How we should elect centrists in NYC
The other day, a group of wealthy real estate executives huddled to try to find a way to prevent Zohran Mamdani from becoming our next mayor. Their chances of success are not excellent, but more importantly, their underlying premise is deactivated. Panic at the last minute never works. If the business world wants to start elected centrists, it must make more than throw money to a problem after it is already too late.
I started working in New York politics in the mid -1990s. Even at the time, the far left began to organize. Make The Road was a new organization. The group of workers came a year later. These groups were not only Wonks of ideological policy – they knew politics. They recruited candidates. They have formed candidates. They understood which messages worked for people who really vote in the primaries.
The extreme left put in the work and this effort was rewarded, first with the ascent of Bill de Blashio to the mayor and Tish James at the public lawyer in 2013, then to James as a prosecutor general of New York in 2019 and probably now with Mamdani, as well as a multitude of members of the Council and legislators of the State. I do not agree with them on many problems (otherwise most), but I respect the work they have done.
The business world has done nothing of all this. During the 12 years of Bloomberg, it did not matter because Mike had the power to ensure that common sense policies were systematically adopted. But Bloomberg is committed not to interfere after leaving his duties and he stuck it. This created a large chasm in city policy.
This void should have been filled by the centrist versions of the Democratic Socialists of America, the WFP, to go on the road. But they were not. The commercial organizations that we have today avoid precisely electoral policy or are concentrated so closely, their work has little impact on the greatest good.
Over the past 30 years, I have learned that politicians make decisions according to what will have an impact on their next elections. They simply evaluate if working with you will help them win their next primary or if you do not work, you could cost them their next primary and if the answer is not for both, you do not matter. And consequently, the New York business world is almost never of importance.
If you want it to change, you have to follow the example of the left and start putting the real work. Recruit good candidates who can both call on current primary voters and bring out new ones. Organize New Yorkers according to the problems of quality of life and affordability that they really care about preventing it from Nimby from blocking affordable housing or preventing far-left policies from allowing the flight and endless roaming or to protect children from a variety of obvious damage ranging from illegal weed stores through electric vehicles.
Have funds ready to support candidates at all levels of the government in front of the campaign, not in mid-September when it is too late. Build a political and political operation that includes zeitgeist instead of simply assuming that they can dictate the story – then direct candidates who can speak credibly to these questions.
All of this requires lasting and hard work. This requires constant effort, money and dedication. It is eminently achievable – but only if the resources are there. Most local political battles can be won.
Just out of my foundation, Tusk Philanthropies, alone, in recent years, we have financed and helped to gain campaigns on local issues ranging from the end of the brokers for rental apartments to the limitation of endless scaffolding for the protection of universal school meals through New York to the safety of electronic bikes for children to the protection of doctors who prescribe a medication Abortion via Telemedice.
And we are only a small organization and it is a small part of our global mission. Imagine what could be done with a concerted, organized and resource effort. There are so many incredibly talented business leaders who really like this city. But they must recognize that obtaining policy of politics requires the same kind of thought, effort and processes they have put in their work during the day.
Elected officials on the far left are not inevitable. But they will not go just because a group of billionaires will notice the last second and try to stop it. We can elect centrist candidates in New York. We can adopt centrist policies. We can create a better city and a better condition. But we have to put the work when it counts – at the beginning and long term. Otherwise, none of this matters.
Tusk is a venture capital, a political strategist and a philanthropist.
