{"id":32520,"date":"2025-11-07T22:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32520\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T22:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:52:16","slug":"mayor-elect-zohran-mamdani-gets-to-work-staffing-city-hall-hours-after-stunning-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32520\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani gets to work staffing City Hall hours after stunning win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zohran Mamdani, the youngest man in more than\u00a0a century to become New York City mayor<\/a>, has picked senior officials from the Adams, de Blasio, Bloomberg and Biden administrations to help him staff up the City Hall he’ll take over Jan 1.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Queens the morning after his historic victory, Mamdani, 34, introduced the team, all women, including Lina Khan, President Joe Biden’s trust-busting commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, and Maria Torres-Springer, a senior official in the mayoral administrations of\u00a0Eric Adams, Bill de Blasio and Mike Bloomberg. Also on the team are Mel Hartzog, a former de Blasio deputy mayor for heath and human services and top citywide budget czar, and Grace Bonilla, the head of United Way in the city.<\/p>\n

“I and my team will build a City Hall capable of delivering on the promises of this campaign,” Mamdani said, standing next to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. “We will form an administration that is in equal parts capable and compassionate, driven by integrity, and willing to work just as hard as the millions of New Yorkers who call this city home.”<\/p>\n

Mamdani was elected Tuesday as New York City\u2019s 111th mayor, pledging to enact a left-leaning\u00a0agenda intended to cut the cost of living in the nation\u2019s most expensive metropolis, while topping Andrew M. Cuomo, a dynastic foe\u00a0once considered unbeatable, until he wasn’t<\/a>. Mamdani’s improbable campaign, propelled by grassroots outreach and\u00a0viral\u00a0TikTok<\/a> videos, surged from near-zero\u00a0poll numbers during the early days of the Democratic primary to front-runner status and global stardom. And on Wednesday, Mamdani nodded to an aphorism from the late former governor,\u00a0Mario M.\u00a0 \u00a0Cuomo, father of the man Mamdani defeated.<\/p>\n

“The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at nine, but the beautiful prose of governing has only begun,” said Mamdani, a state assemblyman representing\u00a0Queens, who has\u00a0little experience managing bureaucracies beyond offices employing\u00a0a few staffers.\u00a0His picks\u00a0announced Wednesday have years of experience managing massive bureaucracies and budgets the size of some countries’.<\/p>\n

New York City has more than 300,000 municipal employees and a budget of $116 billion.<\/p>\n

Mamdani, who will be inaugurated to succeed Adams on New Year’s Day, said he received a concession call from Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa but had yet to hear from Cuomo as of Wednesday,\u00a0nor has he spoken to President Donald Trump or Adams.<\/p>\n

With 97.18% of vote scanners reporting, Mamdani got 50.39% of votes, Cuomo 41.59% and Republican Curtis Sliwa 7.11%, according to the city’s Board of Elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Torres-Springer, who has been advising Mamdani for months, was most recently Adams\u2019 first deputy mayor \u2014 the post that runs the city day to day \u2014 and earlier this year resigned in apparent protest over Adams’ dealings with the Trump administration in the aftermath of its decision to drop criminal charges against the\u00a0mayor\u00a0in exchange for cooperation on Trump’s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n

Khan was Biden\u2019s FTC commissioner for the entirety of his presidency and also drew admiration from some on the political right with her attempts to break up corporate monopolies.<\/p>\n

Although none of the officials with Mamdani on Wednesday have\u00a0policing or public safety backgrounds, he\u00a0reiterated Wednesday what he had announced last month before a mayoral debate: He wants to keep Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve made my intention clear to retain Commissioner Tisch, and I look forward to having conversations with her on that very subject,” he said.<\/p>\n

Tisch\u00a0hasn\u2019t said\u00a0whether she would stay.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said he plans to deliver on his promises, including fast and free buses, universal child care and a rent freeze.<\/p>\n

“Politics, once again, is offering more than just a settling for the crumbs that are not able to meet the needs of so many families across the city,” Mamdani said. “We are finally offering a vision that can meet the scale of the crisis in working class New Yorkers’ lives.”<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.\n<\/p>\n