Exclusive | Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a hypocrite for accepting donations from real estate honchos
Socialist mayoral wannabe Zohran Mamdani pledged not to take donations from real estate fat cats, but his campaign coffers are stuffed with $3,700 from the industry.The Queens state senator received $1,000 from Mohannad Malas, who heads Dana Investment Corp., a California-based firm that develops and manages commercial and residential properties nationwide.He pocketed $150 from Joseph Riggs, a principal at Hudson Companies.The company’s many New York projects include J Condominium in DUMBO, Riverwalk Park on Roosevelt Island, and New York University’s Founders Hall dorm complex in the East Village.Other donations from real estate big wigs include $100 from Matthew Hopkins, principal and co-founder of Acona Real Estate Advisors in Brooklyn; and $50 Eric Volpe, a principal at Corcoran Group.Besides $1,300 in those direct contributions, Mamdani is eligible to receive another $2,400 off the donations made by Riggs, Hopkins and Volpe because the city provides an 8-1 match on donations $250 and under.“He might not be bringing in the big-money real estate other mayoral candidates like [ex-Gov.
Andrew] Cuomo and [Mayor] Eric Adams have attracted, but these donations show just how disingenuous he is,” said a top NYC Democratic operative.“Zohran talks a big game about not wanting to be beholden to big-money, but this shows it is just talk.”The real estate money in Mamdani’s coffers shows “he’s a hypocrite,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic political consultant.“He wants to be in three places at once when he’s nowhere at all.”City Comptroller Brad Lander, another socialist running in the crowded Democratic mayoral primary, pledged in December to also stop taking money from principals and other top execs at for-profit real estate firms.
He also received a $150 donation from Riggs, but unlike Mamdani returned it the same day in January, records show.Mamdani’s real estate money is just a tiny piece of his $3.67 million campaign warchest, ...