NY-13: Mamdani Vowed to Back Espaillat. Now He May Endorse a D.S.A. Challenger.

[RandySF]

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is strongly weighing whether to endorse Ms. Avila Chevalier, according to four people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to share private discussions.

Mr. Mamdani had committed to supporting Mr. Espaillat last year, according to three other people familiar with the pledge. It came after the congressman dropped his support for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid, and got behind Mr. Mamdani after he won the Democratic primary.

But as the mayor has watched Ms. Avila Chevalier gaining momentum, he has reconsidered his decision.

An endorsement from Mr. Mamdani could further shake up the race by showering attention on a young upstart and activating a base of voters to head to the polls in what is likely to be a low-turnout election. Primary Day is June 23.




https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/nyregion/adriano-espaillat-darializa-avila-chevalier-mamdani.html

[lapucelle]

1. Well, that would be one way to burn bridges.

Surely the mayor would not go back on a campaign pledge!

See also: Brad Lander.

[Cha]

4. Speaking of that.. I Hope Rep Dan

Goldman Wins.

[Celerity]

6. Lander will likely beat him handily. Lander is up 34 points in the latest poll.

https://emersoncollegepolling.com/new-york-city-2026-congressional-polling-ny-07-ny-10-ny-12/

[lapucelle]

7. After he won the mayoral election, Mamdani cut Lander loose. Lander (who had expected a deputy mayor post)

decided to run for Congress, and Mamdani quickly endorsed him. It was an expedient way for Mamdani to get Lander both out of his hair and out of City government.

A onetime ally falls out of the inner circle

Behind the scenes, Mamdani was complaining to one friend weeks ago that he didn’t know why everyone was on his case to have a transition plan mapped out already. With his closest aides, he was already compiling lists of potential appointments to top positions.

snip===================

[O]ver the summer, Mamdani would confide he wasn’t much impressed with Lander. Nice enough guy, but he didn’t seem particularly effective as comptroller, Mamdani said according to a person familiar with his comments. The two went weeks without talking, and though Lander would get defensive and blame overlapping post-election vacations, all his talk that he’d be the one really running the city next year had gotten back to Mamdani and not gone over well.

By the weekend before the election, Lander’s wife was telling friends at a party that Mamdani had called to tell the comptroller he would not have a job in the administration since he wasn’t getting the job he wanted. By the day before the election, Lander was reaching out to major donors to solicit commitments for a congressional run against Rep. Dan Goldman, according to a person familiar with the matter.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/05/politics/how-zohran-mamdani-won

[lapucelle]

8. What's really weird, though, is that despite the fact that Lander heavily invested in an Israeli arms company,

and retained Israeli government bonds as NYC comptroller, he presents as anti-Israel which is a big plus with Park Slope socialists who live in multi-million dollar brownstones.

“Members of Congress set U.S. foreign policy so they have a real role to play here. It’s American taxpayer dollars that are paying for the 2,000-pound bombs that Netayahu is dropping on civilians in Gaza.” But that line of attack is a fraught path for Lander for several reasons — including the fact that the city’s public pension funds have under his watch as comptroller increased investment in Elbit Systems, the largest supplier of weapons to the Israel Defense Forces, records reviewed by The News show. As recently as this past March, in fact, Lander touted that investment to an Orthodox Jewish radio host.

During his unsuccesful mayoral campaign, Lander told a progressive group in early 2025 the pension funds weren’t invested in “any” Israeli government bonds after being asked how he could as comptroller put pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza. The funds at the time actually held more than $1 million in Israel bonds. Still, following Lander’s claim, the group, New York Progressive Action Network, endorsed Lander’s mayoral run.

Speaking around the same time to Zev Brenner, an Orthodox Jewish radio host, Lander struck a different note as he affirmed he remains opposed to the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement that calls for pulling money out of Israel over its government’s treatment of Palestinians. In that appearance, he specifically touted the Elbit investments.

“The New York City pension funds are proudly invested in many Israeli-owned companies, tech companies like Nice Ltd, Elbit Systems, Mobileye, Teva Pharmaceutical … and no, of course, we’re not going to divest from them,” he said.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/12/11/nyc-pension-investment-israel-defense-firm-brad-lander-dan-goldman-congress-10-district-primary/

====================================

Lander is very good at tailoring his message to whichever audience he is in front of. During his mayoral run, he was touting himself as a self described "liberal Zionist".

I wonder what he is now.

[markpkessinger]

12. To be fair . . .

. . . most of those "million dollar mansions" in Park Slope were long ago cut up into multiple apartments. Relatively few remain intact as single family homes.

[lapucelle]

16. ...

https://www.zillow.com/park-slope-brooklyn-new-york-ny/condos/

[lapucelle]

17. ...

https://www.zillow.com/brooklyn-new-york-ny-11215/park-slope-brownstone_att/

[Cha]

15. TYpical. What a surprise.

Mahalo, lapucelle.

[Cha]

14. I emember reading that at the time.

I will not go into what I think of that, but you can guess.

Best of Good Luck to Dan Goldman. An Excellent Rep for his district.🍀 ☮️💙🌈🌸 🌻🕯️🕊️

[mikewv]

2. Mamdani needs to be careful here....

this might be over reach. Adriano Espaillat is a very popular representative and Dominican American.

[oasis]

5. If true, not a good look.

[Prairie Gates]

9. Mamdani still ain't missed

Which leads to the hilarious petulance of the people who opposed him.

[lapucelle]

10. This has to do with Representative Espaillet who supported Mamdani.

If he and Mamdani had a cross endorsement agreement, then I don’t think I would call the Congressman’s reaction “petulant”, and I’m not sure why anybody would find it “hysterical”.

[markpkessinger]

13. I voted for Mamdani, and would certainly love to see him succeed . . .

. . . but that hardly places him beyond criticism.

[Nanjeanne]

11. Mamdani can endorse Espaillat if he wins his primary, just like Espaillat did for him after endorsing

Cuomo. This is a silly nonstory. Just like the bs about Mamdani and Lander. Mamdani didn’t throw Lander to any curb. Lander chose to run for Congress. Mamdani endorsed him. They are both very supportive of eachother whenever posting. It’s like Gossip Girls with some of these silly anonymous stories.

[lapucelle]

18. Actually, it is a story in NY. But Lander is a liberal Zionist

who told an audience that he proudly invested NYC pension funds in Israeli government bonds
and that investing in an arms manufacturer that supplies weapons to Israel would make the NYC teacher’s pension fund a lot of money. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I’m sure that Lander will figure out exactly what he stands for if he is elected to Congress.

Ask for Mamdani, he can spend his political capital however he wants. AOC, however, has shrewdly held on to hers by staying out of the fray. She sees a future beyond this cycle.

[Nanjeanne]

19. Okey dokie.