Grace Mausser, co-chair of the DSA’s New York City chapter, said her organization will ensure the answer is yes.
“The primary goals are to have a successful mayoralty, deliver for New Yorkers and achieve the things Zohran laid out,” she said of promises like universal childcare and free buses. “But there is also an opportunity over the course of the next four, maybe eight years to develop new leaders in city government. De Blasio did that with a lot of progressives, and Zohran has the opportunity to do that for a lot of socialists.”
How that might look in practice was on display Monday when Mamdani announced two senior members of his team: incoming First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, a warhorse of city and state government who held the same position under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Elle Bisgaard-Church, a young democratic socialist and Mamdani’s closest aid in the state Assembly and campaign. She will serve as Mamdani’s chief of staff.
While Bisgaard-Church is far closer to Mamdani, wrangling New York City’s vast executive branch — let alone goading it toward systemic change — requires extensive knowledge of internal politics and the ways agencies and budget wonks sometimes resist the whims of City Hall. That’s where the Fuleihans of the world come in: If you don’t know how to effectively run the government, it will end up running you.
“The mayor-elect understands that we need the hunger and vision for bold solutions and deep experience to enact our affordability agenda and build a city government that delivers excellent public services,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.
The inclusion of more experienced public servants — Mamdani wants NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to remain at the department and has tapped other government experts to lead his transition team — also speaks to a shallow bench of candidates who are both aligned with the left and qualified to take on major administration roles.
“A lot of the work of the WFP and DSA has focused on winning power in the City Council and on the state level,” said Ana María Archila, co-director of WFP’s New York chapter. “So there are people who understand the powers of the legislative branch, but there are definitely fewer people who are holding executive power.”
“I think Zohan’s administration is going to accelerate a lot of the learning and capacity of our side to not just be able to legislate, but to also administer and execute a governing agenda,” she added.
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