Copyright New York Post
He needs a Mam-date. Zohran Mamdani’s allies with the city’s Democratic Socialists of America on Wednesday called for a “show of force” at the ballot box next week to help the mayoral front-runner enact his far-left agenda. New York City DSA’s co-chairs Grace Mausser and Gustavo Gordillo conceded on the “Max Politics” podcast that Mamdani needs 50% of the vote on Nov. 4 to claim a mandate and bring establishment pols wary of the lefty group to the table. “I think there is some symbolic value to over 50%,” Gordillo said. “We want the biggest possible base of support because that’s what’s going to lead the agenda that we want.” The concession comes as polls show Mamdani, if elected, likely will be the first New York City mayor since John Lindsay in 1969 to not have a majority of votes. Mamdani holds a clear lead in polls, with a Manhattan Institute survey this week finding him carrying 43% support to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 28%, followed by GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa in a distant third with 19%. But those pollsters noted a “striking dissonance” between Mamdani’s clear backing from voters and their support for his actual proposals. Aside from raising the corporate tax, New York City voters surveyed disagreed with Mamdani’s pushes to make buses free and phase out gifted and talented programs for the youngest kids. The poll also noted that Mamdani could gain a majority of votes if young New Yorkers, who overwhelmingly supported him in the Democratic primary, come out en masse — an event that early voting tallies show far do not show. Mausser told the podcast’s host Ben Max that “bigger is better” as far as the final outcome. She bragged about a massive weekend Mamdani rally in Forest Hills during which his supporters heckled Gov. Kathy Hochul with “tax the rich” chants. “I don’t know that she could fill an area as a headliner with 13,000 people right now,” Mausser said. “That has meaning because when people move together, when they vote together, when they act together, politicians have to listen to that.”
