Jim Walden talks his longshot bid for mayor

When former prosecutor Jim Walden entered the New York City mayoral race last fall – uncommitted to running as a Democrat or Republican – it looked like he might have a shot at being the most prominent independent candidate in the race.

That, on its own, would still be a very narrow road to City Hall.

But instead, Walden is now one of three independent candidates in November. The other two? Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Polling at 1%, Walden faces huge odds – greater, even, than the other independent candidates and Republican Curtis Sliwa, who are aiming to defeat Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani in November. 

A former prosecutor for the Eastern District before going into private practice, Walden has no experience serving in government or running for political office in the city – giving him what he acknowledged to the New York Editorial Board was a learning curve on policy. But he has interacted with the government in taking on high-profile cases including on behalf of public housing tenants and opponents of a Brooklyn bike lane.

Walden’s mayoral campaign has put anti-corruption at the forefront, though he also has plans to hire more cops and crack down on petty crimes, build new housing with a subset at 25% of the local median income, and hold office hours with constituents.

He’s been a consistently vocal critic of Mamdani, aligning with opponents who contend that Mamdani’s criticism of Israel amounts to embracing antisemitism. But Walden also denounces President Trump’s fear-mongering about Mamdani as “anti-American.”

As the broader anti-Mamdani contingent scrambles for a strategy, City & State caught up with Walden to discuss his. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

For people who don’t know you, what should they know about what sets you apart from the other independent candidates in this race, or even Mamdani or Sliwa?

I came to New York in 1993 to try to reset my life. I went through the kind of affordability problems that people had in real time. I slept on a floor for a year. I worked odd jobs. I had to pay my way through school. It was super hard and super expensive. I had bad landlords all along the way. So I’ve lived that experience. I had a sister who essentially died because of mental illness. So these things mattered to me, and they formed the person that I became. And I chose service even when I didn’t have to, and I hope that people understand that I’m running for mayor to restore core competence and integrity to City Hall, because I believe that it’s bad political leadership that has gotten us to the place where we’re at right now. All of the problems that we have are solvable problems – if you actually intend to go into the job and solve problems, and not try to accomplish personal goals, whether it’s getting on VIP lines or running for some other office or forcing a radical agenda that is not consistent with New York values. I want to return City Hall to a place where it actually serves people and solves the problems that have been plaguing us for so long, whether it’s homelessness, whether it’s mentally ill people on the street, whether it’s a bureaucracy that has gotten out of control, a budget that’s gotten out of control, a property tax system that has been a yoke around the middle class for years.

One of your campaign planks is a zero-tolerance policy for public corruption. We’ve seen plenty of allegations and investigations into corruption under this administration – and in others before that. But can you give me an example of what your zero-tolerance policy would look like in practice?

Zero-tolerance means that we have an agency that’s totally independent of City Hall, whose job is only to root out corruption. And when we put that in the City Charter, and we have a commissioner of that agency that would replace the public advocate so the next person in line to be the mayor would be the commissioner of the citywide Department of Public Integrity. That’s exactly the way that we should have our city government structured. And that person, while they’re in the job, has the prosecutors, the investigators and the corruption court it needs to go after everyone, including the mayor.

The idea of the commissioner of this new public integrity department replacing the public advocate in the line of succession – wouldn’t that give that person motivation to go after the mayor if they’ve got their own political ambitions and are looking at an acting mayor gig at the end of an investigation?

Yes, maybe. But is that really any different? I’ve seen public advocates go after the mayor. I’ve seen comptrollers go after the mayor. I mean, that’s part of the system. That’s why this position is going to be appointed, so that it can be chosen by a group of senior statesmen and women and they’ll be a person of deep integrity that’s going to be the first commissioner. Someone toward the end of their career, someone that has no political ambitions, someone who is truly a purist when it comes to corruption. And if you appoint someone like that I think that they will have the integrity not to do something like that.

You pitched an idea for what you call the “free-market candidates” in this race to agree to support the candidate among you who is best positioned to take on Mamdani, determined in the final weeks of the race with an independent poll. There doesn’t seem to be agreement between Adams and Cuomo about that pitch – they’re mostly fighting between themselves about which one of them should drop out. Have you had conversations with either of them, or Sliwa, about the idea? 

I contacted Cuomo directly. I contacted Sliwa through an intermediary. And I have not reached out to Adams yet, because I don’t want to call Randy (Mastro) and put Randy in a difficult position. So I’m trying to figure out a way to get to him.

Because you and Randy have a personal relationship?

Yeah, I mean, Randy and I were partners together for almost 10 years. I have great confidence in my own campaign. I understand I’ve got a long ways to go. I understand I’m polling the least. It’s just after halftime, and I’m really just entering the game. So I know that I’m going to surge. Every single candidate should be willing to say at the end of the day, that if there is a poll that we can agree on that’s a robust poll, that’s got more than 5,000 people, that represents the demographics of the 2021 election – that we will live by the results and let the winner take all. That’s obviously going to require approval from the Campaign Finance Board. But that’s, in my humble view – and I have no idea where your political leanings are – but in my humble view, that is the best way to defeat Mamdani. The man should not be the mayor. I mean, he’s a 33-year-old with the thinnest resume I’ve ever seen. It’s a resume of failure. When he was an Assemblyman for one-plus term, he did literally nothing to help the city of New York with any of the problems that he’s now identified. His plans are not achievable, and whether he’s an antisemite or not, he has embraced antisemitism fully since the time that he’s been in college. (Editor’s note: Mamdani has repeatedly denied that his criticism of Israel is fueled by antisemitism, and has noted his support from Jewish New Yorkers and his proposal to increase funding to combat antisemitic hate crimes eightfold. He was reelected twice, in 2022 and 2024.) 

Setting aside the idea of polling, is there one of those three candidates who you would be most inclined to support based on your own judgment of their capabilities? 

As part of showing the importance to me of coming up with a structure so that it’s a one-on-one race, I’ve decided that I am not going to say anything about the other three candidates. I’ve essentially discontinued attacking them in any way. I'm going to highlight my own campaign and the message of hope and inspiration that I hope to convey to voters. 

There’s a lot of discussion about how much money might be spent against Mamdani, but not yet a whole lot of agreement on which of his opponents will benefit from that spending. Have you had any discussion with Bill Ackman or Daniel Loeb as the Adams campaign has? Or any others who are looking to spend to defeat Mamdani?

I did meet with Bill Ackman at one point earlier in the race, but I didn’t ask for his money. And I’ve already made my intentions clear with respect to this big money. I don’t want it. I literally have put out a policy that says if any of my supporters – and obviously I have plenty of wealthy supporters that would love to start a PAC for me – I’ve said don’t, and I put in writing that if anyone creates a PAC that supports me, I will disavow the PAC. And I have a special program in City Hall that will make sure that they get no special favors. … Citizens United was a terrible decision in many different ways. I’m not going to take advantage of that because I have integrity, and I want to play within the rules that provide for public financing in a transparent way, with limited impact on the ability of wealthy individuals to control what happens.

Even though that will mean getting outspent?

Even though that means getting outspent. You know what outspent means? It just means that I’m going to have to work harder, and I’m more than willing to work harder, and will work harder than any of these candidates. 

What’s your reaction to how President Trump has talked about Mamdani since his victory – from threatening to arrest him to questioning his legal status (he’s a naturalized U.S. citizen) to suggesting that the federal government will have to “straighten out” New York if he’s elected?

Washington would love for Zohran Mamdani to win. … Zohran Mamdani is the person that will give the Trump administration the justification that they want for coming in here and trying to, in some way, shape or form take over the city. If we want more ICE agents, elect Zohran Mamdani. If we want Washington trying to encroach on New York City, elect Zohran Mamdani. Washington is trying to benefit from this. On the things like deportation of Mamdani … I think Vickie Palladino was the first person that I saw that posted something like that, and I got back to her immediately to say, ‘This is inappropriate.’ He’s a terrible candidate for lots of different reasons, but we’re Americans and we’re New Yorkers, and we should not be stooping to this kind of nonsense. It’s anti-American.

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Is it correct that you jumped out of a plane over Suffolk County last week? Was that a campaign move? 

Yeah. I’m actually a little bit afraid of heights. It was a representation of the campaign, but it was also a representation of my personal journey. Listen, compared to what people at the bottom of the economic and social ladder have to deal with in New York, I can’t compare. But my journey was tough, man. I had to overcome a lot to get where I am. I feel like I've lived the American dream. And part of the reason I’m running is so that I can open the floodgates of opportunity to everyone, to every kid that’s born into poverty.

Any other death-defying campaign stunts coming up that we should know about?

I’m going to headline a charity boxing tournament. I’m actually going in the ring in the Cyclones stadium.

Do you know who you’re boxing yet? 

No, they’re trying to find an opponent. Because it has to be a sanctioned match, meaning you have to get approval from the regulators, there are requirements for like weight and arm length and age.

You know Brad Lander boxes, right?

No, no, no. But Brad Lander didn’t get in the ring and get punched in the face. I’m going to go in the ring and get punched in the face.