3 ms·

As someone not in the US that doesn't pay a whole heap of attention, is it just me or did he run mostly uncontested? Running against a republican and a disgrace

As someone not in the US that doesn't pay a whole heap of attention, is it just me or did he run mostly uncontested? Running against a republican and a disgraced politician? No clue what mamdani is like, but it seems like NYC had little to no choice...which is a bit disappointing.

ModernMech 11mo ago
I mean, if you call "running uncontested" going up against the current mayor, former governor, the editorial board of the NYT and WAPO, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the Speaker of the House, the Senate and House leadership of the Democratic party, not to mention the entire rightwing media apparatus, and the President of the United States himself, yeah he ran uncontested.
- mjmsmith 11mo ago
  Ackman, Bloomberg, ...
jasonpbecker 11mo ago
It's unusual that Cuomo ran as an independent trying to "spoil"-- but NYC has such a large number of Democrats (like many US cities) that the more competitive and important election is typically the primary election (which determines who is running for each party). NYC has had a history of sometimes going other directions (as Cuomo's relatively high vote shows; having elected Michael Bloomberg many times, for example). Mamdani won the primary for the democrats over Cuomo, but Cuomo decided to try and do an independent run to further challenge him.
- treetalker 11mo ago
  If there's one thing the USA needs less of, it's political dynasties.
voidhorse 11mo ago
To a reasonable person, yes, this should have been the case, but politics in America is far from reasonable. The entire establishment marshaled what forces it could to stop mamdani's momentum. Couple this with the fact that there are (unfortunately) many people out there who would rather elect accused sex offenders than risk the chance that somebody marginally aligned with a word and ideology they don't actually understand (socialism) would be elected, or more likely, and worse, people are just racist and/or islamophobic and would sooner elect a man who would grope their daughter than a man who, god forbid, has a different religion than them.
culi 11mo ago
This is not the case. His main opponent was Cuomo who was the Democrat "establishment" candidate. Zohran narrowly defeated Cuomo in the primary. Typically that's it but Cuomo took the unconventional strategy of running independently in the general with the backing of establishment Democrats. Typically, the Republican candidate would have no chance in a city like NYC. This was the case here as well, but Cuomo calculated that with the backing of establishment Democrats AND the backing of Republicans/conservatives, he'd be able to defeat Mamdani. The Republican candidate did not agree to drop out, however. In the end it didn't matter though because Zohran Mamdani won by a larger margin than Cuomo and the Republican combined In a typical election, the main election is the primary (which happened back in June). The Democrat nominee is pretty much guaranteed to win so the general is almost a formality. This general election was actually more contested than is typical tl;dr: his main opponent was establishment democrats
- sumeno 11mo ago
  > Zohran narrowly defeated Cuomo in the primary. 13% is not narrow
  - culi 11mo ago
    Ah, you're right. I forgot it was that stark. Thanks for the correction
smbullet 11mo ago
Unfortunately that's kind of the reality for NYC. Since Bloomberg left it's been a one party city and ranked choice voting is implemented in the primary but not the general election. That means Democrats can feel comfortable voting for the most radical candidate in the primary without fear they might flop in the general election. Until we get ranked choice in the general election moderates and non-democrats don't really have a voice. This is especially true if multiple candidates run against the democratic nominee like in this election.
- esseph 11mo ago
  RCV is quickly being outlawed state wide by conservative pushes. I think it was 34 states had banned it last I checked.
  - esseph 11mo ago
    Oops, 17! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_Un...
    - Izkata 11mo ago
      Ranked choice is such a stupid system. It's gameable and complicated and confusing to most people. Approval voting has all the benefits ranked choice claims to have, but without the complexity - it's trivial for people to understand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting
jjk166 11mo ago
Prior to the citywide election there are primary elections where the major parties pick their candidates. Normally the winner of the democratic primary would only have the republican candidate as a serious opponent. Republican candidates have won 4 of the last 9 mayoral elections, and the most recent republican mayor won an additional election after becoming independent. This was the first election since 1985 with 3 major candidates on election day; and a fourth, the current incumbent mayor, dropped out only a few weeks earlier.

ModernMech 11mo ago

I mean, if you call "running uncontested" going up against the current mayor, former governor, the editorial board of the NYT and WAPO, billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, the Speaker of the House, the Senate and House leadership of the Democratic party, not to mention the entire rightwing media apparatus, and the President of the United States himself, yeah he ran uncontested.

mjmsmith 11mo ago
Ackman, Bloomberg, ...

jasonpbecker 11mo ago

It's unusual that Cuomo ran as an independent trying to "spoil"-- but NYC has such a large number of Democrats (like many US cities) that the more competitive and important election is typically the primary election (which determines who is running for each party). NYC has had a history of sometimes going other directions (as Cuomo's relatively high vote shows; having elected Michael Bloomberg many times, for example). Mamdani won the primary for the democrats over Cuomo, but Cuomo decided to try and do an independent run to further challenge him.

treetalker 11mo ago
If there's one thing the USA needs less of, it's political dynasties.

voidhorse 11mo ago

To a reasonable person, yes, this should have been the case, but politics in America is far from reasonable. The entire establishment marshaled what forces it could to stop mamdani's momentum. Couple this with the fact that there are (unfortunately) many people out there who would rather elect accused sex offenders than risk the chance that somebody marginally aligned with a word and ideology they don't actually understand (socialism) would be elected, or more likely, and worse, people are just racist and/or islamophobic and would sooner elect a man who would grope their daughter than a man who, god forbid, has a different religion than them.

culi 11mo ago

This is not the case. His main opponent was Cuomo who was the Democrat "establishment" candidate. Zohran narrowly defeated Cuomo in the primary. Typically that's it but Cuomo took the unconventional strategy of running independently in the general with the backing of establishment Democrats. Typically, the Republican candidate would have no chance in a city like NYC. This was the case here as well, but Cuomo calculated that with the backing of establishment Democrats AND the backing of Republicans/conservatives, he'd be able to defeat Mamdani. The Republican candidate did not agree to drop out, however. In the end it didn't matter though because Zohran Mamdani won by a larger margin than Cuomo and the Republican combined In a typical election, the main election is the primary (which happened back in June). The Democrat nominee is pretty much guaranteed to win so the general is almost a formality. This general election was actually more contested than is typical tl;dr: his main opponent was establishment democrats

sumeno 11mo ago
> Zohran narrowly defeated Cuomo in the primary. 13% is not narrow
- culi 11mo ago
  Ah, you're right. I forgot it was that stark. Thanks for the correction

smbullet 11mo ago

Unfortunately that's kind of the reality for NYC. Since Bloomberg left it's been a one party city and ranked choice voting is implemented in the primary but not the general election. That means Democrats can feel comfortable voting for the most radical candidate in the primary without fear they might flop in the general election. Until we get ranked choice in the general election moderates and non-democrats don't really have a voice. This is especially true if multiple candidates run against the democratic nominee like in this election.

esseph 11mo ago
RCV is quickly being outlawed state wide by conservative pushes. I think it was 34 states had banned it last I checked.
- esseph 11mo ago
  Oops, 17! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_Un...
  - Izkata 11mo ago
    Ranked choice is such a stupid system. It's gameable and complicated and confusing to most people. Approval voting has all the benefits ranked choice claims to have, but without the complexity - it's trivial for people to understand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_voting

jjk166 11mo ago

Prior to the citywide election there are primary elections where the major parties pick their candidates. Normally the winner of the democratic primary would only have the republican candidate as a serious opponent. Republican candidates have won 4 of the last 9 mayoral elections, and the most recent republican mayor won an additional election after becoming independent. This was the first election since 1985 with 3 major candidates on election day; and a fourth, the current incumbent mayor, dropped out only a few weeks earlier.