The Nation: New Yorkers deserve better than Andrew Cuomo

[Celerity]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/nation-endorsement-nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-brad-lander/

https://archive.ph/IplAf



Though the City of New York has been operating under that name since 1664, it has been electing mayors only since 1834. Cornelius Van Wyck Lawrence, winner of that first election, was a Democrat; so was Robert Anderson Van Wyck, the first man elected by voters in all five boroughs. So were most of the others, though the greatest man (regrettably, so far they have all been men) to hold the office was undoubtedly Fiorello LaGuardia, who during his long career in national and municipal politics ran on the Socialist, Republican, and Fusion party lines.

LaGuardia’s example reminds us that this is an office that, in the right hands, can achieve remarkable progress—a fact easily forgotten in our present diminished circumstances. A historian would have to reach all the way back to Jimmy Walker, who resigned his office in disgrace in 1932, to find a mayor who can match Eric Adams’s capacity for living large and acting small.

Now, after four years of corruption and chaos, New Yorkers have a chance to end Adams’s compromised tenure—and, in his place, choose a mayor worthy of leading the country’s largest city. On June 24, Democratic voters head to the polls to select their party’s nominee—a choice that, in this Democratic city, is often tantamount to choosing the next mayor. When they do, they will use a ranked-choice voting system that, if ballots are cast strategically, can deliver a mayor who reflects this city’s progressive vision and values.

New Yorkers are fortunate to have two strong contenders who are poised to meet this moment: Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander. Mamdani is a State Assembly member from Queens who has energized voters across the city with his disciplined, brilliantly executed, and genuinely inspirational campaign. Lander is a housing advocate turned politician—a City Council member for 12 years, now the comptroller—whose long record of progressive coalition-building and savvy policymaking has made the city a fairer, gentler place.

snip