Zohran Mamdani’s Professional Background

New York City is deciding on a new mayor today. The choices are Andrew Cuomo, the former governor removed from office for numerous accusations of sexual misconduct. Curtis Leewa, the perennial anti-rime conservative New York native, and Zoran Mani, a Ugandan national and recently naturalized American citizen who has spent about four years in the New York State Assembly. All eyes are on Mandani. But what has the guy ever done in government? Guys, it’s time for some game theory. Welcome back to Game Theory Today. I am Eric Garland. I am a native Vermoner who feels that redressing your government and running for office is a sacred American right. Whether you want to make your voice heard to the existing leadership or run for office yourself, this is why my ancestors fought the Revolutionary War.

So presenting yourself for political office if you have professional skills to offer isn’t just a right, it’s a duty and an honor. , 1 secondAnd that said, voters should probably decide on their leaders with some knowledge of what they bring to office , 8 secondsin terms of experience and skill. Plenty of outlets have covered Mandani’s family history. He’s 34 years old, born in 1991 , 15 secondsin Kala, Uganda. After a couple years living in South Africa, Mamdani moved to the upper west side of Manhattan where he was raised in the wealthy Morningside , 24 secondsHeights neighborhood around Columbia University. After a bachelor’s in Africana studies in Maine at Bowden , 31 secondsCollege, Mandani relocated back to New York, settling in Queens, where he worked for a nonprofit aimed at supporting other South Asians in New , 38 secondsYork.

And here’s where I want to pick up Zoron’s story. In 2020, he ran for the New York State Assembly where he has served three terms. He ran in 2020 , 47 secondsagainst Democrat Arabella Simatas and defeated her in the primary. There was no Republican challenger in 2020 and , 56 secondsZoron fame faced no primary challenger at all in 2022 or 2024. So before today, , 3 secondshe’s only ever won a single race. Now Zoran wants to be mayor of all New York City. So let’s compare his experience and see if it really matches the job. , 14 secondsFirst, let’s compare the two offices. , 16 secondsZoron represents New York’s 36th Assembly District, which has about 122,000 residents in the Bureau of Queens and a little bit of Long Island , 25 secondsCity.

It is one of 150 districts in New York, and the assemblymen are tasked with writing and voting on laws in the , 33 secondsstate’s legislature. There, Zoron interacts with a mix of district office employees. he would get one or two just , 40 secondslike everybody else. Uh, and a handful of partisan and committee staff members. , 45 secondsThat’s it. So, he represents 122,000 people and he has maybe a couple employees. Now, for New York City, New York is home to 8.5 million residents. , 55 secondsIt is the largest city in the United States with double the population of number two, which is Los Angeles with only about 4 million. New York City has , 3 secondsa municipal budget of $100 billion. New York employs 325,000 people, equivalent to every man, woman, and child in St.

Louis City, Missouri. , 15 secondsNew York’s education budget alone is $21 billion, and the city is responsible for educating over 1 million students. I , 22 secondscould go on, but suffice it to say that the position of mayor of New York is equivalent to being the CEO of a major corporation. running a hundred billion , 31 secondsdollar organization with the would put the mayor of New York in the same category as Elon Musk at Tesla which also takes in about a hundred billion or , 39 secondsDisney Pepsi Archer Daniels Midland or Johnson and Johnson. Zoran Mdani to date has worked for a nonprofit the Chahaya , 48 secondsCommunity Development Corporation which supposedly specialized in staving off foreclosure for South Asians in New , 56 secondsYork.

He is not listed as a key employee in any of the organizations IRS90 filings as far as I could research. , 4 secondsMaybe he was a volunteer. Perhaps he was a contractor. It’s hard to say. That’s not uncommon with nonprofits of that , 10 secondssort. Uh Zoron won a single Democratic primary in 2020 as mentioned and he ran unopposed twice. So even his experience , 19 secondsas a candidate and managing all the people that that operation may have required is limited to a single primary , 27 secondschallenge 5 years ago. So then there’s Zoron’s legislation which is three bills passed over three sessions. , 35 secondsA6267 is an amendment to the state administrative procedure act back in 2021. Zaron’s amendment authorized a , 43 secondsthree-year pilot program for select state agencies to use roundts and evening and weekend scheduling to boost public participation in rulemaking.

Uh , 52 secondsthe next year A8796 the state administration procedure act again was amended by Zoron in 2022 to , 1 secondlower the petition threshold from 500 to 125 people for requiring public hearings on rulemaking by certain agencies. and , 9 secondsA7113 was an amendment to the alcohol beverage control law in 2023 allowing for alcohol , 17 secondssales and consumption at the Museum of the Moving Image in Atoria, Queens. Uh despite its proximity to a school , 25 secondsoverriding the 200 ft restriction. So those were the three successful bills. , 30 secondsAnd like all legislators, Zoron proposed legislation that didn’t make it into law. Totally legit. Uh, one of his bills would have prohibited landlords, , 38 secondslessers, and sublesers and grantors from demanding brokers fees from a tenant.

, 43 secondsAnother would have warned voters about New York’s closed primary system on voter registration forms. Another would have repealed the taxexempt status of , 51 secondsprivate universities that received real property in excess of hund00 million. , 56 secondsThe not on our dime act would have ended New York funding Israeli settler violence by prohibiting not for-profit corporations in from engaging in , 4 secondsunauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity. Uh but legislation of this sort is would a could a shoulda. , 12 secondsUm every legislator throws out a bunch of legislation. Sometimes it’s handed to them, sometimes they write it themselves and it gets a vote. It gets out of , 20 secondscommittee or it doesn’t.

So all told, he he has thrown a bunch of legislation out , 26 secondsthere and three amendments eventually passed. In any event, that’s the total deal with Zelron. It’s not clear if New York is going to rehabilitate Andrew , 35 secondsCuomo today. And it looks like this Democratic socialist might be running America’s largest city. Do you have questions? I have a few questions here. , 42 secondslike uh how somebody goes from a relatively minor state legislation position like that to uh having support , 52 secondsand uh media coverage from all over the world uh as as he has. But that’s what I got. New York’s going to go to the polls despite Trump being in. Apparently, we do still have elections despite the hysterics.

Um and we are having a , 6 secondsreasoned discussion about what certain candidates may bring to the table here. , 11 secondsSo, uh, that’s democracy. It’s It ain’t pretty, but it’s what we got. So, if you’re being a little lamb here, be nice , 18 secondsand click, uh, like and subscribe and hit me up with your questions or other harassment in the comments. Thanks.