Enrolled Democrats will serve themselves and the entire city well by denying Zohran Mamdani any vote at all in the ranked-choice primary.
We know, it’s a dismal field; some will be tempted to rank Mamdani at least fifth to prevent one of the other horribles from triumphing, or as a sign of displeasure with the party establishment that’s failed so badly in offering any good alternatives.
But the fact remains: Mamdani is a uniquely awful menace, an utter guarantee of disaster for New York.
His stated plans on taxes and spending, policing and public safety, housing and education — on every aspect of city government — would drag Gotham down for everyone, perhaps most of all for those he pretends he’d benefit.
His free buses, free child care, city-run grocery stores and city-financed housing-construction promises alone would bankrupt City Hall. (He certainly has no secret vision for slashing other spending, except perhaps the NYPD.)
His marquee vow of zero rent hikes would devastate the city’s housing stock, pushing already-overstressed smaller landlords spiraling into bankruptcy and bringing a citywide version of the 1970s “The Bronx is burning” nightmare.
And his “vision” for 200,000 new units of public housing defies even the lightest sniff test: New York still can’t figure out how to save its existing public-housing stock from falling down.
Even he could somehow get the Legislature to pass $10 billion in tax hikes and not grab most of the windfall for itself, it wouldn’t remotely cover his spending plans — but would give NYC the highest corporate and individual rates in the nation.
That would provide “an $18,000 bonus for every millionaire earner who decamps for the ‘burbs,” calculates to the Manhattan Institute’s Ken Girardin — an even greater incentive to decamp to Palm Beach.
On the public safety front, Mamdani backed the “defund the police” movement and now proposes taking $1.1 billion from the NYPD for a new Department of Community Safety staffed by social workers, mental-heath specialists and gun violence interrupters.
That’s Bill de Blasio’s dreams, on steroids, but then Blas is Zohran’s favorite mayor.
Mamdani’s latest fit of genius, vow to pull police out of high-crime areas, is a clear giveaway of what side he’s truly on.
As is his landmark hatred of Israel and romanticizing of Hamas and other terrorists.
None of Mamdani’s rivals is as atrocious, even those now playing footsie with him; even if you detest one of the others even more, it’s easy enough to not rank either of them.
Note, too, that this year’s Democratic primary isn’t at all a guarantee of victory in November: Mamdani is likely to fight on as the Working Parties Family nominee if he falters now; Andrew Cuomo has already arranged his own line for the fall — and Mayor Eric Adams will make the ballot as an independant along with Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Ten days of early voting began Saturday, June 14; primary day is June 24: Registered Democrats have a duty to reject extremism and keep Zohran Mamdani entirely off their ballots.