Picking a Mayoral Candidate(s): A Mayoral Candidate Forum and the Race for Gracie Mansion

One of things I learned as a UFT rep is that the battle is never over, whether over a contract or with a superintendent or a chancellor or a mayor or a governor, and, now with a Congress and a President.  

Bitching on Facebook might relieve stress, it doesn’t change the world around us, and coalition politics is the most effective politics. In the current atmosphere, the fight for UFT leadership and the opposition caucuses seem more like Trump allies.

We can all get involved in politics, in electoral politics at the grassroots level, meeting your local legislators, join a local political club, and work for a candidate. We’re now in the petitioning period, to get on a ballot you need signatures from registered democrats in your electoral district. And, with 8:1 matching funds a $10 contribution becomes $90.

I’m an active member of the CCNY Alumni Association. The CUNY four-year colleges are primarily funded by the state and the community colleges by the city. Cuomo, as governor Cuomo consistently underfunded the CUNY colleges and Adams underfunded the community colleges. 

Graduates of the CUNY colleges drive the city’s economy, from engineers to accountants to teachers and entrepreneurs.

The CCNY Alumni Association decided to advocate for CUNY, to mobilize our membership to contact their electeds at the state level, and, we’re also working with a coalition called the CUNY Rising Alliance, over 20 diverse organizations, highly organized with specific goals, The major goal, A Fair Deal for CUNY   Campaign Launch 2021 — CUNY Rising Alliance is legislation to make CUNY free once again. 

The Fair Deal for CUNY legislation has a detailed plan, legislation introduced, with many sponsors, in addition, CUNY Rising is asking the City Council to support legislation to provide CUNY students with free MetroCards.

The CUNY faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress, is a strong supporter of CUNY Rising, and, in my role, I attend the meetings. 

CUNY Rising invited the mayoral candidates to a forum, six of the candidates attended: Cuomo and Adams never responded, and Adrienne Adams is just beginning her campaign. 150 CUNY students and PSC staff attended, the questions were all CUNY issues, all the attending candidates, not surprisingly are strong supporters of CUNY and well versed in the issues.

City and State, an online website summarizes the positions of the candidates here:  Brad Lander, Adrienne Adams, Jessica Ramos, Zellnor Myrie, Zohran Mamdani, Scott Stringer, Michael Blake

Lander, the current Comptroller and former City Council member for Park Slope/Brooklyn and Stringer, former Assemblymember, Manhattan Boro President and Comptroller are skilled presenters, both are well known and well respected, Stringer was the UFT endorsee in 2021, his run derailed by a questionable #metoo accusation only weeks before the election. Lander, as a Council member was a progressive supporting defunding the police, four years later in a mayoral run he favors increasing the size of the police department.  

Ramos, a State Senator, chairs the Labor Committee, has passed major legislation and is highly regarded, Blake, a former Assembly member, strongly attacked Cuomo and the Mayor.  Myrie, a State Senator, has a detailed housing plan, impressive, and Mamdani, unknown before his run, has gained momentum with strong fund raising and rising in the polls and with a detailed plan proposes making all buses free, not up to the Mayor, an MTA issue.

Two lengthy pieces supporting Mamdani have just appeared, one written by a frequent substacker, Ross Barkan and another by Michael Lange, a former City Council staffer and intimate knowledge of the inside of New York City politics as well as a feature story in the NY Times 

Can Zohran Mamdani, a Socialist and TikTok Savant, Become NYC Mayor? – The New York Times

At the conclusion of the forum, I reminded the attendees of the rules of Rank Choice Voting, the ability to rank up to five candidates and urged the assemblage to register friends, relatives, fellow students. 

UFT President Mulgrew announced all the candidates have been invited to teach a class, all, except Adams, have agreed. 

In the latest poll Cuomo (32%) was 20 percentage points ahead of his nearest rival, remember, it’s not the highest vote-getting on election day, Rank Choice Voting requires a majority at the end of the process. The democratic establishment, the clubs, with much less clout as the years go by are supporting Cuomo, the mayor appoints 300 positions in city government, from commissioners, to deputy commissioners, to chancellors and deputy chancellors, the grease that traditionally ran the city, a system well understood by our current mayor, and, of course, the next mayor will choose the next chancellor.

For the UFT: all eggs in one basket, a Rank Choice Voting list or stay on the sidelines (unlikely)

Ask everyone you know if they’re a registered Democrat, voting registration, the form is online Register to Vote | New York State Board of Elections, remind them, you can also vote early or by absentee ballot, elections are won (and lost) on election day by low turnouts.  

And, as they used to say under Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, vote early and vote often.

In these uncertain and trying times maybe a Leonard Cohen song captures it: