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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Mamdani and his campaign doubted viability early on
NEW YORK — During the genesis of Zohran Mamdani's now-surging mayoral campaign, the candidate and his democratic socialist allies said it was highly likely — or even certain — that Mamdani would lose the mayor's race. Instead, the goal from the campaign's inception was to build the New York City arm of the Democratic Socialists of America, said six Democrats who relayed private discussions and meetings with Mamdani, a campaign staffer and DSA leadership. All were granted anonymity to freely discuss private strategy. 'He was pretty clearly like, 'I know I'm not running to win. I know I have no path to victory,'' said one Democrat, who spoke directly to Mamdani shortly before he launched his campaign. The strategy appears to be working. Since Mamdani's October campaign launch, DSA membership has grown 40 percent and a DSA leader told POLITICO the campaign has put together a trove of data the party can repurpose to launch primary challenges in areas where Mamdani is popular. 'Since Zohran launched his mayoral campaign, we have gained over 2,400 members,' Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA, said in a statement. 'New members often mention Zohran's success and the refreshing nature of a candidate — and movement — that puts working people and affordability first.' Mamdani joined the race with little name recognition, less than four years in public office and a spot at the bottom of the crowded pack of candidates. Early polls put him at 2 percent or less in the race. But since his launch, he has risen to take a decisive hold on second place. His longshot effort has morphed into the strongest opposition to mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani was the first to max out in the city's public campaign finance system, has the backing of a super PAC and has the very real potential of landing key progressive endorsements from the Working Families Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as their top-ranked candidate. Ocasio-Cortez's membership in the NYC-DSA and her national popularity have made her a power broker on the left. But barring a primary win, the yardstick for measuring Mamdani's success may end up being subjective. Some on the left, who are already rankled by his rise, are more inclined to preemptively view his run as a failure. Many progressives fear Mamdani's label as a Democratic Socialist repels voters in a city ruled by a moderate Democratic governor and a moderate Democratic mayor-turned-friend of President Donald Trump. Mamdani's positions on Israel and thin legislative experience don't endear him with the political establishment, either. All of this, they claim, is blocking other candidates closer to the center-left who could be capable of building a broad enough coalition to beat Cuomo. Mayoral hopeful Brad Lander has the cash, legislative record, experience winning a citywide election and support from Democratic electeds to theoretically attract a base big enough to win the primary — but Mamdani has prevented him from breaking out of an increasingly distant third place. While a Marist College poll conducted earlier this month shows just one-fourth of Democratic voters in the city identify as 'very liberal' — a potential ceiling for Mamdani — a poll released this week showed him surpassing that benchmark in later rounds of ranked choice voting. The survey found he came within just eight points of beating Cuomo in the final round. 'From the day he entered this race, Zohran has been running to win — and nothing demonstrates that quite like the latest polls, which have us less than nine points away from defeating Andrew Cuomo,' Mamdani's spokesperson, Lekha Sunder, said in a statement. 'With still three weeks to go, millions in cash-on-hand, and 25,000 volunteers who believe in this movement, we are on a clear path to victory and to a city New Yorkers can actually afford." DSA leadership's statements and resolutions also show the organization's members can range from reluctant to outright hostile when it comes to embracing other anti-Cuomo candidates in the city's ranked choice voting system. 'Their goal was to get in third place and to build the party, build the DSA, and now their goal seems to be to get into second place and build the DSA,' said another Democrat, who spoke directly with top DSA leadership this fall after Mamdani launched his campaign. Members of the DSA who were present during the fall forum when Mamdani sought the DSA's endorsement say the campaign was pitched as a party-building exercise, instead of a genuine path to City Hall. 'It was just said over and over again, that this was a way to build the base that would make it easier to win campaigns in the future,' said one DSA member. A Mamdani spokesperson, Mausser and Michael Whitesides, the DSA's current electoral working group co-chair, deny this. 'That was not how this was framed to me,' Whitesides said. 'I don't think DSA takes on races we feel like we can't win. We can appreciate it's a long shot and think about the consolation prizes — like grow capacity or learn new skills — but we as an organization are not in races to lose. The thrust of the pitch to run Zohran was to try and win.' Mamdani's campaign also directed POLITICO to previous statements from the candidate, including in late February when he said, 'We always were setting up a campaign that could win this race.' But the city's DSA chapter — which hasn't supported a mayoral candidate since David Dinkins' run in 1989 — is open about the fact that Mamdani's campaign is simultaneously serving as a vehicle for the future of the party. 'We're seeing a crazy amount more interest in voting for a socialist than I would have guessed eight months ago,' Mausser said. 'One thing we'll be looking at is: OK, what neighborhoods voted for Zohran number one? Are these places that we can and should be running in the future?' In recent weeks, Mamdani has stood out as the candidate willing to boost other candidates — who all trail Cuomo by even wider margins than Mamdani's. He's the only candidate who has promised to endorse someone else as a No. 2 ballot choice through the city's ranked choice voting system, and he encouraged his supporters to donate to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' mayoral campaign after he raised the maximum amount through the city's public campaign finance program. Despite these efforts, the DSA's local party leadership, who are fully behind Mamdani's bid, have stood in the way of supporting other candidates. Mausser confirmed the party passed a resolution calling for DSA-endorsed elected officials to announce their intentions to rank Mamdani first on their mayoral ballot — if they don't, it could count against them the next time the organization is doling out endorsements. Last month, Gustavo Gordillo, NYC-DSA's other co-chair, applauded Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera for endorsing Mamdani — and cheered his decision to not endorse Lander, whose positions on the Israel-Hamas war and freezing rent put him at odds with the DSA. 'Credit to Gustavo Rivera for not being afraid to tell Brad no and buck the left-liberal orthodoxy,' Gordillo wrote in a since-deleted X post. Mausser stressed the DSA does not have a formal position on the other candidates and is only rooting against Cuomo, who polling shows is projected to capture 50 percent of both Black Democratic voters and Democratic voters from the Bronx. He's also projected to win the support of 41 percent of Latino voters. And while Mamdani places second in all recent polls, he has struggled to gain ground with groups representing a disproportionate share of low-income earners — the very demographic the DSA purports to be focused on persuading. An April Siena College poll found Mamdani captured just 10 percent of Black voters, who, along with Latinos, make up the largest share of the city's low-income residents. He won only 2 percent of the vote in the Bronx, where median income significantly trails other boroughs. 'You can't win a mayoral race as a progressive without the support of working and middle class, black and brown communities, and this campaign does not have those relationships,' one DSA member told POLITICO. 'They have not had that from the jump, and as the race has unfolded, that has continued to be the case.' Sunder, Mamdani's campaign spokesperson, said the campaign has knocked on about 12,000 doors in the Bronx and won endorsements from current and former Bronx elected officials like Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who left office in January. The campaign also touted Mamdani's support from Latino voters, which Marist clocked at 20 percent in its poll. Gordillo said in another social media post that the DSA is using Mamdani's campaign to, in part, increase awareness residents have of their own position in the city's socioeconomic strata. 'NYC DSA is the only org on the left trying to use the mayoral race to change the political terrain on our terms and to raise class consciousness,' he wrote. 'I think this experiment will have outsized effects like Bernie did in 2016.' The line between Mamdani's campaign and Gordillo and Mausser's DSA chapter has been hazy from the start. The party helped orchestrate Mamdani's launch, and Mamdani made it clear he would not run for mayor unless he had the DSA's support. There are weekly meetings between the campaign and the chapter, and DSA members are helping with strategy in addition to taking the lead on his canvassing operation, Mausser said. So far, with the DSA's help, Mamdani has knocked 545,000 doors, according to his campaign. While Mausser claimed the DSA and Mamdani are in it to win it, regardless of whether he wins or loses, the post-primary prospects for the party — and Mamdani — are already looking up. She pointed to the possibility of a failed mayoral bid cementing Mamdani's influence over the left flank of city politics, an outcome similar to the one experienced by Cynthia Nixon, Cuomo's 2018 gubernatorial primary challenger. Nixon hasn't run for office since, but she hosted a fundraiser for Mamdani in March. 'Even if he loses, we'll now have an assemblymember who's dedicated to working with us, who has a huge profile and who can use his political clout to fight for DSA's priorities in Albany,' Mausser said. 'Cynthia Nixon is still a much sought endorser, and Zohran can find himself in a similar position as being something of a power broker for the progressive left.'
Politico
3 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Mamdani and his campaign doubted viability early on
NEW YORK — During the genesis of Zohran Mamdani's now-surging mayoral campaign, the candidate and his democratic socialist allies said it was highly likely — or even certain — that Mamdani would lose the mayor's race. Instead, the goal from the campaign's inception was to build the New York City arm of the Democratic Socialists of America, said six Democrats who relayed private discussions and meetings with Mamdani, a campaign staffer and DSA leadership. All were granted anonymity to freely discuss private strategy. 'He was pretty clearly like, 'I know I'm not running to win. I know I have no path to victory,'' said one Democrat, who spoke directly to Mamdani shortly before he launched his campaign. The strategy appears to be working. Since Mamdani's October campaign launch, DSA membership has grown 40 percent and a DSA leader told POLITICO the campaign has put together a trove of data the party can repurpose to launch primary challenges in areas where Mamdani is popular. 'Since Zohran launched his mayoral campaign, we have gained over 2,400 members,' Grace Mausser, co-chair of NYC-DSA, said in a statement. 'New members often mention Zohran's success and the refreshing nature of a candidate — and movement — that puts working people and affordability first.' Mamdani joined the race with little name recognition, less than four years in public office and a spot at the bottom of the crowded pack of candidates. Early polls put him at 2 percent or less in the race. But since his launch, he has risen to take a decisive hold on second place. His longshot effort has morphed into the strongest opposition to mayoral front-runner Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani was the first to max out in the city's public campaign finance system, has the backing of a super PAC and has the very real potential of landing key progressive endorsements from the Working Families Party and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as their top-ranked candidate. Ocasio-Cortez's membership in the NYC-DSA and her national popularity have made her a power broker on the left. But barring a primary win, the yardstick for measuring Mamdani's success may end up being subjective. Some on the left, who are already rankled by his rise, are more inclined to preemptively view his run as a failure. Many progressives fear Mamdani's label as a Democratic Socialist repels voters in a city ruled by a moderate Democratic governor and a moderate Democratic mayor-turned-friend of President Donald Trump. Mamdani's positions on Israel and thin legislative experience don't endear him with the political establishment, either. All of this, they claim, is blocking other candidates closer to the center-left who could be capable of building a broad enough coalition to beat Cuomo. Mayoral hopeful Brad Lander has the cash, legislative record, experience winning a citywide election and support from Democratic electeds to theoretically attract a base big enough to win the primary — but Mamdani has prevented him from breaking out of an increasingly distant third place. While a Marist College poll conducted earlier this month shows just one-fourth of Democratic voters in the city identify as 'very liberal' — a potential ceiling for Mamdani — a poll released this week showed him surpassing that benchmark in later rounds of ranked choice voting. The survey found he came within just eight points of beating Cuomo in the final round. 'From the day he entered this race, Zohran has been running to win — and nothing demonstrates that quite like the latest polls, which have us less than nine points away from defeating Andrew Cuomo,' Mamdani's spokesperson, Lekha Sunder, said in a statement. 'With still three weeks to go, millions in cash-on-hand, and 25,000 volunteers who believe in this movement, we are on a clear path to victory and to a city New Yorkers can actually afford.' DSA leadership's statements and resolutions also show the organization's members can range from reluctant to outright hostile when it comes to embracing other anti-Cuomo candidates in the city's ranked choice voting system. 'Their goal was to get in third place and to build the party, build the DSA, and now their goal seems to be to get into second place and build the DSA,' said another Democrat, who spoke directly with top DSA leadership this fall after Mamdani launched his campaign. Members of the DSA who were present during the fall forum when Mamdani sought the DSA's endorsement say the campaign was pitched as a party-building exercise, instead of a genuine path to City Hall. 'It was just said over and over again, that this was a way to build the base that would make it easier to win campaigns in the future,' said one DSA member. A Mamdani spokesperson, Mausser and Michael Whitesides, the DSA's current electoral working group co-chair, deny this. 'That was not how this was framed to me,' Whitesides said. 'I don't think DSA takes on races we feel like we can't win. We can appreciate it's a long shot and think about the consolation prizes — like grow capacity or learn new skills — but we as an organization are not in races to lose. The thrust of the pitch to run Zohran was to try and win.' Mamdani's campaign also directed POLITICO to previous statements from the candidate, including in late February when he said, 'We always were setting up a campaign that could win this race.' But the city's DSA chapter — which hasn't supported a mayoral candidate since David Dinkins' run in 1989 — is open about the fact that Mamdani's campaign is simultaneously serving as a vehicle for the future of the party. 'We're seeing a crazy amount more interest in voting for a socialist than I would have guessed eight months ago,' Mausser said. 'One thing we'll be looking at is: OK, what neighborhoods voted for Zohran number one? Are these places that we can and should be running in the future?' In recent weeks, Mamdani has stood out as the candidate willing to boost other candidates — who all trail Cuomo by even wider margins than Mamdani's. He's the only candidate who has promised to endorse someone else as a No. 2 ballot choice through the city's ranked choice voting system, and he encouraged his supporters to donate to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams' mayoral campaign after he raised the maximum amount through the city's public campaign finance program. Despite these efforts, the DSA's local party leadership, who are fully behind Mamdani's bid, have stood in the way of supporting other candidates. Mausser confirmed the party passed a resolution calling for DSA-endorsed elected officials to announce their intentions to rank Mamdani first on their mayoral ballot — if they don't, it could count against them the next time the organization is doling out endorsements. Last month, Gustavo Gordillo, NYC-DSA's other co-chair, applauded Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera for endorsing Mamdani — and cheered his decision to not endorse Lander, whose positions on the Israel-Hamas war and freezing rent put him at odds with the DSA. 'Credit to Gustavo Rivera for not being afraid to tell Brad no and buck the left-liberal orthodoxy,' Gordillo wrote in a since-deleted X post. Mausser stressed the DSA does not have a formal position on the other candidates and is only rooting against Cuomo, who polling shows is projected to capture 50 percent of both Black Democratic voters and Democratic voters from the Bronx. He's also projected to win the support of 41 percent of Latino voters. And while Mamdani places second in all recent polls, he has struggled to gain ground with groups representing a disproportionate share of low-income earners — the very demographic the DSA purports to be focused on persuading. An April Siena College poll found Mamdani captured just 10 percent of Black voters, who, along with Latinos, make up the largest share of the city's low-income residents. He won only 2 percent of the vote in the Bronx, where median income significantly trails other boroughs. 'You can't win a mayoral race as a progressive without the support of working and middle class, black and brown communities, and this campaign does not have those relationships,' one DSA member told POLITICO. 'They have not had that from the jump, and as the race has unfolded, that has continued to be the case.' Sunder, Mamdani's campaign spokesperson, said the campaign has knocked on about 12,000 doors in the Bronx and won endorsements from current and former Bronx elected officials like Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who left office in January. The campaign also touted Mamdani's support from Latino voters, which Marist clocked at 20 percent in its poll. Gordillo said in another social media post that the DSA is using Mamdani's campaign to, in part, increase awareness residents have of their own position in the city's socioeconomic strata. 'NYC DSA is the only org on the left trying to use the mayoral race to change the political terrain on our terms and to raise class consciousness,' he wrote. 'I think this experiment will have outsized effects like Bernie did in 2016.' The line between Mamdani's campaign and Gordillo and Mausser's DSA chapter has been hazy from the start. The party helped orchestrate Mamdani's launch, and Mamdani made it clear he would not run for mayor unless he had the DSA's support. There are weekly meetings between the campaign and the chapter, and DSA members are helping with strategy in addition to taking the lead on his canvassing operation, Mausser said. So far, with the DSA's help, Mamdani has knocked 545,000 doors, according to his campaign. While Mausser claimed the DSA and Mamdani are in it to win it, regardless of whether he wins or loses, the post-primary prospects for the party — and Mamdani — are already looking up. She pointed to the possibility of a failed mayoral bid cementing Mamdani's influence over the left flank of city politics, an outcome similar to the one experienced by Cynthia Nixon, Cuomo's 2018 gubernatorial primary challenger. Nixon hasn't run for office since, but she hosted a fundraiser for Mamdani in March. 'Even if he loses, we'll now have an assemblymember who's dedicated to working with us, who has a huge profile and who can use his political clout to fight for DSA's priorities in Albany,' Mausser said. 'Cynthia Nixon is still a much sought endorser, and Zohran can find himself in a similar position as being something of a power broker for the progressive left.'
New York Post
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Zohran Mamdani's radical socialist vision would bankrupt NYC
Free buses; free child care; free baby baskets for every newborn; a vast expansion of public housing — all paid for, of course, by taxing 'the rich,' even as a $30-an-hour minimum wage and a rent freeze for nearly half of city apartments . . . magically pay for themselves, or something. Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani promises it all and more, with all the authority of a nepo baby who's never had a real job in his life nor even achieved anything of note in his four years in the state Assembly. Yes, it's charming how he walks and talks at the same time in his campaign videos; why should viewers care that his numbers don't remotely add up? Advertisement It's fantasy economics, pure and simple — the kind that impoverish whole nations, with Cuba the classic case and Venezuela a handy recent example. Mamdani vows to build hundreds of thousands more public-housing units, doubling the city's debt limit to cover the costs. Huh? Too many existing projects are falling apart; the system needs $50 billion-plus in repairs, and the only serious ideas for saving it is to privatize much of the management and sell off unused land and other assets. Of course, city government wouldn't have to pay directly for a sky-high minimum wage or the rent freeze — but that hardly makes either remotely practical. Advertisement The true cost of 'free' rises every year. Rent-stabilized landlords all across the city are already falling under water thanks to soaring bills that rent incomes don't cover; small businesses are choking on the existing minimum hourly wage that Mamdani wants to double. And higher-income folks are fleeing New York's current taxes; the exodus would only accelerate if he got his $10 billion in tax hikes — especially since his policies would make it harder to businesses to make money, too. Advertisement The fact is, New York City is already heading to a bitter budget reckoning, with outlays rising far faster than revenues even as major cuts in federal (and therefore state) aid are guaranteed soon. Mamdani's plans ignore all the red flags; he's all rainbows and unicorns. They're so pretty! Then again, most of his plans would require approval in Albany; with Gov. Kathy Hochul's re-election at stake next year, the odds of her signing off on any of it are zero. Advertisement Maybe Zohran really believes his vision is possible; no doubt all his socialist pals believe it and it must be true because they got AOC elected, right? Maybe he doesn't care, because the nonsense builds his brand and his fanbase as long as he doesn't have to deliver on any of it. It seems to be working; the polls show Democratic primary voters flocking his way. Though he's still No. 2: Most of the party still has some connection to reality. On the other hand, if Mamdani pulls it off, the sensible folks will rush to the exits and the socialists will have an excellent chance to keep ruling over the ruins of Havana on the Hudson.
New York Post
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Socialist NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani will trigger mass exodus with tax hike plot to pay for $10B policies, experts warn
Democratic Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's pie in the sky plan to pay for $10 billion in proposed freebies by hiking corporate taxes will trigger a mass exodus of New Yorkers to other states, experts warned. Business leaders cautioned that the Queens state assemblyman's drastic tax hike for businesses and Big Apple millionaires to fund his progressive paradise blatantly ignores the hefty fees they are already shelling out – and will sink the city deeper into debt. 'This is being proposed at a time when people and their income are leaving New York State and New York City in particular,' a spokesperson for the Business Council of New York State told The Post Thursday. Advertisement 4 Socialist NYC mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani. Matthew McDermott 'This would only add to that exodus and further erode our tax base.' Mamdani – who has surged in the crowded Democratic field behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by promising to subsidize free buses and childcare, a rent freeze and five city-run food stores – aims to rake in $5.4 billion a year by jacking up corporate taxes from 7.25% to a steep 11.5%. Advertisement He is also eyeing another $4 billion by slapping a 2% flat tax on the wealthy. 4 Mamdani has promised to subsidize free transit and childcare, a rent freeze and five city-run food stores. Stephen Yang 'Mamdani is following a well worn political mantra that argues for more government spending as the solution to every problem and expecting that taxes on business and the wealthy can be infinitely expanded,' said Kathryn Wylde, CEO of the Partnership for New York City. 'This may get someone elected, but once in office they bump into reality,' Wylde added. 'His tax proposals all require the approval of the governor and state legislature, which is unlikely even if they were modest increases. I am not sure how seriously he takes his own rhetoric.' Advertisement 4 Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of Partnership for New York, said his plan, if elected, wouldn't be approved in Albany. Bloomberg via Getty Images Mamdani, 33, would not only need to convince Gov. Kathy Hochul – who has consistently promised not to raise income taxes – to buy into his proposal, but also persuade Albany lawmakers to expand the city's debt limit in order to fund his eye-catching initiatives. New York City's debt is currently projected to crater to $99.4 billion by July – and it's expected to climb sharply over the next two years, according to the city comptroller's office. And the self-proclaimed socialist's plan to shower New Yorkers with freebies would gobble up more than the annual revenue he expects to make from his radical tax-the-rich blueprint. Advertisement Mamdani's campaign estimates that providing universal childcare for the city's pre-K base would cost between $5 billion and $7 billion, with free buses running the MTA roughly $900 million a year in annual revenue, Politico reported this week. 4 He aims to rake in $5.4 billion a year by jacking up corporate taxes and another $4 billion by slapping a flat tax on the wealthy. Robert Miller His new 'Department of Community Safety' – which would oversee mental-health crisis intervention, homelessness outreach and traffic ticketing – would rack up $450 million in new spending, with piloting the city-run food stores costing another $60 million, according to his campaign. The mayoral hopeful is also proposing to more than triple the $30 billion allocated for housing in the capital budget, with the hopes of tripling the city's production of affordable homes in return, the outlet reported. 'He articulates his points very well, and they make sense. You understand exactly what he's saying,' former Gov. David Paterson told Politico. 'The problem is: Nobody told him there's no such thing as Santa Claus.' Mamdani did not respond to The Post's request for comment Thursday.
New York Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Don't fall for the rent-freeze demagogues — they'll make NY's housing squeeze WORSE
Left-wing mayoral candidates and a newly launched 'housing justice' pressure group are dangling the promise of a multi-year rent freeze for the city's nearly one million rent-regulated units. That's more than half the rental apartments in Gotham. It's a cynical political strategy: Pander to a segment of single-issue voters almost too large to resist — and capture the mayoralty. Advertisement Actually implementing that freeze would turn the entire city into a slum of dilapidated and abandoned buildings, forcing thousands of occupants to live in squalor in un-maintained apartments. And it could happen. Just look at the electoral math. Advertisement In New York City, occupants of rent-stabilized apartments — about 1.7 million people living in about 980,000 units — outnumber renters in unregulated apartments. If these rent-regulation beneficiaries are mobilized as single-issue voters, they can swing an election. Barely a million people voted in the 2021 mayoral primary, and just over 1.1 million in the general. Leftist candidates are not leaving it to chance. Advertisement Zohran Mamdani, Brad Lander and Jessica Ramos have all committed to freezing rents if they're elected. 'Tenants are a majority and it's time we had a mayor who acted like it,' Mamdani says. He's calculating that this one voting bloc can carry him to victory. New York State Tenant Bloc, the new pressure group launched by the lefty nonprofit Housing Justice for All, is making the same calculation statewide. Advertisement 'There are over 9 million tenants in New York,' its website declares. 'There's millions more tenants than there are landlords. We have the power to break the real estate industry's grip on our lives by uniting as a bloc.' 'Freeze the Rent!' — plastered on scarlet signs reminiscent of Communist China's flag — is the group's battle cry. Cornell professor Russell Weaver, who teaches courses in 'equitable community change,' calls tenants the 'sleeping giant' in future elections. Some are already awake: Assemblywoman Sarahana Shrestha, a Democratic Socialist representing the Hudson Valley, credits activist tenant voters for her own win in 2022. Now she's sponsoring the REST Act, which would permit towns and cities in all parts of the state to impose rent caps. Current law limits rent stabilization to New York City and downstate counties, unless a town performs a costly study to prove low vacancy rates — a requirement that has kept Poughkeepsie and Kingston from capping rents. Shrestha rants that 'tenants are half the state' and should vote as a bloc to throttle 'price-gouging landlords.' Advertisement But before falling for this demagoguery, New Yorkers need to know the brutal consequences of rent regulations and rent freezes. The nine members of the city's Rent Guidelines Board — all mayoral appointees — set permissible rent hikes on rent-regulated apartments once a year. Succumbing to political pressure, the RGB generally sets hikes at about half the inflation rate — so building owners facing rising property taxes and higher labor, energy and water costs get consistently shortchanged. Advertisement Eventually, many let their properties fall into disrepair, allow dilapidated units to sit vacant — or abandon their buildings altogether. With older housing stock crumbling and fewer units available, a housing shortage is inevitable. Sean Campion, the Citizens Budget Commission's housing expert, testified to the RGB this year that a significant share of buildings is heading into this maintenance 'death spiral.' That's the damage already caused by rent regulation — even before the leftists' threatened freeze. Advertisement Nationwide, rents in metro areas have fallen for 19 consecutive months — except, that is, in New York City, where the supply squeeze sends rents on unregulated units soaring. Denver, the metro area where rents are falling fastest, has no rent regulation. Colorado state law forbids it. That's what New York state should do. Advertisement What about helping the poor? Rent regulation doesn't accomplish that. Scoring a rent-regulated apartment requires no means testing. You need luck, sharp elbows — and often a wad of cash to buy your way in. Occupants of rent-regulated apartments — call them privileged renters — tend to have somewhat smaller incomes, but are also generally adults without kids. Families with young children, who need rent breaks the most to remain in the city, are less apt to luck out, according to the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development. A fair system would provide assistance based on need — funded by all taxpayers, not only by building owners. New York doesn't command certain grocery stores to sell food at below-market prices to the needy. The taxpayer-funded SNAP program is there for that purpose. Rent regulation rewards pandering politicians, not the poor. That's why it survives. The radical calls for a rent freeze are a red flag that New Yorkers risk being crushed — steamrolled — by a mobilized bloc of voters looking out only for themselves. Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of the Committee to Save Our City.
