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NYC: Data For Progress Poll Gives Zohran Mamdani (D) A 16 Point Lead Over Andrew Cuomo [1]

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Date: 2025-07-14

Some more good news today out of New York City:

x 🚨NEW DFP NYC POLL 🚨in a traditional mayoral electorate, mamdani is up 16 points over cuomo pic.twitter.com/dyLI83cCdy — Ryan O'Donnell (@ryanodonnellpa) July 14, 2025 A Monday poll by Data for Progress gives new insight into the 2025 New York City mayoral election as the field of candidates for the November general election remains in flux. The Data for Progress poll shows Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic primary winner, leading the field with 40% of polled individuals marking the 33-year-old as their top choice for mayor. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who appears to be nearing a decision on an independent campaign after losing to Mamdani and is expected to commit to the race in the coming days, is polling in second place with 24%. Mayor Eric Adams, who is running on an independent line, polled third at 15%, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is in fourth at 14%. Independent candidate Jim Walden is in fifth place with 1%; 5% of polled individuals remain unsure.

Perfect timing for the poll:

Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has decided to run in the general election for mayor, urged on by supporters anxious that his withdrawal would nearly guarantee Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s victory and put New York City in the hands of the far left. The decision by Mr. Cuomo, who had been questioning whether to run after his crushing Democratic primary defeat by Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman and a democratic socialist, will be announced in a video that is expected to be released this week, according to three people familiar with his decision. If the polls show that he is not the highest-ranked challenger to Mr. Mamdani by early September, he will pledge to drop out of the race, the people said. He will encourage the other challengers — Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent; Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee; and Jim Walden, an independent — to do the same. (The plan was hatched by Mr. Walden.) Mr. Cuomo was the prohibitive favorite for much of the Democratic primary for mayor, leading in most polls until the very end. A super PAC spent more than $22 million to promote his candidacy and launch a late-stage attack on Mr. Mamdani, once it became clear that he posed a threat to Mr. Cuomo.

And to think I actually used to like this guy:

Mark Cuban thinks New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump have something in common, radically different politics aside. On an episode of the podcast "Pod Save America" that aired on July 13, Cuban said that both Mamdani and Trump successfully focused on issues that immediately impact voters' lives during their campaigns, regardless of whether their promises are realistic. "We're cutting rents, right? We're changing grocery stores. None of that shit has a chance. Doesn't matter," Cuban said, referencing some of Mamdani's key proposals. Mamdani has promised to freeze rent on all stabilized apartments in the city and replace members of the Rent Guidelines Board with people who will freeze rents every year of his term. He has pledged to create city-owned grocery stores that do not have to pay rent or property taxes, and can "pass on savings to shoppers," per his website. "This guy is walking in telling me he's going to walk on water. He's going to make me more money, he's going to save me money, he's going to make my life better," Cuban said of how he thinks some New Yorkers understood Mamdani's proposals. He said the tactic is "Trump 101. Is it true? Does it matter?" Business Insider asked Cuban about why he doubts some of Mamdani's plans, which the candidate plans to pay for in part by raising the corporate tax rate to 11.5% and adding a 2% income tax on New Yorkers making more than $1 million. "Until we see actual process and plans to actually implement a promise, I look at his, and all campaign promises, as nothing more than promises," he told BI. He said Americans now vote for policies that they think could help them, "even if there is no evidence they could possible happen." It is, he said, "analogous" to Trump's promise to make Mexico pay for a border wall.

But Mark is wrong:

During the New York City mayoral primary campaign, Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for a citywide rent freeze became a contentious topic. The Democratic nominee says to achieve a cap on annual rent increases for the city’s 1m rent-stabilized apartments, he would appoint members to the city’s rent guidelines board who support it. Critics decry a rent freeze as a pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic proposal. I served as a rent guidelines board member for nearly four years, appointed by then mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018. And it’s clear this controversy isn’t just about rent freezes – there’s a larger agenda to deregulate rent-stabilized housing, under which rent ceilings prevent landlords from raising the rent too high and tenants must be offered renewal leases (unless the landlord shows legal reason not to). In 2023, a report revealed that half of New Yorkers couldn’t afford basic needs such as housing, transportation, food and healthcare. This is the New York that I grew to know intimately before I joined the board. I’d been a tenants’ rights attorney for years under the city’s right-to-counsel program, representing hundreds of low-income families facing eviction who could not afford their own attorneys. Each week, I entered housing court to find my clients – families with toddlers, seniors with disabilities and food delivery drivers – anxiously awaiting possible eviction. It’s not just low-income tenants at the mercy of landlords. Over the last 12 years, I’ve listened to thousands of stories and the one common thread is how easy it is for a moderate-income person to wind up homeless. Sudden unemployment, unexpected disability coupled with a rent increase, and now you’re fighting like hell to survive housing court and not join the 350,000 homeless New Yorkers. For these New Yorkers, a rent freeze isn’t some out-of-touch idea; it’s a lifeline. The people who make that decision are nine board members, all appointed by the mayor – two tenant members (my former role), two landlord members and five public members whom the tenants and landlord members vie to win over to reach a majority vote. We don’t rely on feelings or vibes – we’re poring over reports and hours of public testimony, and engaging in spirited policy debates. In 2020, those reports revealed record unemployment spurred by the pandemic and an already high homelessness rate and rent burden (most tenants were paying 30% or more of their income on rent). Weighing that with landlord operating costs, the board voted to approve a rent freeze that year, and a partial rent freeze (for six months) the following year. In fact, the board voted for a rent freeze four times over the last 10 years under the de Blasio administration (the board votes every summer on these rent levels and they take effect in the fall). This is why criticisms of Mamdani’s rent freeze ring hollow for me – it’s painted as out of touch, yet there’s already a precedent, backed by government reports and data.

Also, the crypto industry is back to buy another election:

A leader of the super PAC supporting New York City Mayor Eric Adams hopes to raise upwards of $10 million from the cryptocurrency community — and has alarmed government ethics groups in the process. In May, Eric Lerner, president of the Empower NYC super PAC, attended the same Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas where Adams traveled on the taxpayer’s dime to speak. During an on-camera interview at the event — portions of which were scrubbed from the internet after questions from POLITICO — Lerner praised the self-described “crypto-Mayor,” favorably compared Adams to Donald Trump and predicted his super PAC could raise enough cash to make the incumbent competitive in the November general election.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/14/2333367/-NYC-Data-For-Progress-Poll-Gives-Zohran-Mamdani-D-A-16-Point-Lead-Over-Andrew-Cuomo?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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