Zohran Mamdani Has Two Big Problems—They’re Called Hochul and Menin

I’m not naïve. I know what’s going on. I suspect Hochul and Menin disagree with the mayor ideologically, think they are wiser than him, and have business executives and rich people who donate heavily to their campaigns telling them privately how dumb Mamdani is and that their job is to rein him in. We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly at the local level over the last decade, as the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has gained more clout. Progressives elected mayor and district attorney in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other blue areas have found themselves constantly undermined by moderate Democratic officials at the city and state level. And in Washington in 2009 and again in 2021, a Democratic president with a bold agenda struggled against a coalition of business groups and Democratic members of Congress aligned with big business. Like Manchin and Sinema did to President Biden, Hochul and Menin are treating Mamdani not as a fellow Democrat whose success is their success but instead a person with an overly ambitious agenda that they need to constrain.

Hochul and Menin’s skepticism about the mayor is being reinforced by two other major forces in New York politics: Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and The New York Times. Trying to win establishment support during the general election, the mayor asked Tisch to remain in her post. That gives her some autonomy and power, and she is using it. The mayor seems to have to negotiate law enforcement policy with a person who ostensibly reports to him. And the Times has continued its pattern from the campaign of unusually skeptical coverage of the mayor. A recent Times story on private-sector job losses in New York hinted that Mamdani was somehow responsible (he’s been mayor for less than four months) and insufficiently concerned.

I am not calling for Hochul or Menin (or for that matter Tisch or Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger) to become democratic socialists. I am calling for them to consider the possibility that one democratic socialist might be the right mayor for New York right now. Mamdani seems reasonable, shrewd, and pragmatic. It’s likely that he would agree to versions of his grocery, bus, childcare, rent, and tax ideas that wouldn’t bankrupt the city or the state. It’s also likely that he can more broadly set New York’s direction and lead the city effectively without Hochul and Menin micromanaging all of his choices. They have the power to check him constantly. They just shouldn’t use it. And if Hochul and Menin are simply centrists who can’t stand to watch progressive policies implemented even if they are effective, that’s worse. New Yorkers voted for this man’s progressive vision and, so far, largely approve of him, according to polls.