The Money Versus Mamdani in the Final Stretch of NYC Mayoral Race

Unpacking the expensive eleventh-hour efforts by billionaires targeting Zohran Mamdani.

By Meghnad Bose and Biplob Kumar Das, Drop Site News

Former Governor of New York and mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo’s billionaire donors have launched an expensive eleventh-hour effort to disparage his electoral opponent, Zohran Mamdani, splurging on attack ads against the Democratic nominee. The late surge drove independent campaign expenses in this election over the $50 million mark on Thursday, with more than $12 million spent in the second half of October alone.

Independent expenses are those made by groups such as super PACs, and the groups are not supposed to coordinate with a candidate’s campaign. However, over the course of this NYC mayoral election, Cuomo’s campaign was hit with two separate penalties totalling $1.3 million for suspected coordination with Fix The City, a super PAC backing him.

Since early voting began on October 25, two billionaire-backed, anti-Mamdani super PACs—Fix The City and Defend NYC—have shelled out over $2.6 million in campaign ads, out of which nearly $2 million has been spent on attacking the Democratic nominee.

An analysis by Drop Site News shows that as of Thursday, independent expenses backing Cuomo were more than seven times the amount of money put behind Mamdani. Cuomo has exceeded Mamdani by a staggering $36 million in outside support. The difference highlights just how much independent expenses can skew the overall financial support behind a candidate.

Subtracting independent expenses, the Mamdani and Cuomo campaigns are on a more even financial footing, partly due to matching funds from the city. Mamdani’s campaign has had $17 million at its disposal, of which $13 million came from public funds, while Cuomo’s campaign has had $14 million available, of which $8 million was from public funds.

Yet, once the independent expenses are added, the total amount backing Cuomo or targeting Mamdani totals $56 million—close to two and a half times of the amount backing Mamdani or attacking Cuomo.