By: Fern Sidman

On the eve of a closely watched Democratic primary that could reshape the political landscape of the nation’s largest city, the Chicago Tribune issued a blistering editorial Monday evening aimed directly at New York voters. The paper cautioned against casting ballots for progressive frontrunner and self-declared democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, warning that New York risks repeating what the Tribune called “Chicago’s mistake” in electing Brandon Johnson as mayor in 2023.

Legendary radio personality Anthony Cumia exposes the Marxist Zohran

As reported by VIN News, the Tribune’s last-minute intervention is a striking and unusual cross-city rebuke — a Midwestern newspaper publicly pleading with East Coast voters not to follow the path Chicago has taken. In its editorial, the Tribune board wrote, “We’ve seen this movie before, and the ending isn’t pretty,” evoking the specter of what they describe as two years of failed promises, fiscal mismanagement, and plunging public morale in Chicago.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old Queens assemblyman and leading voice for the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, has rapidly gained traction in recent weeks. According to a new Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey released Monday and cited extensively by VIN News, Mamdani has now edged ahead of former Governor Andrew Cuomo in the latest round of ranked-choice projections. His dramatic rise — from 1% in January to over 32% now — has upended expectations and sent alarm bells ringing across the city’s political establishment.

At the center of the Tribune’s concern is Mamdani’s unabashedly left-wing agenda. His campaign platform includes policies that would have once been considered fringe: a citywide rent freeze, the creation of municipally operated grocery stores, free public transit, and the imposition of multi-billion-dollar taxes on corporations and wealthy residents. Mamdani, who has often quoted anti-capitalist thinkers on the campaign trail, insists that these changes are necessary to make New York “a city for the many, not the money.”

But critics — and increasingly national media outlets — argue that Mamdani’s policy prescriptions are less a vision than a warning sign. The Chicago Tribune drew a stark parallel between Mamdani’s soaring rhetoric and Brandon Johnson’s 2023 upset victory in Chicago, which was cheered by progressives nationwide but quickly soured amid rising crime, declining business confidence, and contentious budget negotiations.

“Johnson’s approval rating cratered in his second year,” the Tribune noted, “a reflection of how quickly progressive promises collapsed under the weight of governance and Chicago’s financial reality.” The board went further, warning that Mamdani’s ideological posture “is yet more radical” than Johnson’s ever was.

The Tribune’s message echoes recent concerns voiced by multiple major publications. As VIN News has previously reported, The New York Post, Daily News, and even The New York Times editorial board have issued cautionary notes about Mamdani’s candidacy. While each outlet varies in tone and emphasis, the central theme is the same: that Mamdani’s lack of executive experience, combined with his sweeping and untested proposals, could place the city’s fragile post-pandemic recovery at risk.

One New York Times columnist went so far as to suggest that Mamdani’s vision would “turn New York into an experiment in municipal Marxism,” while the Post declared that “the next mayor needs to manage a $100 billion economy — not run a graduate seminar in class warfare.”

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, once considered the presumptive front-runner, now finds himself slipping behind Mamdani in final-day polling. The Emerson College poll cited by VIN News shows Cuomo with 35% of first-choice support to Mamdani’s 32%, a gap that narrows further as ranked-choice tabulations proceed. In simulated final-round matchups, Mamdani edges out Cuomo 51.8% to 48.2%.

Political analysts say Cuomo’s failure to consolidate the moderate lane, combined with a slow and uneven campaign rollout, has given Mamdani ample room to maneuver — particularly among voters under 50, where he holds a commanding 2-to-1 advantage. Mamdani also enjoys strong backing from white and Asian voters, as well as from college-educated New Yorkers and early voters. Cuomo, meanwhile, continues to poll well among Black and Hispanic communities, older voters, and those without four-year degrees.

In a sign of shifting alliances, city Comptroller Brad Lander — a longtime progressive in his own right — has effectively thrown his support behind Mamdani, urging his base to list Mamdani second if he himself fails to advance. According to the VIN News report, that endorsement proved critical in recent polling: Mamdani’s decisive edge came in the eighth round of ranked-choice simulation, when Lander’s voters overwhelmingly broke for the assemblyman rather than returning to Cuomo.

What sets Monday’s Chicago Tribune editorial apart is not just its timing — dropping mere hours before polls open — but its tone of lived experience. “Trust us — we’re living that reality,” the board concluded, referring to what it described as a gradual unraveling of civic life under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration. While the editorial stops short of endorsing Cuomo, it urges New Yorkers to “learn from the cities that once thought idealism was a substitute for competence.”

VIN News reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment, but they declined to respond directly to the Tribune’s criticisms. In prior statements, Mamdani has defended his vision as “a necessary correction to decades of neoliberal neglect,” adding that “what’s politically possible is only limited by our collective imagination.”

As New Yorkers head to the polls Tuesday between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., they face a stark choice between two very different visions for the city’s future. Will they embrace the bold, transformative agenda of Mamdani, or opt for the seasoned leadership — and political baggage — of Cuomo? With a tightly contested race and the ranked-choice system creating unexpected pathways to victory, every vote and every ranking will matter.

But if the warnings from the Chicago Tribune and other editorial boards resonate, voters may take Tuesday’s decision not only as a referendum on Eric Adams’ mayoralty or Andrew Cuomo’s redemption arc — but as a test of whether New York is willing to gamble its future on a progressive experiment already playing out elsewhere.

As VIN News summed up in its own commentary: “The city stands at a political crossroads, and the world is watching.”