{"id":9468,"date":"2025-10-20T15:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9468\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T15:16:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:16:08","slug":"nyc-business-leaders-drop-3-million-over-3-days-into-mayoral-race-in-bid-to-stop-mamdani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/9468\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC business leaders drop $3 million over 3 days into mayoral race in bid to stop Mamdani"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of wealthy New York businessmen have in the past few days pumped more than $3 million into newly-formed super PACs that aim to stop mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani<\/a> as the prospect of the democratic socialist running City Hall looks increasingly likely, new filings reveal.<\/p>\n

The last ditch spending blitz comes as Mamdani continues to dominate the mayoral race, with polls showing him holding a double digit lead over his closest competitor, independent candidate Andrew Cuomo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The spending spree \u2014 which comes as early voting in the Nov. 4 election is set to start this Saturday \u2014 marks the latest sign that the city\u2019s business communities are increasingly anxious about the rise of Mamdani, who has vowed to as mayor increase taxes on millionaires and corporations<\/a> in order to underwrite an affordability agenda that includes a dramatic expansion of free childcare.<\/p>\n

The businessmen engaged in the effort, Eminence Capital CEO Ricky Sandler, real estate investor Richard Mack and real estate investor Marty Berger, funneled the $3.264 million into three new PACs via a corporate entity they control called Put NYC First, Inc., disclosures show.<\/p>\n

\"RickyRicky Sandler, founder of Eminence Capital, attends Allen & Company’s Sun Valley Conference on July 12, 2012 in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The largest chunk of that, $2 million, was donated Friday to For Our City, one of the newly-formed PACs, per the filings. That PAC, in turn, placed a $1.5 million \u201cmedia buy\u201d Sunday for ads that are expected to targett Mamdani, records show. The specifics weren\u2019t immediately available.<\/p>\n

The treasurer for the For Our City PAC didn\u2019t immediately return a request for comment. Sandler, Mack and Berger couldn\u2019t immediately be reached, either.<\/p>\n

The trio\u2019s Put NYC First entity also pledged just over $1 million this weekend to Stop the Socialists, another newly-formed PAC. That PAC hadn\u2019t registered any spending as of Monday morning, and a rep didn\u2019t return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The business honchos\u2019 entity earlier this month also donated just under $255,000 to a third super PAC, Good Growth NYC, previously unreported filings show. That PAC has so far spent $200,000 of that on street \u201ccanvassing\u201d for Cuomo\u2019s campaign and another $13,000 on \u201cflyer\u201d boosting the former governor, according to records.<\/p>\n

\"IndependentIndependent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks during a mayoral debate, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo\/Angelina Katsanis, Pool)<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Mamdani didn\u2019t immediately return a request for comment. A spokesman for Cuomo, who by law can\u2019t coordinate any activities with super PACs supporting his campaign, didn\u2019t respond to messages, either.<\/p>\n

Unlike campaigns of candidates, super PACs have no fundraising or spending caps<\/a>, allowing them to funnel unlimited amounts of money into elections to try to impact the outcome.<\/p>\n

Outside spending in this year\u2019s mayoral race has reached historic levels, with billionaires and business leaders pouring tens of millions of dollars into efforts mostly aimed at hampering Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Prior to their new spending, the entity controlled by Sandler, Mack and Berger had already dished out $750,000 to two other PACs, including $250,000 to New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, a pro-Cuomo entity.<\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Mack attends the UJA-Federation Of New York Real Estate Luncheon at Cipriani 42nd Street on June 12, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 is coordinating with Fix the City<\/a>, by far the largest pro-Cuomo super PAC operating in the general election cycle.<\/p>\n

Fix the City, which also boosted Cuomo\u2019s unsuccessful\u00a0campaign against Mamdani in June\u2019s Democratic mayoral primary, has raised more than $30 million to date, including receiving a $1 million contribution from Airbnb founder Joe Gebbia last week.<\/p>\n

Based on recent polls, however, the heavy PAC spending is doing little to change the dynamics of the race.<\/p>\n

Nearly all polls continue to show Mamdani beatong Cuomo handily in a three-way matchup that also includes Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa, who\u2019s polling at the back of the pack. One new poll<\/a> released Monday, however, suggested Cuomo would have a far better shot at beating Mamdani if Sliwa steps out of the race.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 20, 2025 at 10:59 AM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of wealthy New York businessmen have in the past few days pumped more than $3 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[80,302,9,24,55,54,56,63,7975,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-9468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-andrew-cuomo","9":"tag-city-hall","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-city-news","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-stop-the-socialists","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}