Socialist Leads in NYC Mayoral Primary

Of course, this being high tech 21st Century America, nobody will know for sure who won for a week.

From the New York Times news section:

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year old state assemblyman, was holding onto a steady lead in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City with more than 89 percent of the vote counted. The lead appears increasingly difficult for former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to make up in the first round of counting.

But unless one candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, counting will continue next week.

What’s the matter, New York? Haven’t you heard that California takes a full month to count its ballots? Why are you rushing things and only taking one week?

Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, had campaigned fiercely for months against Mr. Cuomo, 67, the state’s scandal-plagued former governor, who consistently led in polls.

Gov. Cuomo

Remember when Gov. Cuomo was an Emmy-winning genius who had cured coronavirus? And then a year later he was a despised sexual harasser?

And then he was the frontrunner in the polls for mayor?

Remember when the mayor of New York City for 12 years was a self-made zillionaire who was pretty good at the job and crime kept dropping?

Nah, that couldn’t ever have happened…

Whoever prevails will become the front-runner in the general election to lead a city at an inflection point.

It looks like the white cool kids’ sections voted for Mamdani, while the Bronx voted for Cuomo. Here’s a more detailed map:

Both the corporate Upper East Side and the traditionally affluent progressive Upper West Side mostly went for Cuomo, as did the Bronx and the ultra-Orthodox part of outer Brooklyn, along with outer Queens and outer Staten Island.

Mamdani carried much of downtown Manhattan, Harlem, the fashionable parts of Brooklyn and Queens, and even much of the shore of Staten Island.

In the GOP primary, the nominee is Curtis Sliwa, the hero of a 1982 song by The Clash: