Opinion: Mamdani needs better political time management

New mayors, particularly those who have never held a managerial post in government or the private sector, seem to stumble a bit coming out of the gate. 

Recently, Mayor Zohran Mamdami had back-to-back embarrassing events with two appointments he made. In each case the vetting process seemed at fault, failing to check the candidate’s social media posts for problematic posts, i.e. antisemitic and class warfare statements.

None of these events are fatal, more like paper cuts. They may sting, but they will heal and maybe you learn to be a little more careful doing your job. 

What may be more problematic for a new mayor stepping into the job is a propensity to continue behaving as a political operative and not the chief executive officer of the city, as the New York City Charter says he is. Among the many powers and duties assigned a mayor – appointing deputy mayors, commissioners and other agency leaders; developing strategic fiscal plans; reporting on the state of the city; managing finances; chief magistrate – there is no reference to any role as a political party leader.

Recently, however, Mayor Mamdani has waded into intra-party primary fights. That includes an open congressional seat due to the retirement of longtime Rep. Nydia Velázquez of Brooklyn and a Manhattan and Brooklyn seat now held by Rep. Dan Goldman. 

So what could be the problem, you wonder, they’re all in the game of politics. The mayor ran on affordability, free buses, a rent freeze, and free child care. I don’t recall him campaigning to be a political boss trying to shift the rest of the Democratic Party to the democratic socialist agenda he supports.

In running the city and pursuing his agenda, he’ll need allies in Albany and Washington. Somehow he created positive optics from his meeting with President Donald Trump but trying to unseat a sitting member of the House from his own party may not endear him to other centrists and liberals he may need down the road. 

Representative Goldman holds a solidly blue seat so a change there in a primary doesn’t sound like a big deal. Until, that is, you realize Goldman could be out helping to raise funds for Democrats in marginal districts that may contribute to taking control of the House instead of raising and spending that money on his own race. The Democrats need to pick up just three seats to take the House. 

Factor in the candidate running against Goldman, Brad Lander and the picture looks worse. Lander ran for mayor and allied himself with Mamdani, helping the new mayor squelch a lot of the concerns some Jewish voters had about him. But that didn’t result in a top position Lander expected in City Hall. So with the mayor’s endorsement, the race against Goldman looks like a consolation prize. Not sure voters will appreciate that. 

But Mamdani isn’t paying it forward in the Velázquez district. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a progressive Democrat, cut Spanish language ads for him in the election, helping Mamdani with Latino voters when he needed to blunt Andrew Cuomo’s general election campaign. A primary from another progressive is the thanks he got. And Mamdani endorsed Assembly Member Claire Valdez instead. 

A lot has changed in New York politics these past few years but politicians still make note of things like loyalty and friendship. More importantly for the mayor, they make special note of the lack thereof. 

(“Honeymoons are short, and people need to pay attention to the work at hand,” Velázquez said to The New York Times Thursday, about Mamdani endorsing against her preferred candidate.)

The mayor’s candidates must win, otherwise the mayor looks diminished. How many more primaries will he wade into? How much more time will Mamdani have to spend on personal politics that won’t necessarily help with the city’s needs? His time is a resource and one of the few things a mayor can control. 

Mamdani is already a lightning rod for Republican operatives around this state and country. By involving himself in these internecine firefights he hurts his ability to create the alliances he will need for the city.

Hugh Carey was elected governor after a 14-year career in the House of Representatives, and like Mamdani, he faced questions of managing the large budget and huge bureaucracy of state government. He didn’t get involved in party primaries which would distract from his real job. 

The only exception to that rule was the 1977 mayoral primary when it was deemed necessary to get the incumbent, Abe Beame, out of office due to his role in the fiscal crisis. Carey convinced Mario Cuomo to run in the mayoral primary. Mario got into the runoff against Ed Koch but lost and then ran and lost on the Liberal Party line in November. Mario seemingly took the lesson, and I don’t recall him getting involved in primaries when he was governor. 

Strange as it seems to say, Mayor Mamdani may want to emulate Mayor Bloomberg who came into office after the 9/11 attacks with no experience in government. Mike didn’t play politics, mostly because he wasn’t a politician – but also because wading into the murky waters of primary politics is a quagmire that wastes your time and energy and undercuts your moral authority on larger issues. Bloomberg suffered low poll numbers after making tough decisions to raise taxes and cancel projects but still managed to get mayoral control of schools and additional financial aid from the state and federal governments to get the city through a rough patch.

Sometimes a mayor, a governor, or even a president is lulled by a favorable poll or the flush of victory and winds up creating his own problems. Think President Franklin Delano Roosevelt trying to pack the Supreme Court and then engineering a primary against a Georgia senator from his own party who opposed the scheme. The senator won, Roosevelt lost. One of FDR’s legislative assistants trying to make peace said to the senator, “Well you know sometimes the president is his own worst enemy.” Senator Talmadge replied, “Not while I’m alive he ain’t.” 

Campaign is over, transition is too. The tough game of governing is on and the public expects you to do the job they elected you to do. In a city wondering if an untested 34 year old can run a $115 billion annual budget with 300,000 employees, there is lots to do. Get on it.