Panel Discusses High-Stakes New York City Mayoral Race

And joining us now to dive into the New York City mayoral race is our great panel. Robin Bro is a Democratic strategist and former Obama regional campaign director. And Brad Palumbo is a Steambo Institute Blankley fellow and co-founder of Based Politics. Thank you both so much for being here. Now, it might be an off year, but New York City is seeing record turnout, especially among new voters. By Sunday night, over 700,000 had already voted, suggesting that the Big Apple could see over two million votes. That's a level not seen since David Dinkens and Rudy Giuliani faced off in 1989 and again in 1993. Robin, starting with you, what do you make of those numbers and what's driving New Yorkers to the polls? >> Well, specifically look at the demographics of the voters. Uh the biggest constituency are the boomer generation who who voted early. Uh followed closely by my generation, Gen X. Uh so I I would say that those tend to be more conservative. uh you know it can be generally said that people as they get older get tend to trend a little bit more conservative. Uh so I would tend to think that those votes favor someone more like Cuomo or Siwa probably splitting the vote uh than maybe more so Manny but I do expect that he will end up prevailing. Mani that is uh it's just the only way that it would have been a viable campaign were to be have been if uh Kuomo or Siwa had dropped out because with the two of them still in they split their vote. >> And Brad, same question to you. What do you make of those numbers and what's driving New Yorkers to the polls? Well, I think the youth vote is going to be huge and Zoran Mandani is almost certainly going to be the next mayor of New York City. And who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to see how his far-left fringe ideas will work out if actually implemented for once. There will of course be some serious constraints on how much he can actually do. but on areas like policing where he has said that uh queer liberation requires defunding the police and had a whole career dedicated to the most radical left-wing ideas about public safety, he will have a lot of leeway and power and authority to restructure law enforcement in the city. And unless he's really had a huge change of heart from his whole career to this sudden pivot he's done in like the last six to six months to a year, I think we'll see chaos in the streets in New York City. And maybe some of the young people casting their ballots might have regrets. Although unfortunately they didn't exactly have much of a appealing alternative in Andrew Cuomo either given his record. >> And Robin, it is a very high-profile race. You have the likes of Elon Mus, President Trump expressing support for Andrew Cuomo, and actually today on Truth Social, Trump said he likely won't be sending federal dollars to New York City if Mum Donnie wins. Quote, because of the fact that as a communist, this once great city has zero chance of success or even survival. He added, "Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him and hope he does a fantastic job." What influence is the Trump factor having on this race? who's benefiting or hurting from it >> about the same amount as Obama's factor. And he also today said that he was available to Mdani if Mamani needed to speak with him and get any guidance uh this last 24 hours of the campaign. I'm not certain if Mani has taken him up on that. That's not an endorsement per se. That is the next closest thing that is offering support uh as someone experienced in politics of course to someone a junior like Mandani who is 34 years old. Uh but it fell short of being an endorsement just as Trump's is is he's supporting a a Democrat mo you know but mind you a a moderate almost conservative Democrat but a Democrat nonetheless. I think it's more telling that he's not supporting Curtis Leewa who's the who's made himself known made it known that he's the Republican in the race. >> And Brad, what do you make of this Trump factor? We are hearing some people say they're voting for Mandani just because, you know, anti-Trump. Others are maybe voting for Cuomo because Trump is giving his nod. What do you make of that factor? Yeah, look, I I don't think Trump's endorsement or support will have much of an impact in New York City, especially when it comes to Andrew Cuomo. And and I actually think Trump is getting ahead of himself with some of these warnings. I mean, to to suggest that the city will never recover or will be irreparably destroyed if just because Manny wins, I think is not true. New York City is actually resilient and Zoran will not be able to implement most of his far-left agenda because of of the state legislature and then the New York City um city council. So, I I think Trump's getting out ahead of his skis there and and frankly, I'm not sure his endorsement helps Cuomo massively. It probably helps him with some folks, but in New York City hurts him with many others. And Robin, actually expanding on that, Mani is a self-described democratic socialist, but people like President Trump label him a communist. What do you see as the impact of Mani on New York City if he does become the next mayor? What are the biggest changes we would likely see? >> He's specifically said, so the other two candidates, Cuomo and Siwa, said that they were going to expand the police force, one by 5,000, one by 7,000. Uh in contrast, Mandani said that he would hire public safety workers and officers and have a public safety program who don't have police power. Uh that's that's quite a difference. So if there are thousands of public safety workers, uh without police power, you know, hopefully crime will be down, but if without police power, I'm not sure to what extent. Uh you know, that's just for New York. What it will have what it will have is a greater impact on the Democratic party itself. I'd like to speak about that for just 20 seconds. Uh if he wins this election, which he's projected, which I expect him to, uh I expect that the party will some of the leaders within my party will be calling for the party to go further left. Typically, anytime the Democratic party loses a big election like the general election last year, uh the calls are always almost always to go further left, uh which will be a net drag on candidates in the come the midterms. Tiffany >> and Brad. Something not discussed as much in this debate is New York's city council. The Democrats have a supermajority there. 45 Democrats, six Republicans. Now, many of these races are actually up for election tomorrow and the city council has the power of overriding the mayor's, you know, vetos here. How important are these races for New York City? >> Well, the city council is hugely important in the conversation about Zogan as mayor because Democrats are going to control it. But the question is, which faction of Democrats? Will it be Zoran's ideological allies, the far-lefts, or will it be a more somewhat moderate centrist type of city councelor? Because then they may keep some of his tax hikes or big spending plans in check and not necessarily approve them. And he can't do it all by himself. A lot of it does require uh from his colleagues, his legislative colleagues approval. So, who wins some of those races will be key to see how much of a blank check Zoron ends up having to enact his utopian agenda on uh New York City. >> Definitely a lot at stake here for sure. Brad Palumbo, Robin Bro, thank you both so much for joining us. >> Thanks. My pleasure. Thank you.