Michael Goodwin: Financial penalties for Mamdani election by GOP could cause irreversible damage to NYC
As awful as the mayoral election outcome was for sensible New Yorkers, misguided Washington Republicans plan to use the results as a club to further punish the city.If they succeed in hitting Gotham with enormous financial penalties for electing socialist radical Zohran Mamdani, the GOP wackos will end up penalizing all 8 million New Yorkers, including the 1 million who rejected Mamdani to vote for other candidates.The efforts also could turn Mamdani into a martyr, which would boost his popularity and inspire far-leftist copycat candidates across America.Another unintended consequence of the daffy congressional effort could be the death of the election chances of one of their own.
Upstate Republican firebrand Rep.Elise Stefanik announced Friday that she will run against Gov.
Hochul next year.Stefanik, the star of GOP efforts to hold college presidents responsible for the antisemitism on their campuses, is widely seen as a credible candidate.A recent poll showed her holding a slight edge against the incumbent, and she burst out of the starting gate by calling Hochul “the worst governor in America.”But Stefanik’s bid could be damaged by an attack onby her party against New York.
It would give Hochul a rallying issue that would likely resonate with Mamdani’s legions of hard-core radicals, many of whom came to view Hochul more favorably after she endorsed Mamdani in September.Historic imbalances also are in play, with Republicans failing to win a statewide race since 2022, when former governor George Pataki captured his third term.GOP candidate Lee Zeldin gave Hochul a stiff challenge in 2022, but a large turnout of city Dems tipped the scales in her favor and she won by 5 points.Moreover, the congressional bill as written is so broad and harsh that the vast majority of New Yorkers would almost certainly reject it and hold all Republicans accountable.Introduced by Georgia Representative Buddy Carter, it says that, “during any period in which Zohran Mamdani...