Did Hell Just Freeze Over in New York City?

Politcal Whisperer

By Robert Hornak

What everyone thought was unthinkable happened last Tuesday, a 33-year old self-proclaimed socialist with a resume thinner than tissue paper won the nomination for Mayor of the City of New York. 

By all accounts, the perceived front runner, former governor Andrew Cuomo, ran a lackluster, uninspired campaign that he could have phoned in. In contrast, Mamdani ran a campaign that was vibrant and engaging, with a youthful, attractive candidate who managed to connect with many voters. He stood out, in many ways, from the rest of the pack. 

Cuomo had all the establishment support. The Democratic County organizations, the big, powerful unions, and the business and real estate communities. It seemed unthinkable that Democrats could lose this election to a back-bench Assemblyman with no real world experience. But that’s exactly what happened.

Now, everyone who thinks this could be an existential threat to the future of the city is in a state of total panic. 

The conventional wisdom – yes the same wisdom that thought Cuomo was an easy winner – says that the field must be cleared now, and rally around one candidate to take on Mamdani head to head. 

The problem with that is obvious. Why should anyone trust the pick of the conventional thinkers after they got the primary so incredibly wrong? 

Some Republicans think that their nominee, Curtis Sliwa, should be the one. But many more people seem to think that failed and disgraced incumbent mayor Eric Adams is the pick to get behind. Cuomo is also still running as an independent, just like Adams, but is seen as a loser now after his poor primary performance.

After the first round of voting, Mamdani was at 43.5% with 432,000 votes. Cuomo was a distant second at 36.4% with 361,000 votes. That’s extremely embarrassing for someone once elected to serve as governor three times. Most of the Cuomo primary support seems to be jumping to Adams, with the County organizations still undecided on how to deal with such a perilous nominee. 

It seems clear the better way to go, as Republicans often say, is through competition. Eight candidates are on the ballot for mayor. And six appear to be real, including Mamdani, Cuomo, Adams, Sliwa, and two other independent candidates, powerful lawyer Jim Walden, a democrat, and successful biotech entrepreneur Joseph Hernandez, a republican. 

Nobody is dropping out now. That’s clear, no matter how much handwringing is done by the conventional thinkers who believe they know the best way to win again. So, let’s watch this race progress over the next four months, which is plenty of time for the other five candidates to make their case to the voters. Let’s see who resonates, who connects with the voters, who can either overcome all their negative baggage or make an incredible first impression as an exciting, new face to convince the voters they are the best one to run the city. 

Then, come mid-October, we will see who’s in the best position to win and rally everyone around that one candidate to beat Mamdani.

That’s the only way to beat someone with charisma and over 430,000 votes at the start to count on. It’s no guarantee to work, but much better than having one choice shoved down our throats now that nobody can agree on. 

And, of course, we always have the ‘break glass in case of emergency’ option. This will add a new and looming dimension to the governor’s race next year. Whoever is governor, should Mamdani win, will have the power to remove him, as we learned after the Adams indictment. 

Should Mamdani do any of the things he has pledged, allow criminals to run free, impede federal authorities arresting illegal immigrants, or creating an international incident trying to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in deference to what he refers to as “internation law,” he can be removed from office. 

In what could be a competitive race for governor, a Mamdani mayoralty could be what tilts the scale for the first Republican governor since 2002.

Robert Hornak is a professional political consultant who has previously served as the Deputy Director of the Republican Assembly Leader’s NYC office and as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.

Pol Position: When There’s No Path, Move The Goal …. And Cuomo Still Leads

The red dress, who had been seemingly inserted in every photo
with Mayor Adams prior his legal troubles, announced a run
for city comptroller in November. Woodhaven Assembly
member Jennifer Rajkumar announced then, with great
fanfare, that she could turn the city around. Her blanket
political promises, of course, covered little specific substance,
just outlined that she fixes things and NYC needs to be fixed.
When others saw she was running, they thought she was quite
vulnerable. Senator Kevin Parker was in the race early. The
political playbook says, ‘raise a lot of money and you scare
people away from running against you.’ Well, it didn’t work
here. Seeing Rajkumar had raised a significant amount of
money entering the race, our sources tell us that Councilman
Justin Brennan and Mark Levine didn’t flinch, saw a path to
win the Comptroller race and joined in on the fun. After all,
Rajkumar’s claim to fame, according to legislators we speak
with, is appearing wearing a red dress, in nearly every photo
op. with the mayor. And as soon as he, and those around him
got caught up in probes and cell phone confiscation, she was a
ghost.

It’s not really her fault though. We were the first to talk to her
when she announced she was running for the Assembly and
faced incumbent Mike Miller in a primary in Woodhaven &
Richmond Hill. Our Leader Observer newspaper has been the
weekly paper of record in that area since 1909. She admitted
she moved here from Manhattan, specifically to run against
him in a district that had a low voter turnout. It’s a great story.
We loved her honesty and gave her a bunch of credit for
wanting to get into the political game any way she could.

It was brilliant. But early success, as we all know, sometimes leads to
a false sense that it’s going to be easy to move up in the
political world. By the way, not every legislator wants ‘to move
up’ as they say. Being an Assemblyman, Council representative
or Senator is a pretty successful thing – and many we report on
here see their service in these positions as a goal. But no doubt
some feel the need to move ‘up.’ But we digress.
The ‘Red Dress’ thing is a great prop. It’s a good way for people
to remember you. But people aren’t easily fooled. These days
they want substance. It’s too easy to run for office now, so we
are getting people who are movers and shakers, civic leaders
and business leaders. They don’t solely come out of democratic
clubs any longer. She happens to be sort of an outcast in the
Queens Assembly Caucus. Why? Because she wants more and
her colleagues see it. There’s time, one Queens Assembly
member told us. You can’t just move up because you are smart,
or because you have a brand. Getting elected takes work. It
takes going door-to-door to talk to the people. “… it takes
proving you can get things done.”

Cuomo Still On Top

Case in point … Andrew Cuomo. This week another poll came
out showing he still has a 25-point lead in a run for mayor ….
and he didn’t even announce. You have Stringer, Williams,
Ramos, Landor, Mamdani and Adams, each under 10%.
Cuomo has a track record of getting something done. Whether
you like it or not.

As of last week, the path to the next level for Rajkumar is in the
Public Advocate office. Moving The Goal… brilliant with
unapologetic moxie.

Jennifer Rajkumar

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