NYC NOW - Five Things with Brian Lehrer: How This Election Runs on Hope, Fear and a Few Strange Alliances

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

With Election Day coming up Tuesday in New York and New Jersey, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer and Janae Pierre break down five key moments shaping the local races, from the hope versus fear dynamic guiding voters to unexpected alliances over affordable housing, a Trump era strategy unfolding in Passaic County, Curtis Sliwa’s surprising choices, and what grown up campaigns could learn from middle school elections.

Welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. Today we're back with our monthly segment, Five Things with WNYC's Brian Lair. Hey, Brian. Hey, Jeney. Happy Halloween. Do you have candy for me? Oh, no candy, but I'll be sweet. I'll be sweet.

Listen, welcome back to the show. Here's the menu for this five things segment for your listeners, Janay. Ready? I'm ready. One, it's a hope versus field. election. Two, watch Passaic County for a Trump midterm strategy. Three, strange bedfellows on the affordable housing ballot questions, including Brian's two laws of affordable housing politics. Four, what is Curtis Slewa thinking? And five, why grown up politics should be more like middle

school. I've got a cute but maybe humbling story from a friend with a seventh grader running for office in his school. So you ready for number one, Jene? Wow. Yes, absolutely. Let's jump into it. Hope versus fear. Yes, a hope versus fear election in the city. And I start this one like this. Mamdani has the only real signature policies in this race. Free buses, free child care, free is the rent, grocery stores, city run, everybody knows them, tax the rich, whether or not they support them. Can you name me even one new Cuomo signature policy. I'll bet that most of our listeners can't. You know, that's hard right now because I think you're really making a point here. So, yeah, he's running on fear Mamdani, especially fear him if you're Jewish, fear him if you

fear Trump taking over the city, fear him enabling crime by minimizing the role of the police, fear his inexperience as a manager. And this is not even to say that hope is better than fear. many Democrats, not so enthusiastic about Biden or Kamala Harris, let's say Hillary Clinton, still voted out of fear of Trump's impact on democracy and other things, and maybe that fear was justified in their view, at least, and reason enough to vote Democratic as things are turning out, but it's hope versus fear. Okay, let's go on to thing number two. You're saying that we should watch Passaic County for a possible Trump midterm strategy,

Why Passaic County? Yeah, Passaic County, New Jersey, north and west of the city, including Patterson and other immigrant-rich communities, also Clifton, Pompton Lakes, West Milford, also places New Yorkers don't know how to pronounce when they see them in print like Todowa and Wanakue. Yeah. Anyway, the Trump Justice Department announced they will send an election monitor or a team of election monitors to Passaic during the gubernatorial election because local Republicans ask them to protect against fraud in mail-in ballots.

So maybe this will be on the up-and-up, or maybe it's part of a larger plan to start limiting whether people can vote by mail at all, anywhere if they find some small infraction of some kind. Trump has wanted to do that largely because it's Democrats more than Republicans who tend to use mail-in-balloting. I'll be watching this aspect of the voting in Jersey.

Okay. Thing number three, Brian, has me really intrigued. Strange Bedfellows on the Affordable Housing Ballet questions, including Brian's two laws of affordable housing politics. What are these laws, Brian? Yeah, the two laws of affordable housing politics, according to me, that everyone in New York seems to agree on. One, we desperately need more affordable housing. And two, just don't build any near me. Does that sound about right to you, Jenae?

Yeah, yeah, that's on point. And that makes for some strange bedfellows on the affordable housing ballot questions. Did you know that Curtis Slewa is on the same side as most of the progressive members of city council? Yeah, that's what I've been hearing. Both want to defeat the three ballot questions that have to do with affordable housing.

They're all designed to make housing construction easier to approve by giving city council less power to stop them and appointees of the mayor more power to approve. But these strange fellow opponents have different reasons. Slewa mostly represents more conservative, suburban-style areas of the city with a lot of single-family homes like much of Staten Island, parts of Northeast Queens, places like that. They don't want more apartment buildings, cluttering the openness,

and in many cases they don't want lower-income people of color who they assume affordable housing units would bring, may be affecting crime rates and property values as they imagine it. Those are the fears. The city council progressives are more concerned about gentrification in lower income neighborhoods from new housing that isn't affordable enough. And as a matter of democracy, they don't like the mayor having more power and city council having less, which these ballot measures would bring about.

The current council, for example, was definitely more progressive than Mayor Adams on most things. So they didn't trust Mayor Adams getting this on the ballot in the first place. These were his idea. But supporters include other progressives like Comptroller Brad Lander, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Renoso, and others who prioritize more affordable housing over community control to block it. They want to get around the, you know, just don't build any near me part of those laws. So it's complicated, but there you're a strange.

bedfellows on the Affordable Housing ballot questions, questions two, three, and four. Remember voters to turn your ballots over to see them when you're done voting for candidates. You mentioned Curtis Slewa, and that's thing number four. What is Curtis Slewa thinking these days? What is Curtis Slewa thinking? Janaya, I can usually think of a rational reason that politicians do the things they do, including Mayor Adams dropping out of his re-election bid when he did and lots of other things. But why Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Slewa is staying in baffles me. Like most Republicans, he thinks MAMDani is a threat to his voters' interests, and he has practically a zero chance of winning, but his presence in the race, splitting the non-Mam Dani

vote with Cuomo, almost ensures MAMDani will win. And now, maybe even more baffling, Sliwa has quit the job he could have gone back to after the election. W-ABC radio talk show host, saying it's because they disrespected him in encouraging him to drop out. So he's in effect helping Mom Donnie win and giving up his really good job to go back to, assuming he loses. I don't even have a theory about what Curtis Lewa is thinking. And I'm not even sure if that is a good move given this economy. And if he wants to stay in radio, I don't think we have any openings. No, we definitely don't.

So let's move on to thing number five, why grown-up politics should be more like middle school. I can't even imagine going back to middle school, Brian, but what? Right. Certainly we don't want much from those tortured years of so many people's lives to follow us into adulthood. But here's a little story. I have a friend whose son in seventh grade is currently running for student body vice president at his public middle school in Queens. Last weekend, the mom showed me the kids one and a half minute candidate video.

All the candidates had to make one. It was very cute for one thing, but it was also impressive. And I was impressed that this, I think he's 12, 12-year-old was running a totally positive campaign. It was all about his accomplishments and student government so far and what he hopes to do if elected vice president. No attacks on his competitors. When I said that to the mom, she told me, oh, that's the rule. You can't attack the other kids in these elections. And it made me think maybe grown-up politics should be more like middle school.

Imagine if the mayoral candidates were only allowed to campaign on what they hope to accomplish and how, rather than treating the other guy as scary or as a bum. Maybe voters would be prompted to be more thoughtful and less driven by just having their buttons pressed. I know it's unrealistic, but it's the first time in my life I ever thought that grown-up life should be more like middle school. So there you go. That's pretty cool. That's WMYC's Brian Lair. Thanks a lot, Brian. Thank you, Jeney. And thank you for listening to NYC now from WMYC.

I'm Jene Pierre. I'm headed out to early vote. Maybe you should too. Have a good weekend.