Moderate Democrats, Independents, and Republicans are worried about Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s plans to “tax the rich” — and potentially drain the tax base — for free buses, free childcare, a rent freeze, and city-owned grocery stores. They worry about Mr. Mamdani’s “defund the police” rhetoric that he is trying to walk back. 

This panic is about the leftward lurch of Democratic leaders and the base and whether a 33-year-old socialist can be a good steward of the city’s finances. Nobody wants a return to the 1970s fiscal crisis or its murder rate.

Yet nobody seems to be talking about the more than $71 million in city taxpayer money — your money — that the city’s Campaign Finance Board has so far distributed this election cycle, and how the far-left is capitalizing on the matching funds system, combined with ranked choice voting, to fuel its rise.

‘Follow the Money’

In this year’s Democratic mayoral primary alone, the city’s Campaign Finance Board gave out $32.6 million in taxpayer-funded campaign cash to eight of the 11 candidates running for their party’s nomination. Among these, Mr. Mamdani received more than $7 million, while Governor Andrew Cuomo got $4.2 million and the city comptroller, Brad Lander, received $6.4 million.

Then there were the other candidates with little to no shot at winning who also reaped in big bucks at taxpayer expense. Zellnor Myrie got $3.5 million in matching funds and earned 1 percent of the vote in the first round of ranked choice voting. Scott Stringer took in $4.4 million in matching funds and earned 1.7 percent of the vote. The city council speaker, Adrienne Adams, received $2.4 million and earned 4 percent of the vote.

These dollar amounts may seem like a drop in the bucket for a city with a $100 billion annual budget. Yet $70 million is higher than the cost Mr. Mamdani projects for his five city-owned grocery stores. And like any government program, the matching funds one keeps ballooning. The city distributed $126 million in the 2021 election cycle — the first year of ranked choice voting — compared to $38 million in 2013.

RCV Gamechanger

The 2025 primary was only the second election for which the city used ranked choice voting. What the mayoral primary made clear is that combining ranked choice voting with public matching funds gives low-performing candidates zero incentive to drop out of the race.

Instead, what we saw this cycle is that candidates used their failing mayoral runs as taxpayer-funded name recognition campaigns. Combined with cross-endorsements, floundering candidates didn’t have to worry about being spoilers and used their campaigns to build their bases for a next run or maybe a MSNBC contributor spot if they’re lucky.

“It’s a taxpayer-funded publicity tour,” a Democratic strategist, Hank Sheinkopf, tells The New York Sun. “It’s very expensive and it takes money out of the mouths of poor people who could use healthcare and children’s services.”

It also keeps the political industrial complex getting their paychecks. Let’s take Michael Blake as an example. The former Bronx state assemblyman and Obama campaign aide was polling at 1 percent or less throughout the Democratic mayoral primary campaign. In late May, I attended a Zoom event Mr. Blake held for reporters and was the only person in attendance. By all metrics, his campaign was failing.

Yet on June 20, four days before the primary and after early voting had already started, the Campaign Finance Board awarded Mr. Blake with more than $2 million in matching funds. Who thinks this is a good use of taxpayer money?

The answer is only Mr. Blake, his campaign consultants, and the landlord of the Bronx office space he rented. The other minor beneficiary was Mr. Mamdani. The two candidates cross-endorsed each other in mid-June, asking their supporters to rank the other on their ballots.

Mr. Blake used the one debate he qualified for to attack Mr. Cuomo. At a Zohran Mamdani debate watch party I attended hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America, several DSA members told me they liked Mr. Blake. Let’s bet Mr. Blake is banking on their support for the next campaign he launches.

Gaming the System

The city created the Campaign Finance Board and adopted its matching funds program in 1988 as an ethics reform with laudable goals: to limit political corruption and the influence of big money in city politics. The initial program offered $1 in public funds for every $1 raised from constituent donations up to $1,000. In exchange, candidates agree to certain rules like spending caps.

Now, candidates get $8 for every $1 they raise from small donors. The real game changer, though, is combining this generous taxpayer-funded campaign cash with ranked choice voting. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party has figured out how to game the system for maximum effect. Moderates and Republicans should take note.

“I’m actually asking you to donate to another candidate running for mayor. Her name is Adrienne Adams,” Mr. Mamdani said in a video he posted to X in May, after he’d maxed out his matching funds cap and a day before the next matching funds deadline. “We are all running together to defeat Andrew Cuomo, to defeat Eric Adams’s second term.”

Mr. Mamdani pushed his donors to give to Ms. Adams because she could potentially syphon votes from Mr. Cuomo’s base of black moderates in Queens and Brooklyn. Like a good socialist, he saw no issue with pushing for more taxpayer outlays — especially if it benefited him and harmed Mr. Cuomo. A City & State analysis found 370 Mamdani donors who gave to Ms. Adams in the two days after he posted the video.

The Working Families Party also strategically endorsed a slate of four candidates instead of just one. Mr. Lander cross-endorsed with Mr. Mamdani and even campaigned with him on primary day. He spoke at the Mamdani victory party and was lauded as a comrade in arms. By contrast, when a reporter asked Mr. Cuomo whom else he ranked on his ballot, the former governor said just himself. 

Now, the Democratic Socialists of America are encouraging Mr. Lander to primary a moderate Democratic U.S. congressman, Dan Goldman. Staying in the race was only a boon to Mr. Lander, even if it cost taxpayers $6 million.

Looking Forward

The only candidate to drop out of the Democratic mayoral primary this cycle was Mayor Eric Adams, who decided to run for re-election as an independent and keeps getting denied matching funds from the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Putting potential board biases aside, one could argue that the matching funds program has done little to take big money out of city politics — super PACs still exist — and it hasn’t eliminated corruption either. Just look at current and prior allegations against Mr. Adams, a former city comptroller, John Liu, a former New York lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

If Mr. Mamdani wins in November, which polls show is likely, the far left of the Democratic Party will use 2025 as a blueprint for future races — and these campaigns will be paid for in large part by taxpayers. 

New York state also adopted a generous matching funds program in 2022. Governor Kathy Hochul has allocated $145 million for next year’s state elections. Coming off a high of a potential mayoral win, the Democratic Socialists of America may field more left-wing challengers to state legislators — and again, you will be paying for it.