Ahead of the closely watched New York City mayoral race, everyone is looking for a lesson from progressive Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s rise to political stardom. The real answer may be a vastly undervalued political strategy: public money. Could public financing of elections overcome Citizens United and the flood of corporate cash and corruption in American politics?
In the latest episode of Lever Time’s MONEYBOMB series, we explore the importance of publicly funded campaigns. David Sirota speaks with two people who have had front-row seats to how public financing is combating election corruption — Karen Wharton, democracy coalition coordinator for Citizen Action of New York, and Jillian Gilchrest, a Connecticut state representative now running for Congress.
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A full transcript of today’s episode is available below.
TRANSCRIPT
Following is an automated, unedited transcription of this episode. If you plan to quote any part of this transcript, please first confirm that it is correct by listening to the audio.
[00:00:00] David Sirota: From The Lever's reader supported newsroom, this is Lever Time. I'm David Sirota. Since Zohran Mamdani, shocking victory in the Democratic primary for New York City Mayor, everyone seems to be looking for a lesson in his rise to political stardom. Was his ascent due to his captivating ads, his gripping social media presence, his populist messaging?
Or his undeniable charisma. I'd argue that those were all important, but that there's an even bigger factor, almost nobody is mentioning. It's the thing that allowed all of those compelling aspects of Zohran Mamdani's campaign. To reach voters in the first place and without this one thing, it's a good bet nobody would even know who Zohran Mamdani is.
That one thing I'm talking about
