Behind the easygoing persona in the viral videos and breezy appearance on “The View,” Zohran Mamdani is running a careful and tightly controlled campaign.
In an era of remote work, Mr. Mamdani, 33, likes his staff to appear in person. At the campaign’s headquarters in Manhattan, he is known to walk the floor, often pushing aides for new and bolder ideas. Days begin with briefings as early as 7 a.m., followed by campaign events, then dozens of other meetings that are not on his public schedule. The work continues late into the night, with Mr. Mamdani at times calling or texting senior aides between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., when he sometimes likes to engage in creative brainstorming. One advantage to youth is stamina.
That will be vital to being mayor, should he win next month. Exercising that level of control at City Hall, though, will be harder. The city’s press corps, though smaller than it once was, sits inside the building. So does the City Council speaker, his or her staff and a coterie of Police Department detectives. Lobbyists linger in the hallways. Protests and rallies frequently take over the building’s front steps.
The job comes with a steady diet of municipal crises — let alone national and global events — that can derail any mayor’s agenda. In the first days of Bill de Blasio’s mayoralty, his top aides learned the city’s popular bike-share program was in serious financial straits, a minor crisis that sent them scrambling.
Unlike other top progressives, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders in Congress, Mr. Mamdani would be subject to the daily trials of running the largest city in America. He would oversee a municipal government of about 290,000 full-time employees and a budget larger than those of most U.S. states. Fairly or not, he would also be held accountable for the performance of the country’s largest education system, any rise in homelessness and the crime rate. Many people in politics say being mayor of New York City is the hardest job in the business, except for president of the United States.
If he wins, Mr. Mamdani and the small group of 20- and 30-somethings behind his campaign will need to succeed at something plenty of people with far more experience have tried but failed at: governing.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post ‘They’re Not Avoiding the Things They Don’t Know’ appeared first on New York Times.
