Zohran Mamdani and the Art of the Ask

The day before the mayor flew to Washington, DC, he skipped a “Tax the Rich” rally in Albany. Organized by the Democratic Socialists of America of New York (which Mamdani called his political home) and Our Time for an Affordable NYC (an independent organizing group dedicated to advancing Mamdani’s agenda), the event was co-sponsored by nearly two dozen other advocacy groups and unions, and billed as a takeover of Albany: there were speeches, chants, a march, and a delegation from New Yorkers United for Child Care with children in tow. The goal was to push state government – ​​and particularly the governor – to support legislation raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy. Hochul “needs to understand that this is his fight too,” Phara Souffrant Forrest, a state Assembly member who represents, among other places, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn, told me. “There is so much room for the executive and legislative branches to work together.” Forrest, who is a member of the DSA’s “Ruling Socialists” caucus, introduced the Fair Share Act, which would allow a 2 percent income tax on city residents who earn more than $1 million a year.

“I was told the governor wasn’t very happy with us,” NYC-DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo said from the rally stage, with a note of pride. He then recounted witnessing the wealth of the Tisch family (of which Mamdani Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is a descendant) during his years as a gallery assistant. “Alice Tisch paid two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for this sculpture,” he recalls of a work belonging to the curator’s aunt. It was probably the kind of scene the mayor had tended to avoid.

His choice not to attend was ostensibly a move to maintain good relations with the governor, but it posed a challenge for his comrades: A headlining mayor could have made it easier to get New Yorkers onto buses before dawn and after the blizzard outside the Barclays Center that Wednesday morning. His absence also left an opportunity for someone to serve as the public face of the event and master of ceremonies.

This role was accepted by municipal councilor Chi Ossé – although, according to his own words, with some reluctance. “It took several requests,” he told me Tuesday afternoon. “I really don’t like going to Albany,” he said. “It’s cold. It’s far away.” To get there, it would take 5:45 p.m. am departure. “But it’s for a good cause,” he added. Ossé has emerged as a foil to Mamdani — he’s another young left-wing upstart with an aptitude for explainer videos — even if his choices appear to lack the strategic discipline and focus that defined Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. (Late last year, Ossé sought DSA approval for a long-shot primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, and Mamdani took time from his mayoral transition to plead with DSA members against his support.) In Albany, Ossé filmed a video, peppered with rapid cuts, of himself briskly walking around in a dark suit and speaking about the Fair Share Act.

Still, his ambivalence about the day’s hike was perhaps representative. Organizers had chosen a gathering location that could accommodate 4,300 participants, but the turnout Wednesday was just under two thousand, said Divya Sundaram, deputy director of Our Time. She called the event a “proof of concept” for her group’s desire to organize New Yorkers beyond Election Day. “We would have loved to have had the mayor there,” she told me after the rally. “And also, you know, it’s the tension of organizing from the outside, independent of the administration. Sometimes we have to lead.” Hochul, as it happens, also missed the gathering; she was in New York.

Mamdani deviated sharply from his general strategy of playing nice during a February press conference where he presented his preliminary budget. In the event the governor doesn’t raise taxes, as few expect, Mamdani said he would ask the City Council to raise property taxes, a prospect that was met with horror and widespread disbelief — “a failure,” in the words of City Council President Julie Menin. According to Mamdani, taxing the rich and taxing property owners represented “the two paths to closing the city’s inherited budget deficit,” even though the latter would put the burden on “the backs of working-class and middle-class New Yorkers” (as the sad mayor put it).