The Ben Mulroney Show - A NYC mayoral race that could turn the city to the left.... the far left

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

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You are listening to the Ben Mulroney Show and I thank you for joining us on this Thursday, June 26th. We are coming up on Canada Day and if I haven't said it yet, I'm so proud to be Canadian. I'm bullish on our future. I am hopeful that our government, every level of government is successful in achieving their goals so that we as a country can go from where we are to where we deserve to be. And I wish each and every one of you

listening or watching on YouTube a very happy Canada Day filled with pride in our nation. You may be on social media and you may press the discover button or the news button and the name Zoran or Mamdani pops up and these may be new words to you. I have been following the New York City mayoral race for quite some time and I have been following the New York City mayoral race for quite some time, and I have been fascinated with the rise of the Democrat candidate, Zoran Mamdani.

He made national and international news because he upended the dynamic of the race by winning the Democratic primary for mayor. So he is the Democrats choice beating out former governor, Andrew Cuomo for that role. And as it stands now, Mamdani is set to face former Democrat and current mayor, now running as an independent, Eric Adams. There's also another unknown independent running, and a gentleman by the name of Curtis Sliwa on the Republican side.

He won the nomination on the Republican side. Curtis Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels. You may have seen an image of men walking down the streets of New York City with red berets. And he founded this group of, not vigilantes, but a presence in the streets of New York, walking the streets of New York at night to ensure that people are doing

what they're supposed to be doing. And of course, he started this in 1979 when New York City was grimy and gritty and dirty and crime-riddled. And so he has had a firsthand look. He's been on the front lines. And he's been endorsed by all of the Republican parties in all five boroughs, as well as a few unions. But I think it's gonna be a head-to-head race

between Eric Adams and this Mamdami fellow. Who, yeah, Mamdami. He's 33. He is a democratic socialist. He makes Olivia Chow of Toronto look like a conservative. The ideas that he is espousing are, I mean, to a certain person, he won the democratic primary.

So to a certain person, he is very appealing. But some of the things that he is calling for are just straight out of a jar of peanuts. And for example, he, as a sanctuary city, he wants to kick immigration and customs enforcement out. Here is what the acting director of US Immigration and Customs, Tom Homan, who's also the border czar,

said when he was asked about Mondomini saying he would block ICE from going into New York City. Good luck with that. Doug LaLalle trumps him every day, every hour, every minute, we're gonna be in New York City. Matter of fact, because this is a sanctuary city, President Trump made it clear a week and a half ago. We're gonna double down and triple down the sanctuary cities.

If we can't arrest the bad guy in the county, one agent arresting one bad guy, they release him in the streets like New York does every day, we got to send a whole team to look for this guy. And not only that, we're going to send additional teams to look for all the people they arrest. We're going to concentrate on sanctuary cities because we know they're releasing public safety threats and national security threats back to the street. So we know we got a problem there. So we don't have that problem in Florida where most sheriffs work for us.

So we're going to double up and triple up on New York. And not only are we going to send more agents to the neighborhood, we're going to increase worksite enforcement tenfold. If we can't arrest them in the jail, you're going to force them to the neighborhood, then we'll find them in the neighborhood. If we can't find them in the neighborhood, we'll find them at the worksite. So game on. We're coming. Wow. This is going to, I mean, if that comes to pass,

New York City is going to be a place where people really want to visit and really want to invest and really want to move to. Later on in the show, as a matter of fact, in our next segment, we're going to be speaking to somebody on the ground in New York, steeped in New York politics, to really give the listeners of the Ben Mulroney show a better idea as to what is transpiring in New York, steeped in New York politics, to really give the listeners of the Ben Mulroney show a better idea as to what is transpiring in New York, what the likely outcomes could be, what the knock-on effects could be of a Mamdani mayorship. And so that's coming up in the next segment. But OK, so the battle lines are being drawn.

I've let you know who the candidates are at this point. But Eric Adams is the current sitting mayor of New York. He was a Democrat. He is now running as an independent, which is why the Democratic primary was open. Here is what Eric Adams had to say about his opponent in this election, which is just a few short months away. He's a snake oil salesman

he was saying do anything to get elected. Think about this moment. He wants to raise 1% he wants to raise tax on 1% of New York is high income owners. As the mayor you don't have the authority to do that. You know who has the authority to do that in the assembly man which he is he wants to do free buses.

He could have done it at an assemblyman. He doesn't understand the power of government and how you must make sure you improve your economy, raise the standard of living, and this is what we've done in the city. And I'm looking forward to being on the campaign trail and showing New Yorkers we can't go backwards All of that that the current mayor Eric Adams just said makes sense to me it resonates with me But I look a certain way. I have a certain income. I've got three kids. I've got a mortgage and while I'm not in New York I've been going to New York for 45 years and so I think I understand it well enough

to be able to say, at least I think I understand some of the dynamics at play. But I am not the person who voted for him in the primary. Take a listen to some of the young, I mean, listen, the way it was described on my social media, young socialists going wild at the announcement that Zoran had won the right to run as a Democrat

in this election. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God! Oh my God! Yeah, I mean, that could go on forever. I guarantee you it went on for a heck of a lot longer than what I showed you.

His message is resonating with a lot of people. Now, from what I understand about primaries is that they tend to mobilize the most excitable part of your base, excitable part of your party. And in this case, it would be the young. I don't know if those who elected him or voted him in on the primary represents the broader Democratic Party base

in New York City, but the people who voted for him like him a lot. And just to give you a few examples of his own perspective, I'm not judging him here. I'm just gonna read some of his tweets for you. You can decide. He may resonate with you. He doesn't with me.

Queer liberation means defund the police. From coast to coast right now, mayors and governors of deep blue cities and states are collaborating with a violent right-wing government to enforce curfews, round up protesters, and run them down in the street, including this mayor of New York. Defund the police. Oh, in reference to a tweet by our guest in the next segment who was quoting Governor Cuomo who was running against Zoran. He said, when people are saying, quote, defund the police, they are saying they wanna see real fundamental change.

He says the state is passing an important package of reforms and local mayors, police departments must also hear their cries. He said, no, according to Zoran, no, we wanna defund the police. And here's another one. We'll have to wait and see if our lead holds, hear their cries. He said, no, according to Zoran, no, we want to defund the police. And here's another one. We'll have to wait and see if our lead holds, but to be leading even amidst a global pandemic makes it clear another world really is possible. Together we can

tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police and build a socialist New York. We can't reform a system working exactly as designed to control black, brown and poor New Yorkers. Apparently that's that's New York. We need to defund the police, get them out of matters they have no business in, free the thousands locked up unjustly and invest the savings in those most impacted by state violence. I have to believe that those who voted in the primary are well-educated and well-intentioned, these

are messages that for whatever reason resonated with them. After the break, we are joined by Ben Max of the Max Politics Podcast, and we are going to be talking about everything I just described. Could there be a socialist mayor of New York City? Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Thank you so much for joining us.

In the previous segment, we were talking about the state of play in the New York City election. Just for context, the city of New York has a population about eight and a half million people with a fiscal budget of close to $120 billion. If New York City was a sovereign nation, its economy would find its way into the top 20 of nations. That's how big it is.

And one of the people vying for that job is a former housing counselor and hip hop musician whose entire political career started in 2020. His name is Zoran Mamdani. He's captured lightning in a bottle and he is the Democratic nominee to run against Eric Adams to govern this massive city, most important city in the world.

And so rather than me keep talking as someone removed from the situation, I'd like to welcome into this conversation our next guest and that's Ben Max. He's a veteran New York journalist, program director at New York Law School's Center for New York City and State Law, where he also hosts the Max Politics podcast

on New York politics and government. Couldn't imagine a better guest to help guide the Ben Mulroney Show listeners into a better understanding of what's happening in New York City. Ben, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, pleasure to be here. Now I know I saw on the screen that you were listening to sort of my primer. I, as I said, not an expert. So feel free if there's anything I got wrong or requires clarification. Have at it. Yeah, no, I don't I don't think I heard the full thing.

But I will say one of the most important things you got at it in the last part, at least that came up during the primary campaign was Weathers or Amamdani is really looking to defund the police and what his views are on things like incarceration and policing. And he moderated significantly in this race to say very clearly when he was pressed on these issues, including at the second and final televised debate, that he does not want to defund the police. He says he will leave police funding where it is, and he will create a new department of community safety to try to remove some of the things that police have been doing into more responsibilities for people like social workers and others so that police can

really focus in on things like violent crime. So he moderated quite a bit during the campaign on that. And some of the other issues around whether he wants to sort of dismantle the carceral state and abolish jails didn't really come up that much. And he wasn't running on that, certainly. Well, listen, if that's a true change of heart,

then I believe we've had that debate here in the city of Toronto. The police are not always the best suited for every situation. There are certain times where a mental health crisis requires the addition of mental health experts into that equation. And sometimes they should be the lead in certain situations. But I don't think even in those situations,

you can remove the cops entirely. But hey, moderating a position, he's 33 years old. I'm more than willing to believe that at 33, you're able to change your mind. But there is a fear that I know that upon his nomination, there were a number of influential groups, especially in the real estate industry that got together. The big thinking heads in those groups

were getting together to talk about what do we do with the Zoran of it all? I guess there's a fear that if a man like this is able to win and become the mayor, that there could be a flight of capital, there could be a flight of leadership, there could be a flight of people taking their money and moving to Miami, Palm Beach, Dallas, Fort Worth.

Is that a real fear in the city? Oh, absolutely. The business, real estate, finance and other sectors and leaders therein, and just sort of the wealthier segment of the population has been concerned about him throughout the primary. It's part of the reason that many of them put a lot of money behind former governor Andrew Cuomo, obviously unsuccessfully in the primary. But there's concerns and those concerns are actually multiple. They are not just that he wants, that Zeram Mondani wants to raise corporate and personal income taxes on high earners. It's also this concern about his lack of experience and whether he can actually run the government

and what his approach to public safety and many other things would be. These are concerns, at least the latter, are concerns that a lot of other voters shared because he is 33 years old and he has only been in government a short time. The question around tax rates and what will actually get through the state government,

which is where they need to be passed, the city government does not around tax rates and what will actually get through the state government, which is where they need to be passed. The city government does not control tax rates other than the property tax. You know, that will be a legislative and governance sort of battle and negotiation to come if Zorah Mondani wins the general election. So a lot of this concern, you know, is overblown in some ways, but a lot of these leaders do not want to see someone elected who has this agenda, certainly. There's one group of New Yorkers for whom they don't think the threat of Zoran Mamdani

is blown up enough is members of the Jewish community. He has said some things and participated in events that, you know, if they happened here would be called out as pro-terrorist. From the river to the sea can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. His insensitive remarks on Holocaust Remembrance Day, there is a great fear amongst, you know, members of the Jewish community in New York that he represents sort of the worst-case scenario in terms of their safety. What do you think about that? Well, I think some of those concerns are definitely founded in some of the things that he's said and done. I think they are

also in some ways overblown from what I've seen. There are questions around exactly how to interpret some of what he said and done, and that leaves a lot of gray area that he's had to explain. It's never really that good if you're having to explain exactly where you stand on anti-Semitism. He has very deeply held beliefs about his criticism of how the Israeli government has acted previous to the current war and during the current war. Obviously, a lot of that was hashed out during the campaign and he did quite well, including among many Jewish voters in New York. Obviously those are more

progressive or liberal secular Jewish voters. The Orthodox Jewish community was very much against him for the most part in supporting the former governor. And there will be, again, part of the effort in the general election to rally behind a different candidate will be among some of those more centrist and conservative Jewish voters. But we heard Zoro Momdani during this campaign repeatedly try to explain that he harbors no anti-Semitism, wants to make the city safe for Jews,

especially amid increases in hate crimes and a lot of other messaging like that, while he also wants peace in the Middle East and he wants the Israeli government to stop bombing in Gaza. So a complicated set of issues and stances from him. He did obviously get the cross endorsement of the highest ranking Jewish official in city government, Brad Lander, who is more on the progressive liberal side of the spectrum, of course. But that was also a significant moment in the campaign as they talked together about unity and Jews and Muslims in New York and beyond finding common ground. So the action was Mamdani winning the nomination. Let's talk about what the reaction will be during this campaign and ultimately on election night. You know in a city like Toronto a very

progressive woman named Olivia Chow won the by-election after our mayor stepped down and one of the reasons she did so was because the forces on the right and centre-right could not coalesce around a single candidate. There were many people with a lot of overlapping views and they just split their vote and she won handily. There's a force at play to make sure that in next year's election that doesn't happen again. But I wonder, he seems to occupy the left side

of the spectrum entirely to himself. And you've got Eric Adams, who's governed as a centrist. You've got a Republican nominee. You've got another independent running. You've got Bill Ackman, the hedge fund manager, and very influential voice in media, who is suggesting that this could be the right time for somebody, for a write-in candidate

with the right views to come into the race where if they do and say the right things, the money will flow to that person. Former Mayor Bloomberg will no doubt offer up his election machine to that person. I mean, how do you see this playing out? Well, the general election is about to be extremely interesting. Some of it will depend on exactly who is in the race. The former governor, Andrew Cuomo, who lost the primary has a ballot line for the general election. He's going to decide whether he will actively get his knee there on that ballot line, almost

certainly, but he might not campaign. I think that's most likely, but you are talking about the situation where many of these business, real estate and other leaders are really starting to consider about whether they can try to resurrect Eric Adams is political chances. As we sit here right now, Zoram Mamdani is a heavy favorite in the general election. Really? Yeah, Max, Ben, we're gonna have to leave it there. But I, please come back again. I would love to gauge the temperature from you again. Really appreciate it. Pleasure.

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