The Nation - Thanks to New York City’s nearly four-decade-old clean elections system that publicly finances candidates for municipal office, [mayoral candidate] Mamdani has had nearly $13 million of government funds to run a competitive campaign against tens of millions of dollars that oligarchs spent to boost disgraced Democratic former governor Andrew Cuomo.
Without that public money matching small-dollar donations to
Mamdani’s campaign, he might never have had enough resources to finance
his reported
$5 million television and digital ad campaign that spread his message,
his $1 million of mail and literature that made him a household name,
and his $2 million campaign staff that organized communities and flooded
the social media algorithm...
This inconvenient truth runs counter to the fairy tales that pundits, activists, and armchair strategists love to manufacture—the romantic myths about campaigns being won purely through idealism, grassroots energy, strong messaging, likeable candidates, and shrewd Moneyball-style tactics, cash be damned.
No comments:
Post a Comment