A Crucial Vote

By: Anessa Cohen

I do not like to get involved in election matters when they occur in areas where I’m not eligible to vote, but with Election Day just two weeks away, and with so much at stake with the New York Mayoral race, I must make an exception due to the importance of what’s at stake.

So, let me clarify. What’s at stake: everything. Mamdani favors raising taxes on the wealthy to fund proposals that he believes would make the city more affordable, but would just squeeze the middle class. These proposals include free bus service, universal child care, and his signature issue: a freeze on rent increases for the city’s one million rent-regulated apartments. Opponents say a rent freeze would harm landlords, who have also been hit hard by inflation.

Mamdani supports an economic boycott of Israel and has promised that if Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visited New York City, he would arrest him for war crimes. In addition, he advocates for a universal health care system, immigrants’ rights, tuition-free higher education, nationwide rent regulation, a 32-hour workweek, and getting rid of mandatory jail time for some types of crimes.

We have never faced such a dire situation in New York City as we have with the possibility of candidate Zohran Mamdani winning the race for Mayor. If he wins, he could do incredible damage to the Jews of New York and the fact that he is the front-runner is particularly troublesome. The fact that he is leading in all the polls despite the fact that he never should have gotten this far is extremely scary.

One of the biggest problems we are facing right now in America is the rise of Islamic extremists in positions of power. These are immigrants who have brought their ideology to America and instead of assimilating into our culture, they look to remake America in the image of their native country. Toward that end, they have aligned themselves with the Democratic Socialists (aka Progressives), because their anti-Western, anti-American agenda is useful for furthering their cause of imposing their extremist ideology over the American population.

Unfortunately, because he is running against several candidates, Mamdani has a good chance in winning unless the voters make it their business to go out and vote against him by choosing the best candidate that has the ability to beat him rather than splitting their vote between the two remaining candidates running against Mamdani. The one candidate that has the greatest chance of winning the race if the vote is not split is Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo himself was a decent governor who, as a moderate, always tried to keep things balanced politically so there were no extremes.

During Covid, when we were too terrified to leave the house without masks and gloves, then-Governor Cuomo gave daily briefings on TV to keep us strong and sane throughout this incredibly frightening time. I know I felt those briefings kept me sane during that horrible time!

It was not unusual to hear that people in other parts of the country also tuned into those daily briefings because just seeing him there discussing the daily events, offering emotional support was so helpful that even those out-of-state felt supported during that trying time. Today, no one brings up those uplifting daily briefings which were a major salve to everyone back then. The whole day would be structured around those 11 a.m. briefings between the governor and the people.

There were also extra briefings during those early days of the Covid epidemic, when it was all just so overwhelming that no one knew what to do and then the Governor would get on TV and calm us down.

The media, of course, will tell you that Mamdani has new ideas, is younger than Cuomo, and the former governor didn’t always make the right decisions with the nursing homes. Agreed. Mistakes were made, not because of any neglect or incompetence, but because of the minimal knowledge we had about Covid during those early days. And yes, sometimes decisions became a life and death matter because so many people were dying from this epidemic and no one knew exactly how to handle it and so many of the treatments were experimental at that time.

The bottom line is we have a chance to vote and elect a man who has proven to be there for us when we needed him and even more so when everything was topsy turvy. If you are eligible to vote in New York City, please go out and vote and get your friends and family to vote as well. This is no time to stay home and complain if the wrong candidate wins. Make sure your voice is heard and vote for Cuomo for mayor of New York for all of our sakes! n

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering full service real estate residential, commercial, and management services. She can be reached at 516-569-5007. Readers are encouraged to send any questions or scenarios by email to [email protected].