Why is Brad Lander Destroying Dan Goldman?
A dispatch from bougie Brooklyn and Manhattan
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Almost one year ago, I was talking to Brad Lander’s press secretary on the eve of the mayoral primary. Lander, the city comptroller, had worked out a co-endorsement deal with Zohran Mamdani, and they were campaigning together to stop Andrew Cuomo. At this point, the Democratic primary had become a two-horse race between Mamdani and Cuomo; Lander was mired in third, where he’d remain, but he was undoubtedly helpful to the Mamdani campaign. As a veteran pol and stalwart of brownstone Brooklyn, he was able to nudge college-educated, affluent voters away from Cuomo and towards Mamdani. On that sweltering evening right before the primary, though, I had a different idea in mind: Congress. I told Lander’s press secretary that if her boss ever wanted to run against Dan Goldman, he would probably win. I even posted something to that effect shortly after, and never wavered from that prediction. Today, Lander leads Goldman, the sitting congressman in New York’s 10th District, by more than 30 points, according to one recent poll. I don’t highlight these posts to claim I am always right—no one has a perfect track record—but merely to underscore there was an inevitability to all of this. In a few weeks, Lander will probably blow Goldman out and be on his way to Congress, where he’ll be a Jewish progressive willing to challenge the Israeli government.
As inevitable as this all might be, it’s still rather remarkable. Dan Goldman is not a scandal-scarred incumbent. He is not elderly. He is not a weak fundraiser. He is not such a mismatch for his district. It’s rare, really, for politicians like Goldman to lose—and lose badly. Not very long ago, he was probably fantasizing about an eventual run for Senate or at least Attorney General. Maybe, with his Levi Strauss family fortune, he could have underwritten a gubernatorial bid if Kathy Hochul ever stepped aside.
Now his political career appears over. What happened, exactly? Why is Dan Goldman likely headed for the exits after just two terms in Congress?
