Cuomo comes for Mamdani’s $2,300 apartment

This piece first ran as The Countdown, our daily newsletter rounding up all the developments in the New York City mayor’s race. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. The election is in 85 days.

䷖ Cuomo calls for “Zohran’s Law” 

• Andrew Cuomo is taking a shot at the housing of his opponent, Zohran Mamdani. On Sunday, he told local reporters that he was proposing “Zohran’s Law,” a measure to block the wealthy from rent-stabilized apartments like Mamdani’s.

• Cuomo called Mamdani “a rich person stealing affordable housing from the poor.” In a post on X with nearly 34 million views, he pointed out that New York Assembly members make a base salary of $142,000.

• Mamdani has told The New York Times that he rents his one-bedroom apartment in Astoria, one of nearly a million rent-stabilized units in the city, for $2,300 a month. Cuomo, a multimillionaire who moved into the city last year in advance of his mayoral run, pays a monthly rent of about $8,000.

• The jab is an escalation of Cuomo’s personal attacks on Mamdani, whose promise to “freeze the rent” leads his campaign platform, as the former governor attempts to regain momentum in the race.

• Comptroller Brad Lander, a key Jewish ally of Mamdani who cross-endorsed him in the primary, slammed Cuomo in a response on X. “I’m proposing Andrew’s Law,” he wrote. “If you resigned as Governor in a blaze of harassment & corruption, and you lost the primary, and you have no idea what you’re talking about…it’s time to go back to Westchester.” (Lander pays $3,300 a month toward the mortgage on the Park Slope rowhouse he owns, which he has said he could not afford today.)

• Although it’s hard to know how many Jewish New Yorkers live in affordable housing, nearly one in five Jewish households was poor or near poor in 2023, according to UJA-Federation of New York. Haredi Orthodox households represent one of the poorest groups in the community.

🔊 J.B. Pritzker defends billionaires

• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Jew of Ukrainian descent whose family is among the richest in the United States, does not agree with Mamdani’s belief that billionaires shouldn’t exist.

• “How much money you have doesn’t determine what your values are,” Pritzker said in response to Mamdani in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. He added, “I’m a Democrat because I believe that we’ve got to stand up for our democracy and against the MAGA Republicans who are literally trying to take away people’s rights around this country.”

• Pritzker and Mamdani are rising stars on opposite ends of the Democratic party. Mamdani’s primary win was momentous for the progressive movement, while Pritzker has been discussed as a 2028 presidential contender to appeal to moderate voters. (We covered Pritzker’s support for Kamala Harris’s presidential run.)

• Mamdani has drawn comparisons to Brandon Johnson, the progressive Chicago mayor in Pritzker’s state, who has made little change but many enemies while seeking to enact a progressive agenda.

🥯 Mamdani’s bagel order 

• Mamdani shared his breakfast at Bagel Shop on the Upper East Side on Friday. “The order, as always: poppy seed bagel with scallion cream cheese,” he said on X.

• A mayoral candidate’s bagel order is an important signifier for many New Yorkers, especially Jewish ones. What are the other candidates’ orders? Mayor Eric Adams says he has given up cinnamon raisin bagels in favor of ones with flaxseed and vegan cheese. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa goes for a toasted plain bagel with butter. But Cuomo’s order might be the most problematic for Jewish New Yorkers: “Bacon, cheese and egg on an English muffin” (i.e., no bagel).

🏆 Non-endorsement tracker

• Gov. Kathy Hochul still isn’t stepping in. She declined to give her support to Mamdani during a Fox News Sunday interview, saying she had “many differences” with the Democratic nominee even while she aligned with him on raising affordability.