Episode #1026: Round 2
First Broadcast: 7/7/25
In what may turn out to be one of the biggest upsets in New York City election history, State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani won this year's Democratic primary for Mayor, beating second-place finisher ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo by 12 percentage points, or over 116,000 votes. This is a stunning victory when you consider that Mamdani was polling around 1% at the beginning of the year, and was outspent by Cuomo's PACs by around $26 million during the campaign; but apparently buckets of money and name recognition are no match for a decent ground game and policies that genuinely appeal to people. Naturally, since Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, President Trump has labeled him a "communist" (totally different head, man), and since Mamdani was born in Uganda, Trump is also questioning his naturalized citizenship, so we've got 4 months of that to look forward to. Will Democratic unity, the youth vote, and appeals to a more affordable city prevail over an incumbent who wanted to bypass the primary, a compatitor who already got shellacked once, a Republican best known for being the head of a vigilante group, and a lawyer who wants to stand out from the crowd by--sigh--hiring even more cops? Let's hope Mamdani keeps his momentum going, because I'm already crossing my fingers for another rent freeze!
So, what is Free New York anyway? The simple answer is that it's a
this neat little
public access TV show on
Manhattan Neighborhood Network which I co-produce with the
tremendous help of my camerawoman/editor/everything else,
Kim. The complicated answer
is that it's a project of mine to broadcast opinions and events which
don't always appear within "the mainstream media" (like The New York Times,
the major networks, local radio, etc.), and so far I think it's been working.
If you think I'm doing a good job--or not--and you feel
like sending me snail mail, the address is:
Free New York
P.O. Box 20945
Tompkins Square Station
New York, NY 10009
You can also email me at fny@freenewyork.net, which should get to me a lot faster than the snail mail.
last updated July 6, 2025
Comments?
Send email to: fny@freenewyork.net