayor in the history of New York City; the only good news is that his reign of error will be coming to an end in January 2026. Adams has decided to skip the Democratic mayoral primary altogether — clearly because he realizes he would come in a distant third at best — and instead run as an independent in the general election which he will lose badly.

“Dozens of donors to Eric Adams’ first mayoral run have defected from him this year and instead poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign coffers of two of his top challengers, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Daily News analysis of contribution filings found. Out of the 423 donors who this month gave the legal max amount of $2,100 to Cuomo’s mayoral campaign in its first two weeks, about 10%, or 41 individuals, were financial supporters of Adams’ successful 2021 campaign. In total, the ex-governor raked in at least $126,000 from 135 individuals who have previously made political contributions to Adams — including executives in New York’s powerful real estate, lobbying and finance sectors, records show. That’s nearly 9% of the $1.5 million Cuomo raised total in the two week stretch after his March 1 campaign launch. Ken Frydman, a New York PR veteran who has represented investment firms, said Cuomo’s courting of Adams donors in real estate, lobbying and finance is especially key. Such donors are part of the “permanent government” class that holds extraordinary influence over city politics, Frydman argued,” Josephine Stratman reported for the New York Daily News (Josephine Stratman, “Dozens of Adams donors shifting loyalty to Cuomo, Adrienne Adams in 2025 NYC mayoral race,” New York Daily News, 20 March 2025).

Cuomo’s SuperPAC “Fix the City can be hard to distinguish from his official campaign. It is run by Steven M. Cohen, a member of Mr. Cuomo’s inner circle for decades, and its messaging closely mirrors that of the official campaign. A New York City Campaign Finance Board investigation determined that because the campaign’s messaging was so similar to the super PAC’s, they were most likely colluding,” Nicholas Fandos reported of donations to the Cuomo campaign (Nicholas Fandos, “The Business Interests Bankrolling Andrew Cuomo’s Run for Mayor,” 1 June 2025), noting, “Millions of dollars more have arrived from labor unions, tech companies, real estate developers and landlords who have a direct financial stake in the election’s outcome — grand gestures that, while legal, raise pressing ethical questions about the motivations behind their generosity.”

Mr. Mamdani, Mr. Myrie, Ms. Adams, Mr. Lander, Mr. Stringer, Mr. Blake and Jessica Ramos, a Democratic state senator, have said that if elected, they would lobby the board to halt increases, even though landlords are increasingly saying they are not making enough to keep units in rentable condition. (Mihir Zaveri, “How the N.Y.C. Mayoral Candidates Plan to Solve the Housing Crisis,” New York Times, 1 June 2025).

Andrew Cuomo is the frontrunner according to all the polls but the worst governor in the history of New York would be a disaster as mayor and no one interested in good government should rank him in the second mayoral election to use ranked choice voting.

Zohran Mamdani is the clear choice of progressive voters (Sahalie Donaldson, “Zohran Mamdani is trying to build a new NYC Democratic primary coalition,” City & State New York, 5 May 2025): he has been endorsed by the Working Families Party (WFP) and by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC DSA), which I recently joined as a member. There are many reasons why I have decided to endorse Mamdani but one is that Zohran is the only mayoral candidate who has clearly endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement working to end Apartheid Israel’s illegal and genocidal occupation of Palestine as Apartheid Israel is actively ethnically cleansing the West Bank and pursuing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Mamdani’s support for Gaza and Palestine alone sets him apart from the rest of the Democratic primary pack and is just one of many indications that he is the choice of progressives. But since the City of New York adopted rank choice voting four years ago, it is important to note that primary votes can and in fact should rank up to five candidates on their ballots.

There are a few points that need to be made here: first, if you rank a candidate more than once, you risk invalidating your ballot — so please do not put Zohran Mamdani’s name on your ballot more than once or it could be voided. Second, do not rank Andrew Cuomo if you care about this city: the power-hungry and corrupt former governor left office in disgrace after being accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by at least 11 different women and after killing more than 15,000 New Yorkers in the COVID-19 pandemic by blithely disregarding public health strictures and moving people infected with the Corona virus into nursing homes. Third, it is useful to rank multiple candidates on one’s Democratic Party primary ballot, and so I am going to recommend others whom I would urge voters to rank.

While Scott Stringer served as New York City comptroller as well as in the New York State Assembly, the credible allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault against him disqualify him in my mind just as similar allegations against Andrew Cuomo disqualify him for me. And Stringer like Cuomo is a rabid Zionist supporter of Apartheid Israel, which is at least as disqualifying as allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

I would strongly recommend New York State Senator Jessica Ramos and I intend to rank her second on my ballot; she represents me in the 13th State Senate district in western Queens and has a proven record of progressive legislating even if her campaign has not taken off. I have some doubts about Brad Lander, but he has been a competent New York City comptroller and I intend to rank him third.

I have even more qualms about Adrienne Adams who as New York City Council Speaker has been at best an establishment liberal and far too supportive of the New York Police Department (NYPD), but I intend to rank her fourth because she and Andrew Cuomo share much of the same base and ranking her will help cut into his vote share. Finally, while I cannot say I have been overwhelmed by Zellnor Myrie, I will rank him fifth because he has a relatively progressive record and filling one’s ‘dance card’ actually helps everyone on the ballot including one’s first choice.

Pauline Park is a Queens-based activist; this is a personal endorsement and does not necessarily represent the opinion of any organization with which she is associated.