Some say crawling into the mind of a politician is a dangerous thing. I say it’s a fool’s errand.
But I like to live on the edge, so here it goes.
What was New York Governor Kathy Hochul thinking when she endorsed Democrat-Socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City. She joined the ranks of AOC, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
But before we get to the why, let’s first deal with the how.
Hochul wrote a lengthy guest essay in the New York Times, backing Mandani’s bid to become mayor.
She said, after talking with Mamdani, she “heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family. I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support.”
Hochul went on about the affordability issue and declared, “Affordability has long been my top priority as governor, and it is the No. 1 concern I share with Mr. Mamdani.”
That’s a joke since she slapped us with the $9 congestion pricing fee, but I digress.
Hochul also waxed nostalgic about how her parents lived in a trailer park and how her mother bought her clothing on layaway and in secondhand stores. She wrote about how she ate Spam for dinner on day-old bread. (BTW, day-old bread is just fine.)
Hochul has hitched her political wagon to that buzz word the Democrats are hoping will shake them from their Trump-induced delirium. Affordability. Fair enough.
But her endorsement in the Times was as vacuous as Mamdani’s socialist proposals.
She said she’s all for “affordability” but she made no case for the viability of Mamdani’s socialist dreams. Will she allow him to make some MTA buses free? Will five city-run grocery stores really be an affordability game-changer for New Yorkers? Where’s the money going to come from for his idea for universal daycare?
Hochul apparently didn’t want to get bogged down with details, it’s the concept she wanted to co-opt. It’s the 2025 version of the rents are too damn high.
Down toward the bottom of her essay, Hochul gave another reason for her support of the socialist.
“I also believe that New York State and New York City are at our best when we stand together against those who attempt to tear us apart.”
Okay, now I get it. If Mamdani becomes mayor, she hopes he’ll keep New York’s streets safe. She hopes he’ll improve his relations with New York’s Jewish community. She hopes he won’t drive businesses out of the city. But she absolutely believes in the proverb, an enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Being anti-Trump is apparently good enough for that dyed-in-the-wool Democrat Kathy Hochul, to come out and make a grand endorsement of a socialist.
But why now? Why be out there on an endorsement limb when other leading New York Dems like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are still holding off?
It’s because Hochul already knows she’s going to have a very tough time getting reelected next year.
She’ll be challenged from the left in a Democratic primary by her own Lt. Governor Anthony Delgado.
Siding with Mamdani, the leftist to end all leftists, may help her in fending off that challenge.
If she survives the primary, Hochul knows she will be in a tough battle in the general election.
Her likely Republican opponent will be upstate Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. We saw how relentless she can be during the congressional hearings on college antisemitism. She’s already active on social media calling Hochul the worst governor in the nation.
But as anti-Trump as Hochul now says she is, Stefanik bleeds MAGA red.
And Hochul won’t let the voters, especially in NYC and the other cities around the state, forget that.
Look at the map of the New York presidential race from last year. Even though Trump won Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland and Orange counties and much of rural New York, Kamala Harris still won the state because she dominated in the cities, where the votes are concentrated and where anti-Trumpism still resonates. By aligning with Mamdani, Hochul is trying to pick off every anti-Trump vote possible.
There’s one other thing. Kathy Hochul is dull. She’s lifeless. She’s devoid of anything remotely resembling charisma. She’s a loaf of white bread from Buffalo.
Zohran Mamdani, on the other hand, is nothing if not charismatic. You may not like what he stands for, but he’s very smooth. He’s a young politician of color with an impressive grass-roots following and with a prodigious ability to fund raise.
Hochul is betting that by coming out for Mamdani, his glow will shine upon her. That his message of affordability and diehard opposition to Trump will rub off on her.
As desperate as Kathy Hochul is for a campaign message that will excite the voters, coming out for Mamdani the way she did isn’t without risk. By the time Election Day 2026 rolls around, a Mamdani New York City could be one big mess and Hochul, try as she might, won’t be able to distance herself from the messer, I mean mayor.