His hate for Israel is paying off.
Socialist Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani — who was notoriously arrested at a pro-Palestine protest outside US Sen. Chuck Schumer’s house — has raised $641,816 since beginning his mayoral campaign three months ago, the most of any candidate during this stretch in the heavily contested race.
The Ugandan-born, card-carrying Democratic Socialist of America member’s staggering haul includes a jaw-dropping 1,426 donations totaling $97,254 from jobless supporters who declared themselves “unemployed” or “not employed,” a Post review of NYC campaign filings found.
He landed another 289 donations totaling nearly $30,000 from professors and other employees of Columbia University, New York University and the City University of New York – all targets of hate-filled pro-Palestine campus protests since Hamas’ invasion of Israel.
Mamdani, the 33-year-old son of a Columbia University professor of government and an award-winning Indian filmmaker, raked in another $20,839 from over 200 donors who classify themselves as writers, journalists, reporters and editors at dozens of media outlets.
Another $1,050 came from “Sex And The City” actress and ex-gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, while $500 was gifted by “Harold and Kumar” actor and ex-Obama administration staffer Kal Penn.
Mamdani — endorsed by the DSA — also scored a deluge of campaign funds from lefty unions and elected officials as well as their employees.
This includes seven campaign staffers for fellow socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who gave a combined $645.
Julian Gerson, a senior speechwriter for Gov. Hochul, donated $100.
“There’s no question now that Zohran is the standard bearer of the far-left” in the race to unseat centrist Democratic Mayor Adams, longtime Democratic strategist Chris Coffey told The Post.
Mamdani’s windfall in part has been fueled by his extremist anti-Israel positions, critics said.
He was arrested in October 2023 for participating in a protest outside Senate Majority Leader Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, demanding a cease-fire after Israel struck Gaza in response to Hamas’ brutal terror attack a week earlier.
He also introduced the “Not on Our Dime!: Ending New York Funding of Israeli Settler Violence Act” — legislation aimed at barring New York-based charitable groups from engaging in “unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.”
“It seems like Zohran is trying to fan the flames of hatred and antisemitism solely to propel fundraising in his campaign,” said David Greenfield, CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and a former Brooklyn councilman.
An overwhelming majority of Mamdani’s donations are $250 or below, so he stands to eventually make a killing through the city’s public matching-funds program that awards $8 for each buck contributed on small donations.
Mamdani took a victory lap on social media last week showing he took in the most individual donors in 101 ZIP codes across the city and racked up 6,518 unique contributions — by far exceeding all other mayoral candidates since Oct. 8.
The radical pol has branded himself as the champion for “working-class New Yorkers” since entering the increasingly crowded field, promising faster, free buses; a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments; and universal childcare.
His pie-in-the-sky policies and slick campaign videos bemoaning $10 halal plates have positioned him to overtake city Comptroller and fellow socialist Brad Lander as the far-left’s hope and outdo other far lefties in the race, including Sens. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn) and Jessica Ramos (D-Queens), Coffey added.
“He’s out-raised all the other progressive candidates [since entering the race]; he’s out-campaigned all the progressive candidates, and he’s run a good race,” Coffey said.
Besides Adams, other high-profile Democratic candidates lean to the center, including former Comptroller Scott Stringer and potentially ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Including public matching funds, Lander’s campaign has raised $4.1 million and had $3.2 million in hand as of last week — the most of any candidate and slightly surpassing Adams’ war chest of $3.1 million, which was denied millions of dollars more in matching funds because of the criminal indictment against Adams.
A pair of recent polls showed nearly a third of potential voters would back Cuomo for mayor, despite him yet to officially declare his candidacy.
Mamdani’s spokesman Andrew Epstein said their campaign is “proud” of its “vision for a more affordable New York City. Ours is a universal, humane vision for all New Yorkers.”
1 comment:
Eric Adams, in his last Mayoral campaign, had big money channel donations through little people in small amounts, to qualify for big matching funds from the city. There is grounds for suspicion that the same is happening here. It should be investigated and stopped, with strong enforcement and penalty action taken, before the election, not long afterward.
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