Politics

Press Pass Problem

Published

4 months ago

May 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Tuesday that his administration will review the press credential application process.

DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 49

YOU GET A PASS, AND YOU GET A PASS, AND YOU GET A PASS…: Mayor Zohran Mamdani is conceding the way City Hall doles out press passes is “not” good policy – after a trio of Luigi Mangione admirers celebrated the alleged murder of a health care CEO while flaunting newly minted press passes.

“Those three individuals should not have received press passes,” the mayor told reporters today, referencing the three Mangione supporters, who call themselves the Mangionistas.

The Mangionistas told reporters Monday outside a Manhattan courthouse that the children of slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson are “better off without their Dad” and that they “don’t give a flying fuck he died.”

They also posed for pictures with their press passes in hand — an image that landed on the cover of The New York Post this morning, with the tabloid squarely blaming City Hall for the fiasco.

Mamdani is now distancing himself from the city’s press pass policy — saying his administration will review its media credential application process, a job previously handled by the NYPD. That changed after 2020 protests in response to George Floyd’s murder prompted questions about whether the city’s police should control journalists’ access.

The internal review from Mamdani comes as he has sought to publicly ease tensions with business leaders after the mayor filmed a “Tax the Rich” video outside the pied-à-terre of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin that inflamed the hedge fund titan and other business leaders.

In public remarks, Griffin criticized Mamdani’s decision to use his personal address to promote his soak-the-rich policies and even referenced Thompson’s murder last year, which occurred only a few blocks away from the pied-à-terre in question. He also said he is excited to move much of his company’s operations to Miami.

Since then, Mamdani has seemingly been in rich-biz-exec damage control mode, publicly praising Griffin and reportedly reaching out via intermediaries to try and schedule a meeting. Mamdani also set up one-on-one sit-downs with other CEOs, including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon on Monday. He also met with Blackstone president Jonathan Gray last week.

The Mangionista press pass debacle certainly doesn’t stand to help his tension-easing efforts.

City Hall refused to answer a question from Playbook about when their passes were awarded, though The Post declared the three Mangione fans were awarded the credentials under Mamdani. A reporter for The Guardian, Victoria Bekiempis, posted the result of a records request she made which indicated dozens of individuals have obtained press passes in connection with the Mangione trial, with about half granted before Mamdani took over as mayor.

“There is a good-natured debate to be had about where a press pass should extend and where it shouldn’t. However, the three people that we are talking about don’t fall within that debate,” Mamdani also said today. “I, as the mayor, should not be deciding who is considered a journalist worthy of a pass and who is not. However, what we should have is a process that people can trust.”

As mayor, Mamdani has embraced “new media” influencers and content creators, even holding press events exclusively for them. Journalists from Room 9 — the City Hall press room — also say they’ve lodged complaints to Mamdani’s press office about the lax availability of city press credentials.

For instance, Raul Rivera, a man who allegedly bit a Mamdani campaign volunteer at a rally before his election, still held onto his press pass after his arrest, according to eyewitnesses who saw it around his neck at press conferences outside City Hall, where he is a frequent disruptor and provocateur. Other independent news gatherers, like the man behind the far-right “Viral News NYC,” were incensed about the Mangionista’s getting credentialed.

“I remember when I first got my press pass,” wrote the account, which internet sleuths have identified as written by Oren Levy. “I was proud that I was able to get one. Now it’s just another piece of plastic with no real meaning behind it because every jerk off and their mother has one.” — Jason Beeferman

From the Capitol

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and top Democrats are trying to lock down a final budget deal.

ALMOST THERE: Voting on the seven-week late state budget may begin next Tuesday.

Assembly Democrats were told during a closed-door conference today that votes are being eyed for early next week as top lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul try to finish up the $268 billion tax-and-spend plan.

“Next week is looking more promising,” Assemblymember Michaelle Solages said.

NO IMPACT: The deal between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and five unions to end a three-day Long Island Rail Road strike won’t affect the yet-to-be-completed state budget’s bottomline, state Senate Transportation Committee Chair Jeremy Cooney said.

On Monday night, Hochul announced the agreement ending the strike for the commuter rail service that connects New York City to a vital, vote-rich suburban bellwether.

Standing beside the governor, MTA CEO Janno Lieber said they were able to reach a deal that was structured in a way that doesn’t prompt new fare increases or tax hikes.

The unions have been working without a contract for three years. Salary increases for those years — 3 percent, 3 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively — will be paid retroactively, but the sticking point was how to handle a fourth year that begins next month. NY1 reported the salary increase would be 4.5 percent with a $3,000 lump sum and that the contract year would be extended by six weeks. — Nick Reisman and Ry Rivard

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will be at a the New York Republican State Committee’s annual gala, hosting a fundraiser with GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.

BLAKEMAN’S DESANTIS BASH: The New York GOP is hosting a fundraiser with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tonight as their gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman hopes to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The New York Republican State Committee’s annual gala, set to take place at 7 p.m. at The Plaza Hotel, will feature remarks from the Florida governor as he makes an uphill push for Blakeman and others to turn New York red.

The event will occur at the same time as the Legislative Correspondents Association’s annual “LCA Show” in Albany, where the city’s press corps spoofs the New York politicians they cover with an original musical in a longstanding tradition. Hochul and Blakeman were originally scheduled to deliver the show’s “rebuttals,” where the electeds who are the targets of the jokes get the chance to give comedic retorts in front of the live audience, but Blakeman canceled his appearance. He will send a video instead.

“We regret the conflict with the LCA show, which was unavoidable,” the state GOP said in a press advisory.

Other GOP candidates like attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy and comptroller hopeful Joseph Hernandez will also deliver remarks.

The swanky gala is taking place as another big name in the GOP — President Donald Trump — is flying to New York this week to hold an event with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the Hudson Valley on Friday.

Despite the show of support for New York candidates from some of the Republican Party’s biggest names, not all is kumbaya between national and local leaders. Just weeks ago, Trump broke from state GOP Chair Ed Cox with his endorsement in the race to replace Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. — Jason Beeferman

TERMINAL TURMOIL: The path forward for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal is turning into a point of contention in the heated primary between Rep. Dan Goldman and former City Comptroller Brad Lander.

The initiative to revamp the Red Hook terminal — led in part by Goldman — has been a delicate process. A task force approved the proposal last September after five delayed votes due to holdouts from Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and City Council Member Shahana Hanif, who eventually came around. The project is still years away from construction.

But at a forum hosted this morning by Abundance New York and NYC New Liberals, Lander said he thinks “a little more time is needed to refine that plan” — a sentiment he’s recently shared publicly. But privately, Lander reportedly “lobbied holdout members of a city task force last year to line up support” for the plan, according to Crain’s. When asked if he changed his position on the terminal, Lander replied that he “didn’t take a public position at the time that the plan was adopted,” later adding that he had “doubts about the plan at the time.”

Lander noted that people questioned the nature of port operations at the harbor and transportation in the area.

“With a new administration, with some doubts about it, it is worth a few more months,” Lander said during the forum. “I will be a champion to get it done, and you know I will be, because you’ve seen me on every single project, every single hard choice, being on the side of spending some time building consensus, and then moving forward productively.”

Goldman appeared on stage after Lander, who said he didn’t want a debate because he didn’t think “one minute sniping back and forth” would be as productive as the moderator Ben Max “asking thoughtful questions that push each of us.” The incumbent wanted seven debates; Lander committed to two.

Goldman agreed the plan “certainly needs some work in terms of the transit and infrastructure, and making sure that the space can support what is proposed,” but he was quick to fire back. He accused his challenger of “flip-flopping” on his support for the project and drew a contrast with Lander’s Gowanus rezoning. The incumbent said that rezoning “was done well” — but that he also hears from Gowanus residents now priced out of the neighborhood — a dynamic he doesn’t want to see unfold with the Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

“The concerns that you hear about, ‘Oh we need a few more months, the process,’ that is NIMBYism — that is how things don’t get done,” he said. “We went through an exhaustive process that considered all of these things.”

Goldman also mused that there’s “some surprise” that Trump hasn’t “tried to stop” the project. “I think it’s obviously because he’s afraid of me,” he joked. — Madison Fernandez

IN OTHER NEWS

— FOLLOW THE BLUE BRICK ROAD?: New York Democrats see a potential opening in Rep. Elise Stefanik’s deep red district. (Gothamist)

— ‘HATEFUL ACT’: The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating an incident where a Muslim man was hit with an egg outside a Brooklyn mosque. (New York Daily News)

— LOOK MA, NO HANDS: State Sen. Patricia Fahy introduced a bill that would bring self-driving cars to Albany. (Times Union)

Missed this morning’s New York Playbook? We forgive you. Read it here.

Politics

Gavin Newsom’s first 2028 test: This fall, in Nevada

Published

23 hours ago

September 7, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

LAS VEGAS — If California Gov. Gavin Newsom runs for president in 2028, next-door Nevada will be a crucial test. This fall’s governor’s race is offering a preview.

As GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo runs for reelection, he’s trying to pin high Nevada fuel prices — a majority of which is imported from California — on “Gavin Newsom’s energy policies.” He lambasts California as too expensive and too regulated. And he’s hammering his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Aaron Ford, for accepting Newsom’s endorsement, betting that it will turn off Nevada swing voters.

“The contrast is simple: I’m fighting Gavin Newsom’s agenda and Aaron Ford is trying to import it into Nevada,” Lombardo said in a statement to Blue Light News.

This could be a test run for 2028, when Newsom may call upon Nevadans — one-fifth of whom were born in California — to deliver him a primary victory in the early-voting state, and possibly a presidential victory.

“They understand California costs more,” Donna West, chair of the Nevada Democratic Party’s senior caucus, said of Nevada’s California expats. “They also understand that California is the fourth-largest economy in the entire world, and that Gavin Newsom ran that as effectively as he possibly can.”

Newsom’s office declined to comment. A person close to the governor, granted anonymity to discuss the sentiment in his orbit, said they are “thrilled” Republicans are spending money to “plaster Newsom’s name across a key early state.”

“Republicans seem awfully concerned about an endorsement from someone who leads the 2028 Democratic field in Nevada by nearly 2-to-1,” the person said, pointing to a November 2025 Emerson poll of a hypothetical 2028 Democratic primary field.

Ford, for his part, shrugs off the attacks.

“Lombardo tries to cast blame elsewhere, but everyone knows that when the war started in February, that we saw our gas prices increase almost immediately,” Ford told Blue Light News after a recent town hall in Las Vegas. “People believe their own eyes, and they remember their experiences.”

The demonization of California is nothing new in Nevada politics: For years, Republicans have blasted their western neighbor as too expensive and too woke.

But the stakes are higher, and the connection more palpable, this year, as Newsom explores a presidential bid. He would likely need to perform very well in Nevada, now second on the Democratic calendar, to build early momentum toward the party nomination. And come November 2028, he’d need to fare well in Nevada again, this time among the state’s general electorate, a plurality of which are independents.

Newsom has stumped for Democrats across the country this cycle, and he blitzed through the South this week, including a swing through South Carolina, whose Democrats will vote first, right before Nevada, in 2028.

But Republicans are looking to weaponize Newsom’s Silver State swing in July, where Ford introduced him at a new Las Vegas field office as “the governor of the great state of California.”

“Our next president!” an audience member shouted, eliciting cheers.

The Lombardo-aligned Better Nevada PAC shared polling with Blue Light News in July showing Newsom’s favorability 20 points underwater in Nevada and losing a hypothetical 2028 head-to-head with Vice President JD Vance. Shortly thereafter, the PAC began an ad blitz tying Ford to the California governor.

Billboards touting Newsom’s endorsement of Ford, paid for by the PAC, now line highways across Nevada, and digital and streaming ads have run consistently since the visit. “Newsom and Ford: Shared vision. Shared values,” one ad says.

A person familiar with the PAC’s internal polling, granted anonymity to discuss private data, said it shows Newsom’s endorsement is now the second-most-known datapoint about the attorney general.

“Gavin Newsom is the singular most unpopular elected official in Nevada,” said Jeremy Hughes, a longtime Nevada GOP strategist running the Lombardo-aligned PAC. “Aaron Ford brought him into the state. … There’s no better way to help him out than to put up these signs and run ads, letting people know that he’s excited about being endorsed by Gavin Newsom.”

Republicans in the state have long blamed Californian expats for housing shortages and rising prices and connect their opponents to California liberals. A surge of ex-Californians leaving the state during the Covid-19 pandemic, some fleeing high taxes and cost of living, accelerated the trend.

Sam Brown, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in 2022, blasted the “energy policies of Gavin Newsom”; in 2018, GOP governor nominee Adam Laxalt lamented the “Californization” of Nevada, even as Californians bankrolled his campaign. During Lombardo’s first run for governor in 2022, he slammed incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak for taking his cues from Newsom: “Don’t let Steve Sisolak turn Nevada into California,” one post said. Republicans tied their opponents to Nancy Pelosi for decades.

Lombardo’s argument this time around is more focused. He notes that the vast majority of Nevada’s gasoline comes from California, and argues that California’s efforts to cut carbon emissions have caused fuel prices to soar. A gallon of gas in Nevada costs nearly $5, according to AAA, one of the highest prices in the nation.

“The policies coming from Gavin Newsom and California Democrats … don’t stop at their state line,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Nevada and other states import a significant portion of our fuel from California, so when Governor Newsom shuts down refineries and imposes regulations that reduce supply and increase costs, Nevada families feel the consequences at the pump.”

It’s a strategy that allows Lombardo — running in a difficult national environment for incumbent Republicans — to acknowledge voters’ economic pain without blaming President Donald Trump or his own party. Indeed, Lombardo shared an April column in the Nevada Independent that placed blame at the feet of both Newsom and Trump. (Lombardo, in his post, blamed only Newsom.)

Democrats don’t think voters will buy it. ‘“As far as gas prices, it’s so obviously increased since the war,” Rep. Dina Titus said. “People in Nevada aren’t stupid.”

Ford has his own millstone to saddle Lombardo with: the president. At a recent town hall in Las Vegas, he repeatedly blasted the “Lombardo-Trump economy” that is “making everything too expensive.”

“Voters absolutely tie the handling of the economy to Trump,” said Mike Noble, an independent Phoenix-based pollster who works in Nevada regularly. “Instead of blaming Trump, why not tie it to the boogeyman next door and blame California?”

Politics

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

Published

2 days ago

September 6, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Politics

Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

Published

4 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”