Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City’s billionaire former mayor, spent $8 million as part of an unsuccessful effort to defeat Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist upstart, in June’s Democratic mayoral primary.
On Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg took a very different tack, meeting with Mr. Mamdani personally for the first time in what both sides described as a wide-ranging discussion about transportation issues, policing and how to staff City Hall.
“The conversation was definitely cordial and it was substantive actually,” said Howard Wolfson, a longtime political adviser to Mr. Bloomberg who joined the session with Mr. Mamdani, now the Democratic nominee and front-runner.
While Mr. Bloomberg’s aides were careful to stress that it was not an endorsement meeting, the get-together underscored the shifting terrain around Mr. Mamdani’s campaign for mayor as he maintains a double-digit polling lead and Election Day draws nearer.
Some Democrats who once viewed him warily are now taking a closer look, or searching for ways they could work with him. Mr. Mamdani, in turn, has shed some of his old leftist stances, even as he holds onto others.
Mr. Bloomberg’s views and actions are still carefully watched by the city’s business leaders, and many have been searching for a way to block Mr. Mamdani’s rise. Mr. Wolfson said that the men disagreed on several issues (he would not detail them), but had extensively discussed how best to hire good commissioners and deputy mayors.
“It was a lot of conversation about management, styles of management, how to source and retain talent at City Hall,” Mr. Wolfson said.
Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for Mr. Mamdani, called the meeting “candid and productive.”
A string of polls this week, including one by The New York Times and Siena University, have shown Mr. Mamdani with a commanding lead over former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Curtis Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams.
Business leaders and even President Trump have rallied around the idea that Mr. Cuomo could still stop Mr. Mamdani in a one-on-one race, even after losing to him decisively in the primary. But that would require Mr. Adams, an independent, and Mr. Sliwa, a Republican, to drop out, something they have so far refused to do.
Arriving from different generations and opposite ends of the Democratic spectrum, Mr. Bloomberg, 83, and Mr. Mamdani, 33, share little obvious common ground.
Mr. Bloomberg, a centrist who served 12 years as mayor, endorsed Mr. Cuomo during the Democratic primary, and took a swipe at other candidates in the race “engaging in ideological or partisan warfare” — a reference, many thought, to Mr. Mamdani. If there were any doubts about how he viewed the politician at the time, Mr. Bloomberg put them to rest by becoming the largest single donor to a pro-Cuomo super PAC that attacked Mr. Mamdani as a radical.
Mr. Mamdani, in turn, seemed to take aim indirectly at Mr. Bloomberg’s view of the city as a “luxury product,” if not at the man himself. He vowed to raise taxes on the rich and on businesses, and has said billionaires should not exist.
The two men are also sharply at odds over Israel. Mr. Bloomberg is a firm supporter; Mr. Mamdani a sharp critic.
Mr. Wolfson declined to discuss whether Mr. Bloomberg intended to spend any funds around the general election for Mr. Cuomo or Mr. Mamdani.
Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Bloomberg had not met until Thursday morning, when they shook hands at a memorial service near the World Trade Center site. Later in the day, Mr. Mamdani met with journalists at Bloomberg’s Midtown Manhattan offices before going on to meet personally with the former mayor; Mr. Wolfson; and Patrick Gaspard, one of the nominee’s advisers.
Mr. Mamdani would be the youngest mayor to lead the city in a century, and has said that he intends to try to hire an ideologically diverse array of experts to work for him, if elected.
In an unrelated interview with The Times on Thursday, he declined to name who he planned to bring into his administration but said he had met with a range of former City Hall officials, including Janette Sadik-Khan, a transportation commissioner under Mr. Bloomberg.
Nicholas Fandos is a Times reporter covering New York politics and government.
The post Mamdani Meets Bloomberg, Once a Sworn Foe, for a ‘Cordial’ Discussion appeared first on New York Times.
