Zohran learns early how not to please everyone

Two weeks into his transition, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is already crosswise with several allies. He has made it clear that outgoing Comptroller Brad Lander, erstwhile cross-endorser, will not have a place in his administration. In an attempt to find another way to support Lander’s political future (or, to borrow language from the The New York Times, strategically uncouple) Mamdani has reportedly promised to back Lander’s potential primary challenge to Rep. Dan Goldman. But doing so has irked his allies in the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which is backing another candidate: democratic socialist City Council Member Alexa Avilés. 

“Mr. Mamdani has privately told Ms. Avilés that he would support and campaign for Mr. Lander if he ran,” the Times reported on Friday, citing three anonymous sources. The day after that story broke, the NYC-DSA announced to members in an email that they had “voted to ratify” their endorsement of Avilés in her bid to unseat Goldman, setting up a potential battle between Lander and Avilés, the favored candidate of the organization that got Mamdani into City Hall. The NYC-DSA, maybe cheekily, chose a picture of Avilés that includes Mamdani clapping in the background for their endorsement announcement. 

“It’s very surprising and it doesn’t make sense,” said one longtime DSA member of Mamdani’s apparent support for Lander over Avilés. ”I think (Mamdani’s) just making moves and expecting people to fall in line because he’s the supposed prince of the left.”

That’s not the only way Mamdani is at odds with the left. His decision to retain billionaire NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch was not welcome news to many criminal justice reformers, and some (though not all) in NYC-DSA are supportive of Council Member Chi Ossé’s rumored primary challenge to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Ossé is expected to speak at a candidate forum with the organization on Wednesday. But Mamdani has signaled with increasing explicitness that he would not support such a challenge, even going so far as to disinvite Ossé from his election night party after the council member worked to get him elected. Jeffries, who remains popular in his district, reluctantly endorsed Mamdani in late October.