I didn’t pay much attention to mayoral politics when I lived in New York City. It was the De Blasio years, and as much as I respect Nicole Malliotakis, I don’t think anyone was naive enough to believe she was going to stand between Hizzoner and a second term.
Plus, I lived deep in Crown Heights, so far into Brooklyn that it might as well have been a different city. I lived courtesy of the bodega below my apartment and the 4 train, two things that weren’t likely to change, no matter who was in charge.
To the extent that I cared about the 2017 mayoral race, I cared about the things that affected me. I wanted to hear the candidates talk about how they’d stop gang members from killing each other on my block, or put cops on the subways to stop the all-too-frequent domestic assaults I witnessed while commuting. I certainly didn’t want to hear them hurl insults at each other and sound off on geopolitics.
All of which is to say, had I been a New York City resident last night, I would have put my head through a wall.
The debate — between socialist Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — was bound to be a spectacle. New York City politics always are, to some degree. This current campaign has made Mamdani a national figure, something Cuomo has already been for quite some time.
Even still — and even for this lapsed New Yorker — last evening’s proceedings had frustratingly little to do with the city.
After a few perfunctory questions (What will the headlines be after your first year in office? What qualifies you to lead the city?), the debate quickly shifted to what really matters for municipal politics: What would the candidates say on their first official phone call with Donald Trump?
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To be fair, this one was a little relevant. At least since Jerry Ford told Abe Beame to drop dead, there’s always been an expectation that the occupants of Gracie Mansion and the White House would deal with each other. And the Queens boy who currently occupies the Oval Office has inserted himself into the mayoral race, threatening to withhold federal funding from the city if it elects Mamdani.
The candidates’ answers were unremarkable. Mamdani said he’d yell about ICE, and Cuomo said he’d yell about COVID. Had the national politics portion of the evening ended there, it would have been fine.
But it didn’t. Instead, the candidates were then asked about the war in Gaza. Cuomo accused Mamdani of refusing to denounce Hamas and employing antisemitic dog whistles like “from the river to the sea” and “globalize the intifada.” Mamdani offered his thoughts on the situation, sounding more like an ambassador than an assemblyman.
“For [the ceasefire] to be just, we also have to ensure that it addresses the conditions that preceded this,” Mamdani said. “Conditions like occupation, like the siege, and apartheid.”
Who is this “we”? What role does the mayor of New York City have in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
At the end of the debate, the candidates were asked about which parades they would attend if elected mayor. Mamdani, wearing the same smug smile he sported all evening, said that he would have more important things to think about than parades. If he thinks he should focus more on Gaza than on New York City parades, he may not be the right man for the job.
A legendary New Yorker had a decidedly different take: “I think a mayor has a responsibility whenever possible to march in parades.”
That New Yorker was Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels and the Republican candidate for mayor.
There’s a reason I haven’t mentioned Sliwa until now. Though he was standing smack in the middle of the candidates during the entire debate, he was an afterthought from the very beginning. At one point, the broadcast even cut to a side-by-side of Cuomo and Mamdani, literally eliminating Sliwa from the picture.
Considering all the questions were about everything under the sun except New York City itself, Sliwa seemed a little bit like a lunatic during the debate. While Cuomo and Mamdani attacked each other as a nepo baby and a pervert, respectively, Sliwa hopped in to attack them for weakening the NYPD. While they talked about standing up to Trump, he talked about all the time he’s spent standing up for real New Yorkers on the subway and city buses. While they talked about Gaza, he rattled off the names of outer-borough neighborhoods with the maniacal fervor of a man desperate to remind people that this was supposed to be about New York City, for God’s sake.
Despite how crazy Sliwa may have seemed, he wasn’t crazy at all. It took the moderators 43 minutes to ask about something that actually affects New Yorkers — the NYPD — before they quickly returned to discussing Trump.
When the candidates did talk about city issues, it didn’t matter. Mamdani dodged questions about how he’d pay for free buses and free groceries and all the other free things he’s promised, relying on typical socialist smoke and mirrors to distract from the fact that New York Governor Kathy Hochul has made it clear she won’t raise taxes to pay for his policies.
Cuomo and Mamdani’s failings were on full display, but not in a way that mattered. Sure, Cuomo’s a sexual predator who killed a bunch of grandparents, and Mamdani’s a trust fund jihadist who lacks the experience to govern a condo board. But does any of that have any bearing on how they would run the city? You wouldn’t know from watching the debate.
That’s because the debate wasn’t for New Yorkers. It was for Washington, and for journalists. It was more for me than for whoever now lives in my old apartment in Brooklyn.
It was also for the candidates themselves. For Mamdani, it was an audition for the Democratic powers that be. For Cuomo, it was a chance to remind those same powers that he’s not down for the count just yet.
In other words, what should have been a political contest about local issues became one defined by national, even global ones. Instead of courting their would-be constituents, the candidates stoked their ambitions and inflated their egos. If you drive through Montpelier, you can probably hear James Madison rolling in his grave.
With the exception of those pinning their hope on Mamdani’s socialist revolution, New Yorkers probably aren’t fazed by this. But the rest of us should be. Unless and until they win seats in Congress, Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo should focus on their city and leave the country to those elected to run it. That’s better for New Yorkers and Americans alike. And it may even give them time to fix the subway.
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