A Left-Liberal Alliance
One of the things you learn as a writer, whether you’re taught it or not, is to not talk about when you were wrong, and certainly not to acknowledge it at the start of the piece. I’m going to ignore that here. After the first New York City Mayoral debate I was convinced that Andrew Cuomo had won, and posted about it. I watched a debate where the candidates talked about their plans for the city like Cuomo wasn’t standing on stage with them, and like he wasn’t up by a significant margin. I watched Brad Lander look like a Tim Robinson character, and Zohran Mamdani fail to make significant inroads, limply attacking Cuomo for his donors. I thought that every politician on that stage was too much of a politician to make the kinds of alliances that would be needed to outmaneuver him in a Ranked Choice Voting system. I was wrong!
It’s a great example of how quickly a campaign can move. I’ve grown so used to presidential campaigns that stretch on for years, mostly because I’m the kind of sick freak that pays attention to them, and a mayoral debate is a different kind of animal. Brad Lander leaned into the Tim Robinson thing, releasing an incredible video of himself eating a (understandably dry) hot dog on the Brooklyn Cyclone, and Zohran landed the most dazzling moment of the second debate with his “The name is Mamdani, M, A, M, D, A, N, I.” response to Cuomo, as well as an endorsement from AOC. But the most remarkable thing to happen came after the cameras were off, when Zohran and Lander made the decision to cross-endorse each other on their own, independent of their campaign staff.
Politicians have egos bigger than any of us can conceive, which frequently answers the question of why they became politicians. To put that aside and cross-endorse each other for the good of the city is a remarkable act. It’s one thing to say that you shouldn’t rank Cuomo; after all, saying that you shouldn’t rank the frontrunner when you’re also running for office is a no-brainer. It’s a completely different thing to have the number two and three candidates in that race telling people they should also vote for the other guy because of how much they love New York City. This doesn’t seem to be a cynical ploy for votes either, it reads as authentic.
Framing it as being done because they love New York City is important, because one of the things that is clear about Andrew Cuomo is that he does not give a shit about the city. As I wrote before, this is a redemption tour for him, he has no real connections to the city, and he governed the state as though he hated us. I could list out all the things that Cuomo did poorly for NYC, but my friends at the New York Groove have done that better than I could.
I’ve been a Brad Lander supporter for the duration of the campaign and have donated to Brad multiple times. I believe that the city needs a competent, capable administrator because I have seen what not having that has done to the city over the last four years of the Adams administration. I also know that Lander’s concerned with doing the right thing in a way that other politicians aren’t. A friend wrote an investigation into forced hysterectomies on sugar plantations in India, Lander read it and began pressuring companies that buy sugar to address abuses, pressured institutional investors, and reached out to labor ladders in India as comptroller. I’ve had my disagreements about some of Zohran’s policies, and I’ve fielded texts from friends who have had all kinds of concerns about him. What’s wonderful about our current situation is that it doesn’t matter.
For the entirety of my lifetime the left flank of the Democratic party has been defined by infighting about who should have power. I’ve seen knock-down, drag-out fights in primaries with scars lasting decades about small differences in policy. I have no doubt that we would be seeing the same thing play out between Lander and Zohran supporters in a traditional election, and Cuomo would be sleepwalking to victory. What we have right now, is a chance to prove that all of us on the left flank of the party are capable of banding together and overcoming the establishment, and for what feels like the first time in forever it’s a candidate from closer to the center pushing their supporters leftward.
I can’t predict the future. Early voting just started last weekend, and the election is on the 24th. We might not know who won until July. What I hope is that, regardless of the outcome, we can look at this moment and learn from it. This isn’t 2020, it’s not a fight between Warren supporters and Bernie supporters. It’s all of us, liberals, progressives, and leftists, standing together against the Democratic machine in the biggest city in the country. If we can pull this off, and I’m more optimistic about our ability to do that than at any point this year, it sends a powerful message. The machine knows it, that’s why Michael Bloomberg agreed to give $5 million to support Cuomo the day that the cross-endorsement was announced and the New York Times printed its don’t-call-it-an-endorsement of Cuomo this morning.
What you have to do here is simple — go and vote. I’m planning on ranking Lander first and Zohran second, with Adrienne Adams third as a closer-to-the-center hedge against Cuomo but you can do whatever you want, as long as you rank the people you like and make sure that Lander and Zohran are on there somewhere. If you’re dedicated to maximizing the strategic value of your vote, wait until better polling is available closer to Election Day, although I’m skeptical of how much difference that makes in a primary this large. If you’d like extra credit, all you need to do is avoid any internecine conflict between Lander and Zohran supporters. Want even more extra credit? Go knock on some doors for either candidate. There’s nothing to gain and everything to lose.
For once we get to be allies instead of rivals, and it’s a tremendous moment. Let’s lift each other up and show what can be done when we do it, and keep standing together. They’re afraid, and we’re going to make a better city for all of us.
