NYC Mayoral Marathon Election Special

Candidate Positions, Funding, Endorsements, Polls & Media Malfeasance

November 2, 2025 / NYC Politics / New York City News / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

This week we dedicated most of our news reporting resources to the NYC Mayoral Race, as there are only a couple days left before the majority of the electorate cast their votes. The second headline above, describes what will be covered in this report, which will be followed by a brief report about what's going on with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, which will include information and links to resources to help those who need it.

The photo above or at right was taken at the first NYC Mayoral Debate in the NBC TV Studio at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Photo credit to Adam Gray at Politico.

Billionaires Appear to be Going All Out to Defeat Mamdani - including Cheating

There's an old expression that goes something like this, "If you aint' cheating, you ain't trying hard enough." I personally find that axiom distasteful, as I was taught to play fair. But I have found it beneficial to keep it in mind when competing, as there are plenty of people among us, who embrace that philosophy. And as we all know, the rich are not immune from breaking the rules, and in fact oftentimes seem to relish the thought.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report about the NYC Mayoral Race & Debates 2025 featuring Mamdani, Cuomo & Sliwa.

Billionaire Real Estate Developer, & Certified Cheater, Stephen Ross, Supports Cuomo

For example, one of New York's wealthiest real estate developers, Stephen Ross, who is also the owner of the Miami Dolphins, was found by the NFL to have committed "tampering violations of unprecedented scope and severity". Ross famously rose from not being listed as a billionaire prior to the election of Michael Bloomberg, to being listed as the wealthiest NYC real estate developer around or shortly after Michael Bloomberg exited the NYC Mayoralty. Bloomberg provided Ross with possibly the best package of land deals, tax abatements, public financing and public infrastructure support that any real estate developer in NYC, ever got from any NYC Mayor in NYC history.

Stephen Ross lives in Florida - not New York. So presumably he does not pay any NYC or NYS personal income tax. And yet, during Eric Adams four years in office, Stephen Ross and his Related Companies and associated entities, have continued on the 'hot streak' that they started during the Bloomberg years, accelerating NYC public land transfers into Ross's seemingly 'clean' private hands. Stephen Ross also won the right to the Wollman Rink operations in 2021, after the Trump Organization was relieved of it, because of the January 6th Insurrection. The contract expires in 2027 and currently Ross and Trump - neither of which is a resident in NYC nor NYS - the top two - possibly the only two - contenders cited for the Central Park skating rink operations contract.

Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, set records for homelessness during his three Administrations, during which he facilitated and implemented massive transfers of public land to private billionaires. Stephen Ross was the biggest beneficiary, getting acres of public land for someting like $1 a pop. But there were a number of other wealthy real estate developers who cashed in as well.

Bloomberg - A Major Funder of Alleged Cheater Adams - Supports Cuomo

Bloomberg has reportedly funded Cuomo-supporting PAC's to the tune of $8 million in order to defeat Mamdani. Probably because Bloomberg and the other billionaires expect Mamdani will end the Oligarchy-Express gravy train, that Bloomberg appeared to start and Eric Adams seemed to resume via massive land and rights transfers of NYCHA public housing, which is a HUGE ASSET.

Former Mayor de Blasio does not appear to have participated in what appear public rip offs. This is likely why Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire Fox TV News owner, lambasted de Blasio for all 8 years of his Mayoralty. Murdoch is famous for using his NYC media outlets to manipulate voter perceptions so that they will vote for Murdoch's favored candidates who appear to take care of the billionaires at the expense of the people - like both Bloomberg and Adams have done.

Billionaire TV News & Ads Contain Numerous False Narratives

Murdoch launched a private propaganda campaign against Mamdani using his mass media outlets [Fox News, the NY Post & the Wall St Journal] and it has continued ever since. The barrage includes multiple dishonest narratives, some of which are somewhere between false to outright lies - more coming shortly. I'll give you two examples.

False Narrative 1 - The Rich Will Leave NYC

One is that the rich people will leave NYC so they don't have to pay higher taxes. Studies have been done showing that while some rich people do leave, most do not. Florida in not NYC. And thankfully, NYC is nothing like Florida.

Where you live, is where you learn - or in Florida's case - not learn. I don't have time to take this side route of Ron De Santis' book banning [burning?] efforts, his defunding education [in real terms via a funding freeze], and his trying to muzzle the academics in that state with the imposition of various censures. But most of the super rich aren't likely to find happiness spending the bulk of their time surrounded by the beach bums and retired golfers in Florida. See report written by Emily Eisner at the Fiscal Policy Institute - https://fiscalpolicy.org/new-tax-data-confirm-that-tax-flight-is-a-myth

False Narrative 2 - Was The London Times' Fake News Reporting, Election Interference?

The second false narrative looked to me, a lot like billionaire Rupert Murdoch election interference. Murdoch is famous for bending to breaking the law when it comes to trying to get his pols elected. Often enough he pulls out all stops. And I believe it's what he lives for - screwing the public, in public.

In this case Murdoch appeared to use the London Times - which he controls - to amplify a false report, about fake negative things said, by a 'de Blasio' imposter. Come on. Who believes this crap? Murdoch's crap. Especially after seeing Murdoch poop on the public - Trump style - over and over again after for so, so, so many decades of repeating the same.

You know who seems to believe reports like this? The same billionaire TV Newspeople who go running to Ohio, looking for Jamaicans eating their neighbors' dogs and cats, after Trump tells them to look into that. Too many TV Newspeople are just plain unqualified for the job, and they don't even know it. They think they are supposed to be 'modeling' the news instead of investigating and reporting it. They don't know their history, they don't seem to know the context, they don't seem to know what questions they should be asking, they don't show good news judgment, and they don't know how to filter out the chaff, which is the primary reason why so many New Yorkers and so many Americans are making poor, billionaire manipulated choices, in the voting booth.

Has Rupert Murdoch - an Alleged Cheater - Been Lying When he Apologizes?

Murdoch, of course, apologized for his newspaper's error, which he had already amplified by repeating it in his other news outlets, including the NY Post [some other billionaire press outlets did the same]. Just like he so sincerely apologized for hacking the phone of a mother who lost her child, so his media outlets could break headlines on her without her permission or knowing it, and for the 2021 completely dishonest reporting of the January 6th Insurrection thanks to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, and now for trying to sabotage Zohran Mamdani's chance to become NYC Mayor and tax the billionaires like Murdoch, so that the non-billionaires can catch a break and slow down what seems like the looting of the public's assets.

As my Mother used to tell me, "Don't worry about the rich. They know how to take care of themselves. That's why they are rich.".

Why are the Billionaires Afraid? For Us? Come On. You Know Better.

So, in closing, I want to ask you this. If Republicans really believed Mamdani would be harmful to the Democratic Party, why are they spending so much money to try to defeat him? If Cuomo is right about Mamdani's inexperience and inability to get things done, why are they spending millions upon millions of dollars attacking him with TV News ads that aren't honest - but in fact just the opposite? If 'he's not who we think he is', as the billionaire sponsored TV ads tell us - we think he will try to tax the rich and help everyone else - why are they so afraid of him? Because the billionaires are floating false narratives they know are false. They are the things the billionaires want us to believe by virtue of their teleprompter readers on TV News.

Zohran Mamdani is keeping them up at night because they are afraid the uninhibited oligarchic hog feeding at the public trough that they've enjoyed for the past four years, may be ending. And that they will have to deal with someone in the Mayor's Office who is smart, honest and working for us instead of them. Go Zorro Go.