Why can’t New York City get a decent mayor?

The Democratic primary is coming up next week and the prospects are grim.

First up is the corrupt Eric Adams, the current mayor, who really ought to be in prison or at least being tried on bribery, fraud, and conspiracy charges, but alas, the sexual predator who is currently serving as president played games with his prosecution, which would have been a slam dunk, and the charges were dismissed. So Adams is going to be running in the general election as an independent because he realized he no longer had any chance as a Democrat. He’s a former New York City police officer, so that tells you something about their police department. And he’s still laughing. Just look at him.

Without Adams on the Democratic ballot, that left room for a genuine sleaze ball, former New York State governor Andrew Cuomo who sexually harassed at least eleven women and resigned from the governorship. Now he’s trying to get back into office and he claims he was innocent of all those allegations. Of course, he’s the front runner. Name recognition. Just look at him. He even looks like a sleaze, doesn’t he?

In second place on the Democratic primary according to the polls is Zohran Mamdani, currently serving his second term in the state Assembly. His platform is free city buses, a rent freeze, nationalizing grocery stores in the city, and taxing the rich. He has called Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide.” Gee, I like the sound of that. Uh-oh. He has no experience in managing a huge city like New York. He would probably fall on his ass. 

Oh yeah, one of the former NYC mayors, the super rich Michael Bloomberg, has donated $5 million to Andrew Cuomo’s campaign, even though Bloomberg hates Cuomo’s guts. Apparently he hates the idea of free city buses and a rent freeze even more. Or something. Oh, who knows what goes through the minds of super rich assholes. Perhaps he just wants to keep the mayoralty in the family of assholes.

Well, what about the Republicans? New York has often elected Republican mayors in the past. Like Rudy Giuliani. Look how well that worked out. Alas, it’s Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the paramilitary Guardian Angels and first class douchebag. Well, what do you expect? There are few decent Republicans around these days, and those that are can’t win elections.

Meanwhile, New York has ranked-choice voting, which I’m all in favor of because I think it can lead to much better outcomes, but only if there are good candidates from which to choose. If all the candidates are losers then ranked-choice voting doesn’t help.

I truly don’t understand why NYC can’t come up with a better field of candidates. What would I do if I were a New Yorker? I guess I’d have to vote for Zohran Mamdani and hope that after he falls down and makes a fool of himself, he’s able to learn from his mistakes and grow into the job. As far as his agenda, well, the mayor doesn’t pass the laws; I don’t have any idea how much success he might have getting his agenda passed.