DL Open Thread: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
NYC Elects Democratic Socialist As Mayor. Well, not officially. The ranked choice balloting needs to be counted, and Eric Adams and (remember him?) Curtis Sliwa await in the fall. However, Democratic primary voters made their choice clear:
Zohran Mamdani, a little-known state lawmaker whose progressive platform and campaign trail charisma electrified younger voters, stunned former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City on Tuesday night, building a lead so commanding that Mr. Cuomo conceded.
Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist from Queens, tapped into a current of anxiety around New York City’s growing affordability crisis. His joyful campaign brought new voters into the fold who rejected the scandal-scarred Mr. Cuomo’s ominous characterizations of the city and embraced an economic platform that included everything from free bus service and child care to publicly owned grocery stores.
The decisiveness of New Yorkers’ swing toward Mr. Mamdani reverberated across the party and the country, at a time when Democrats nationally are searching for an answer to President Trump and are disillusioned with their own leaders.
“This is the biggest upset in modern New York City history,” said Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist.
The race had been volatile and bitter, with the two leading Democrats offering starkly different visions for the city and reflecting a generational divide in their party. Mr. Mamdani embodied energy and charisma, attracting droves of young, left-leaning New Yorkers; Mr. Cuomo represented the party’s older guard and ran a conservative rose-garden campaign, limiting his public appearances to churches and synagogues and supportive union halls.
The race has captured national attention as a battle between the left wing of the Democratic Party and more traditional moderates. Mr. Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor and the youngest in a century, was endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York; Mr. Cuomo was endorsed by former President Bill Clinton and much of the local party establishment.
The former governor also benefited from a $30 million crush in outside spending from wealthy business interests, including former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, which buried Mr. Mamdani in attack ads. Mr. Mamdani, in contrast, had the highest number of individual donors in the race.
I urge all Delaware Democratic politicians to learn from this. The WFP is not your enemy. WFP candidates win because their policies are popular with Democratic voters. Why the entrenched Delaware Way types don’t embrace policies that are popular is beyond me. Those same candidates win because they attract volunteers who believe in their candidates and are energized by them. Why is this a bad thing? Popular positions, young energized volunteers. Those are more than enough to overcome those $600 checks from all the corporate lobbyists and their clientele. Embrace them. Or lose.
I’ll be looking to see whether those ‘centrists’, aka corporatists, who did not prevail, work for the betterment of NYC, or whether they’ll try to sabotage Mamdani’s mayoralty.
If Dems Don’t Learn From That, Perhaps They’ll Learn From This:
As the Democratic party fights to rebuild from a devastating election defeat, the abrupt exit of the presidents of two of the nation’s largest labor unions from its top leadership board has exposed simmering tensions over the party’s direction.
Randi Weingarten and Lee Saunders quit the Democratic National Committee, saying it isn’t doing enough to “open the gates” and win back the support of working-class voters. Ken Martin, the new DNC chair, and his allies told the Guardian that the party was focused on doing exactly that.
Weingarten, president of the 1.8-million-member American Federation of Teachers, resigned after Martin did not renominate her to serve on the DNC’s important rules committee. In her resignation letter, Weingarten wrote that education, healthcare and public service workers were in “an existential battle” due to Donald Trump’s attacks and that she did not “want to be the one who keeps questioning why we are not enlarging our tent”.
Saunders, the long-time president of the 1.3-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, also issued a critical statement. “These are new times. They deserve new strategies,” he said. “We must evolve to meet the urgency of the moment. This is not a time to close ranks or turn inward … It is our responsibility to open the gates [and] welcome others.”
This brings me to yet another approach that WFP has employed with great success. Back when I was working in the General Assembly, our approach to primaries was to identify the ‘chronic D voters’ and focus all of our energies on gaining their support, and then turning them out on Primary Day. With grassroots movements, the focus has instead been on expanding the pool of available voters. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s happened. Because grassroots campaigns attract volunteers. Which is why the so-called money advantage of the insiders often isn’t an advantage at all. Amirite, Val? I hear that insiders are plotting to primary some progressive Democrats, armed with money from the usual suspects. Doesn’t work when the progressives push popular policies and programs. Just sayin’.
New Definition For ‘Obliteration’: Iran’s nuclear program ‘set back’ a few months:
An initial U.S. intelligence report assesses that airstrikes ordered by President Donald Trump against Iran’s nuclear facilities set Tehran’s program back by months but did not eliminate it, contradicting claims by Trump and his top aides about the mission’s success, according tothree people familiar with the report.
It assesses that the strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran’s nuclear program and probably set it back by several months, not years, one of the people said.
U.S. intelligence reports also indicate that Iran moved multiple batches of its highly enriched uranium out of the nuclear sites before the strikes occurred and that the uranium stockpiles were unaffected, said the person, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.
As Al (not A. I.) pointed out, Trump opened his big yap, the Iranians paid attention.
Delaware City Scofflaws Are Doin’ It Again:
The Delaware City Refinery, one of the region’s top polluters, has received a violation for releasing toxic contaminants into the air in March after failing to operate a pollution control device.
The incident is unrelated to last month’s mechanical failure that caused sulfur dioxide emissions for almost three weeks. However, it involved the same piece of equipment that’s meant to prevent air pollution.
Democratic state Rep. Larry Lambert, who represents Claymont, has introduced legislation that aims to increase violation fines.
However, New Castle County Councilman Kevin Caneco said increasing fines is not enough.
In addition to requiring the refinery to regularly monitor on-site air quality, he’s calling for DNREC to investigate the refinery’s pollution control equipment and operation procedures, and whether additional technology could help mitigate toxic emissions.
“This is now a pattern of negligence from the refinery, and the refinery and DNREC need to work to fix the issue and update the public on how the issue is being resolved,” Caneco said. “Increasing fines is great, but it doesn’t stop the behavior. Peoples’ health — we shouldn’t put a dollar sign on that.”
What do you want to talk about?
Bill Clinton has learned that his endorsement is worth less than dogshit. That’s a nice outcome.
Also, many WFP Mayoral primary candidates (Buffalo, Croton-on-Hudson, Tonawanda, Syracuse, City of Hudson, Albany, Binghamton, Johnson City) won.
The Binghamton/ Johnson City and Syracuse results are noteworthy upstate and the southern tier are not especially blue and red in the rural areas .
Onondaga County, back when I went to Syracuse, was second only to Orange County, California, when it came to being an R stronghold.
NEW YORK, NY — In light of preliminary primary election results from across New York State, Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper, Co-Directors of the New York Working Families Party, issued the following statement celebrating NYWFP wins across the state:
“Tonight, Zohran Mamdani — our #1-ranked choice for New York City Mayor — won his primary, the capstone to a Working Families Party sweep across the state. The Party dominated in executive races up and down the state — Dr. Dorcey Applyrs, the WFP-endorsed Democratic nominee in Albany, Sharon Owens, the WFP-endorsed Democratic nominee in Syracuse, Sean Ryan, the WFP-endorsed and Democratic nominee in Buffalo — and locked down every progressive incumbent in the New York City Council.
“We showed New York and the entire country that voters are thoroughly fed up with the status quo. To the Democratic Party establishment and the pundits who just want to keep playing the same game — take note. This is a seismic shift. People are ready to turn the page and usher in a new era of leadership. When you run candidates that put working families at the center of their vision, they win.
“We are so proud of the over 480 WFP-endorsed candidates who helped make this night possible with their hard work. You left it all on the field, and tonight’s victory for our party is in no small part because you left it all on the field.”
https://workingfamilies.org/2025/06/nywfp-sweeps-races-across-the-state/