After Mamdani’s surprising victory last year, the big question was whether his kind of progressive politics could succeed in New York and provide a model for cities across the country and the world. We may never find out. The first four months of Mamdani’s mayorship suggest that Hochul and Menin will stall and block enough of the mayor’s agenda that it won’t come close to being fully implemented.
What Hochul and Menin are doing isn’t unprecedented or surprising. Governors around the country often block the initiatives of mayors in their states. This is particularly common in New York, where a decade ago then-Governor Andrew Cuomo seemed to revel in diminishing then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. City councils are supposed to be a check on mayors. And Hochul and Menin, who represents the Upper East Side, don’t hide the fact that they are aligned with the Democratic Party’s center-left wing, which is wary of progressives and democratic socialists like the mayor. The governor didn’t immediately endorse Mamdani after his victory in the Democratic primary last year. Mamdani’s allies unsuccessfully tried to boost a more liberal City Council member to the speakership, knowing that Menin would be less aligned with them.
I’m not naïve. I know what’s going on. I suspect Hochul and Menin disagree with the mayor ideologically, think they are wiser than him, and have business executives and rich people who donate heavily to their campaigns telling them privately how dumb Mamdani is and that their job is to rein him in. We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly at the local level over the last decade, as the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has gained more clout. Progressives elected mayor and district attorney in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other blue areas have found themselves constantly undermined by moderate Democratic officials at the city and state level. And in Washington in 2009 and again in 2021, a Democratic president with a bold agenda struggled against a coalition of business groups and Democratic members of Congress aligned with big business. Like Manchin and Sinema did to President Biden, Hochul and Menin are treating Mamdani not as a fellow Democrat whose success is their success but instead a person with an overly ambitious agenda that they need to constrain.
I am not calling for Hochul or Menin (or for that matter Tisch or Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger) to become democratic socialists. I am calling for them to consider the possibility that one democratic socialist might be the right mayor for New York right now. Mamdani seems reasonable, shrewd, and pragmatic. It’s likely that he would agree to versions of his grocery, bus, childcare, rent, and tax ideas that wouldn’t bankrupt the city or the state. It’s also likely that he can more broadly set New York’s direction and lead the city effectively without Hochul and Menin micromanaging all of his choices. They have the power to check him constantly. They just shouldn’t use it. And if Hochul and Menin are simply centrists who can’t stand to watch progressive policies implemented even if they are effective, that’s worse. New Yorkers voted for this man’s progressive vision and, so far, largely approve of him, according to polls.
With Hochul embracing a tax increase (and her earlier move to expand childcare for 2 and 3-year-olds), she is not opposing everything that Mamdani does. Menin has also cut some deals with him. But both are acting like they should be co-equals in running New York with Mamdani. They should step back. Politics in New York and the U.S. are full of uninspiring, establishment figures like Menin and Hochul. That’s why Mamdani won, despite his lack of experience and unorthodox ideas. New Yorkers voted for someone and something new. Hochul and Menin should at least try it his way.
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