Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s controversial, $54 million “Office of Mass Engagement” repeatedly spammed New Yorkers with Hizzoner-branded pleas to vote leading up to the primaries this week, in what some critics called a barely legal campaign that had little effect on turnout.
The newly created unit — which has been slammed as a “propaganda office” — spent weeks emailing and texting Big Apple voters with reminders about the June primaries that was denounced by some as a publicly funded electioneering effort by the mayor.
“There are some things that are legal but unethical, this is one of them,” one city political operative said of the effort.
The effort — which included Mamdani staffers approaching revelers at the Knicks ticker tape parade — was ripped for featuring ads with the mayor’s name and font similar to his campaign and similar to ads that were run for his slate of endorsed socialist candidates for Congress.
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“If it looks like electioneering, reads like electioneering and quacks like electioneering, it’s abusing government resources for politics,” said one former Mayor Eric Adams official. “Imagine this had the name of any other mayor, COIB [Conflict of Interest Board] would be shining a light in everybody’s eyes.”
Elected officials are not allowed to use their office to sway people on how to vote and have typically kept their names off any get-out-the-vote campaigns to ensure they do not inadvertently run afoul of city ethics laws. Such efforts are historically handled by the city’s independent Campaign Finance Board.
And despite allegedly blurring the lines of electioneering, the campaign seems to have had little effect.
Roughly 570,000 people cast their ballots Tuesday, just about 40,000 more votes than in 2022, the last off-year election, but with far fewer competitive races on the ballot.
Turnout last June came in at just over 1.1 million.
Mamdani endorsed Claire Valdez in New York’s 7th Congressional District, Darializa Avila Chevalier in New York’s 13th and Brad Lander in New York’s 10th. The controversial trio all came out on top Tuesday.
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The pro-vote campaign sent out messages that showed Mamdani was continuing to ride the Knicks bandwagon.
“Tomorrow at the historic Knicks championship parade the Office of Mass Engagement will be canvassing parade attendees, encouraging New Yorkers to ball by voting early! Get off the bench, and make your voice heard! Have you voted yet?” OME staffer Alvaro Lopez wrote online the day before the celebration.
“New Yorkers all across the city are headed to the polls, and the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement is reaching out to remind you to vote in the upcoming Primary Election! Early voting continues through June 21st, and Election Day is Tuesday, June 23rd,” one email wrote.
Some critics told The Post they never signed up to receive the mayor’s pet project’s communiques and wondered how they even got on the list.
“Why is the mayor sending this out?” one community member who received one of the emails fumed, adding, “The Board of Elections sends out materials relating to voting.”
“We don’t need another office engaged in this, and where are they getting our names from?”
City Hall did not answer questions about how many voters were talked to about the primaries or the unethical Knicks promo.
“Democracy is strongest when everyone takes part,” said Mamdani spokesperson Penelope Birnbaum. “That’s why the Office of Mass Engagement took to our city’s subways and sidewalks to talk with any New Yorker willing to stop for a conversation or take a flyer to make their voice heard.”
