Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jul 13

Mamdani Opposes Open Primaries for 1 Million NYC Independents as Civics Groups Renew Push

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jul 13

Mamdani Opposes Open Primaries for 1 Million NYC Independents as Civics Groups Renew Push

Q: After a mayoral veto blocked the ballot, what is the open primary movement’s next play?

The movement’s next play is to try to get the measure back on the ballot through the courts while also pressing the mayor’s new commission to take up the issue. After Mayor Zohran Mamdani used new state-backed authority to dissolve the Adams-era charter revision commission that had approved an open-primary proposal, that commission and its allies moved to sue. The legal challenge argues that the mayor’s action, and the state provision enabling it, were improper and aimed specifically at killing the ballot measure. Plaintiffs are seeking an expedited ruling so the proposal could still reach voters this fall, though election deadlines make that uncertain. At the same time, advocates are not relying only on litigation. They are lobbying Mamdani’s new Commission on Government Efficiency, which now controls the city’s charter-revision process, to study primary reform and eventually recommend a ballot question of its own. Public hearings have given supporters a venue to argue that the city’s 1.2 million independent voters should not be excluded from publicly funded primaries. That two-track strategy reflects the movement’s reality: the immediate path is legal, but the longer game is political. Supporters are trying to show broad civic backing, using testimony, data and public outreach to keep pressure on City Hall. Whether they win in court or not, their aim is to force open primaries back into the charter debate and make it harder for the issue to be sidelined again.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 13

Zohran Mamdani has emerged as a leading opponent of a renewed campaign to let all registered New York City voters cast ballots in party primaries.
The clash centers on the city’s closed primary system, which civic groups and independents say locks outsiders out, while Mamdani says he is “quite content” with the current rules.
Mamdani’s stance carries political weight because he won last year as a democratic socialist under the existing system, which the report says tends to favor incumbents and Democratic Party machinery.
The new push revives a fight Michael Bloomberg backed more than 20 years ago and now has support from his daughter, Emma Bloomberg, whose data company recently studied the issue.