A hardcore Democratic Socialists of America operative whose partner is a member of a designated terrorist organization is a New York City employee — and his Campaign Finance Board position gives him access to sensitive information about anyone running for office and the ability to selectively enforce or influence compliance.
Most New Yorkers don’t give the city’s Campaign Finance Board much thought. Perhaps they should.
DSA member Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old assemblyman, surged ahead of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a stunning Emerson College poll released Monday, a day before the Democratic primary — after the board denied the erstwhile frontrunner $1.3 million in matching funds.
Mamdani has received millions in matching funds from the board, more than any other candidate.
The city Campaign Finance Board was created as a neutral watchdog ensuring candidates follow rules, disclose donors and qualify fairly for public matching funds.
Yet David Duhalde, senior candidate services liaison for the board, is a lead DSA member going all in on electing Mamdani, as his social media show.
Duhalde’s role lets him access sensitive details about any candidate for mayor, including compliance records and strategic data. He can, in theory, selectively influence how strictly rules are enforced.
And he’s worked with his chosen candidate before: Mamdani tweeted in 2022 to someone looking for event space, “Duhalde’s sending you a dm.”
Duhalde is a longtime DSA organizer and in April stepped down as DSA Fund chair after five years.
“It was a heavy decision, but I would like to dedicate more time to my own public sector union activism,” he said.
He described the DSA Fund’s goal as building a cross-state network of radical elected officials acting in unison to achieve DSA national goals.
“DSA Fund aims to create a lasting network of socialist policymakers who can share strategies, collaborate across jurisdictions, and push forward transformative legislation. Shortly after the election, DSA Fund hosted an online webinar with dozens of democratic-socialist officeholders from around the country to discuss how to resist the Right and defend communities that are set to be targeted by the incoming Trump administration,” he said in a recent piece he penned headlined “Socialists in Office Are Building Power on the Local Level.”
Duhalde also sits on the DSA’s International Committee, which shapes how America’s largest socialist organization communicates about war, peace and international justice.
It plays a role in US activism around foreign conflicts and has a consistent track record of opposing US foreign policy and supporting adversarial regimes.
This DSA International Committee has traveled to Cuba and Venezuela to meet with government officials like dictator Nicolás Maduro under the DSA’s official banner.
When DSA leadership wants to avoid negative headlines, they send members of this committee on trips with partners such as Friends of Socialist China.
The goal isn’t selfies and food pics. The DSA is building relationships with hostile foreign governments that despise America and all it stands for, including free and fair elections.
Its partnership with the People’s Forum — a group solely dedicated to carrying out the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda — means foreign propaganda is not just infiltrating New York’s political conversation; it’s shaping it from within.
Most New Yorkers know the DSA as a progressive force pushing for rent control, public housing and health care for all.
But few realize how close some of its affiliated figures and allies are to networks tied to recognized terrorist organizations — like Duhalde.
His last-known romantic partner, per his KeyWiki profile (a sort of online resume), goes by Michelle Marie on social media. But her Facebook header photo reveals her real name: Michelle Munjanattu.
She’s a member of Samidoun, a front group for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the State Department designated decades ago a foreign-terrorist organization.
The Treasury Department in October declared Samidoun a sham charity for the PFLP, and its home country of Canada declared it a terrorist entity. Munjanattu is also a member of Institute for Policy Studies, a CIA-recognized Soviet-aligned front group.
Munjanattu appears to have scrubbed her full name from her online presence after October’s designation — but forgot to change that one photo.
New Yorkers of all backgrounds want their elections to be fair, and they want the agencies overseeing them to be neutral, not stacked with insiders who have a horse in the race.
Experts are concerned a radical DSA operative has privileged access to Mamdani’s opponents’ operations.
“Any ties — direct or indirect — to organizations sanctioned for supporting terrorism should be taken seriously, especially when public trust is involved. While everyone has the right to personal affiliations, government agencies must uphold the highest standards of vetting to ensure those connected to extremist groups are not in positions of influence or public service,” Mitchell Silber, a former NYPD counterterrorism official and Community Security Initiative executive director, told The Post.
Duhalde added at some point after mid-April a disclaimer to his LinkedIn “About” section saying he’s “on release from the NYC Campaign Finance Board.”
But he remains an employee of the agency: He’s “participating in a union release program to remain a city employee but report to the Organization of Staff Analysts.”
He did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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