Mayor Mamdani’s 15-member Charter Revision Commission was formed in a rush on May 28 and did its work in a rush, finishing last week, but that was because of their ultimate political purpose: to block a referendum question proposing nonpartisan elections (also called open primaries) from the November ballot.
The effort may succeed this year, but then the issue will appear on ballots in November 2027. Whenever New York City voters face that choice, either this fall or next year, they should say yes to open up the electoral process so that party registration is irrelevant to electing mayors and other officials and join the overwhelming number of U.S. cities, including places like L.A., Chicago and Boston, with that fair system.
New York State law says that the city clerk shall give the Board of Elections a certified copy of any referendum, proposition, or proposal at least three months before the General Election. The election is Nov. 3, making Aug. 3 the key date. The charter panel was racing to make that deadline.
Chaired by Patrick Gaspard, a key outside campaign adviser to Mamdani, who once was the executive director of the Democratic National Committee and a major union leader (and was appointed to top political jobs by President Barack Obama), the group’s vice chair is Emma Wolfe, also a former union official and Bill de Blasio’s top political adviser. The panel’s secretary is Susan Kang, a CUNY political science professor and Democratic Socialists of America member who worked on Mamdani’s very first election to the Assembly in 2020.
The Democratic Party, the big unions and the DSA don’t like nonpartisan elections, so even though many New Yorkers testified in favor of open primaries during the series of 10 public hearings, the marching orders were not deviated from.
As Mamdani said himself, he likes the current system of partisan primaries just fine and we understand why, as that’s how he won last year. But that process excludes more than a million registered voters who are not enrolled in one of the political parties. Their voice is silent during the primary, which is a public event paid for with public dollars.
What the Gaspard panel, which used the cutesy name of Commission on Government Efficiency, did put on the November ballot are five somewhat beneficial, although not major questions.
Question 1 speeds up the public approval process for things on the streets like ramps, planters and cafes. Question 2 simplifies contractor questionnaires used by the Procurement Policy Board and requires quarterly meetings. Question 3 deals with faster disposition of unused city property and expedites office leasing. Question 4 shifts waterfront permitting from the Department of Small Business Services to the Department of Buildings. All fine, but definitely small bore.
Question 5 is the best of the bunch, to establish goals for putting money into the city’s reserve funds.
Once Nov. 3 comes, the Commission on Government Efficiency vanishes. They found a few areas to make the city work a little bit better, but that was just a side job, compared to keeping nonpartisan elections off the ballot. A commission appointed in his waning hours by Mayor Eric Adams did propose that, but it was undone by a state law, which so far the courts have upheld.
However, thousands of signatures have been collected to put the question before New Yorkers. That can be blocked this year, but would then automatically appear on the ballot next year. Thank goodness.