The Mamdani effect outside NYC
State Democratic chairman Jay Jacobs has refused to echo the governor's endorsement of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for NYC mayor. Credit: Newsday / Howard Schnapp
During two separate stints as state Democratic chair — the first under ex-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and now under Gov. Kathy Hochul — Jay Jacobs has simultaneously been the Nassau County chair. In that dual role, Jacobs made big news last week by loudly dissenting from Hochul, who as governor is New York’s real party boss. Jacobs firmly refused to echo Hochul's endorsement of Assemb. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.
The reflexive response among news media and activists is to view this as part of an intramural falling out between “moderates” and “radical progressives.” Symbolically, it may well reflect that crevice within the state party. But strategically, it looks more like the party leaders are seeking to cover both flanks for current and future elections.
For Hochul, nominally backing her party’s nominee in the general election is a political no-brainer as she faces reelection next year. But such postprimary endorsements don’t stay fresh. Same-party governors and mayors continually end up in titanic fights — Nelson Rockefeller versus John Lindsay, Hugh Carey versus Abe Beame, George Pataki versus Rudy Giuliani, Andrew Cuomo versus Bill de Blasio.
Given the history, a rift between Albany and City Hall is always a public diss away. But that concern is for after the election.
Next year, House Democratic leader and speaker hopeful Hakeem Jeffries will be prodding Hochul to run strongly enough to help his down-ballot congressional candidates. In 2022, Rep. Nancy Pelosi faulted Hochul when Republicans won the House by picking up seats in New York.
From the moment she succeeded Cuomo upon his resignation in 2021, Hochul, from Buffalo, has bowed to the reality that the city’s Democrats provide the main engine of the party’s statewide dominance. She needs them to come out in maximum numbers.
Cuomo, for whom she served as lieutenant governor, remains alienated from the party he once high-handedly ruled. Now speaking as an underdog independent candidate in the general election, he told The New York Times when asked that he couldn’t name a living Democrat he admires.
For his part, Jacobs instantly galvanized unity inside the Nassau County organization for his anti-Mamdani message, drawing praise for boldness. Jacobs would love to stymie the GOP’s efforts to tie Mamdani, a democratic socialist and nemesis of Israel, to all his candidates. Jacobs is seeking to neutralize GOP messaging that paints all Democrats as "far left," in the ever-vilifying style of President Donald Trump.
Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi — a decades-long ally of Jacobs' except when Suozzi ran against Hochul — both came out against Mamdani after the June primary. Gillen even called Mamdani “a threat to my constituents” and “not the right face for the party.”
In the run-up to the Nov. 5 election, the buzz builds about whether Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer or Jeffries, both of Brooklyn, will explicitly endorse Mamdani. Schumer is in his fifth term, and wouldn’t face voters again until 2028, if he chooses to run.
Nobody's endorsement at this point is expected to affect results in the four-way mayoral race.
On Tuesday a poll from Suffolk University in Boston showed Mamdani with a commanding lead, with 45% against 25% for Cuomo, 9% for GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa and 8% for Adams.
Mostly, it's the race’s possible resonance on Long Island that builds suspense down the final stretch.
Columnist Dan Janison's opinions are his own.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
