Mamdani: ‘de Blasio on steroids’

Bernard Whalen is a former NYPD lieutenant and the co-author of “The NYPD’s First Fifty Years” and “Case Files of the NYPD.”

When it comes to New York City mayoral elections, the candidate who secures the Democratic party nomination is presumed to be the winner of the race even before the first vote is cast, regardless of the nominee. 

In some instances, red flags about the candidate that should have caused concern but were outright ignored, ultimately to the detriment of the constituents they served. 

When Jimmy Walker ran for mayor in 1926, he pretended to give up the nightlife in order to convince Governor Al Smith and the voting public that if elected, he would devote all of his time to being a good mayor. Once he was sworn in however, he returned to the nightlife he so enjoyed and let his cronies run the city into the ground. 

After six years in office, Walker resigned in disgrace and fled to Europe after it was alleged that he accepted bribes while he ignored widespread corruption in his administration. In the end, he was exactly the kind of mayor his critics predicted he would be, immoral, unethical and just plain bad. 

There were several other Democrats who in retrospect might not have been elected had red flags been taken seriously. As Brooklyn district attorney, William O’Dwyer never seemed to net the mob’s big fish in his high-profile organized crime prosecutions. He became mayor in 1946, but resigned during his second term to become the ambassador to Mexico. In reality, President Truman saved him from being named in an organized crime gambling scandal that reached all the way to the steps of City Hall. 

Abe Beame, an accountant by trade and lifelong Democratic party man, campaigned for mayor in 1973 with a slogan akin to, “He knows the buck.” Apparently, he didn’t. As mayor, he was in charge during the city’s worst financial crisis in history. Tens of thousands of city workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers were laid off. He was powerless to address the situation, even though he had previously served as the city budget director and city comptroller. At the very least, he should have been better prepared to manage the crisis once it happened. Instead, he willfully disregarded warnings of the city’s impending economic collapse and downplayed the seriousness of the situation to gain office.   

David Dinkins was known for his quiet demeanor. He pledged to be a mayor for all New Yorkers when he won election in 1990, but he did little to stop deadly rioting in Crown Heights and Washington Heights while he was in office. His red flag was the white flag of surrender as neighborhoods burned to the ground under his watch. 

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio who was first elected in 2014, much like the current nominee, Zohran Mamdani, proudly proclaimed his socialist leanings while campaigning. Very few New Yorkers were sad to see him go when his term ended in 2021 and it is unlikely any bridges will be named after him in the future. 

One of his socialist pet projects resulted in wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on a social program he called, “Thrive New York.” Anyone walking the streets in New York City can plainly see that his efforts to alleviate the city’s homeless crisis by throwing other people’s money at the problem got very little bang for the buck. 

This leads back to the red flags of the current Democrat party nominee, Zohran Mamdani. He is Bill de Blasio on steroids, pledging to transform New York City into Caracas, Venezuela, for the good of all residents. 

He’s not hiding his intentions, and while some progressives acknowledge he can’t legally do most of the things he says he wants to do, the fact is that if Mamdani is elected, he will have de facto control of the city budget. By simply cutting the police budget and refusing to replace officers who have retired, the city’s crime rate will undoubtedly rise and join Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles as shining cities that have lost their luster.  

For the sake of the city, it’s time for the other candidates to set their differences aside and join together with a single campaign message, “ABZ — Anybody but Zohran Mamdani.”