Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s senior advisers are reportedly developing a coordinated campaign targeting some of New York’s most prominent corporate leaders, using the mayor’s 200-member influencer network to criticize business executives and build public support for his tax-and-spending plans, according to information obtained by The Post.
Two people familiar with the discussions said Mamdani’s closest City Hall strategists—an informal group known as the “bullpen,” named after the open-plan command center where the mayor and his top aides work side by side—are considering attacks on major executives. The reported effort comes only months after City Hall’s public clash with Citadel founder Ken Griffin.
According to the sources, the self-described democratic socialists are particularly focused on senior figures at the Partnership for New York City. They are said to be viewing the organization’s leadership change earlier this year as an opening to challenge the city’s leading business advocacy group.
The Post reported earlier this year that Mamdani was preparing to promote his “tax the rich” platform in early fall, with the goal of strengthening his case for a major increase in state funding beginning in 2027.
Sources said the campaign could extend to virtually any wealthy business leader.
Among the names reportedly discussed is Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who could face criticism over prescription drug costs. Another possible target is Jeff Blau, chief executive of Related Companies, whose $2 billion Hudson Yards expansion could become entangled in the political fight, sources said.
“They are assembling possible ways to confront these executives,” said one person briefed on the bullpen’s strategy. “If someone has money, they can be considered a target. The mayor is presented with a list of possible tactics.”
The campaign’s central objective, according to the sources, is to catch the Partnership’s new chief executive, former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, off guard. Fulop took over from longtime business leader Kathryn Wylde in January, and advisers reportedly view him as less experienced in the role.
“They want to come after Fulop aggressively,” one source told The Post. “Wylde understood how the system worked, while Fulop is still new. They see this as an unusually favorable moment to pressure CEOs, with additional attacks on the Partnership’s executive board expected later this year.”
The reported effort is being organized through Democratic Socialists of America groups on Signal, with the broader goal of weakening business leaders as Mamdani confronts a growing budget challenge. The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, estimates New York City’s shortfall could reach $13.2 billion by fiscal year 2028.
Mamdani is seeking new revenue to address the city’s projected deficit, including a proposed two-percentage-point tax increase on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million.
“Do they really believe Jamie Dimon, who oversees roughly $5 trillion in assets at JPMorgan Chase, will cave because a handful of teenagers are criticizing him on TikTok?” one Democratic insider said, questioning the effectiveness of the proposed pressure campaign.
The political fallout could also create problems for Gov. Kathy Hochul as she prepares to defend her position against Nassau County Republican Bruce Blakeman, who recently came within single digits of her in one poll.
Bourla contributed to Hochul’s first campaign for governor, while Pfizer’s political action committee has given more than $36,000 to state Democratic groups, according to New York election records.
“At the moment, Wall Street views Gov. Hochul as the adult in the room, while working families in New York City see her as someone who helped deliver child-care victories without fully leading the effort,” said Ryan Adams, a managing director at consulting firm Actum.
“That perception remains intact until she is forced to take a position,” Adams added. “Siena polling already shows that nearly half of likely voters believe she is out of touch with ordinary New Yorkers. A campaign focused on her wealthy donors would give that criticism a recognizable face.”
If Albany approves the proposal, New York City’s combined top marginal tax rate for high earners would climb to 16.8%, the highest in the country. Mamdani is also seeking to increase the top corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.5%.
The administration’s digital offensive is reportedly being led by two senior officials: Tascha Van Auken, director of the Office of Mass Engagement, and Emilia Rowland, the city’s director of New Media and Cultural Communications.
Van Auken, a 50-year-old DSA organizer, previously oversaw Mamdani’s expansive field operation during his campaign. Rowland, a former Democratic National Committee press secretary, helped shape the mayor’s social media strategy.
“They have a strategy for going after CEOs while advancing a series of tax increases,” one source said, describing Mamdani’s viral Tax Day appearance outside Ken Griffin’s $238 million Central Park South penthouse as a deliberate political maneuver. “The Griffin confrontation was planned in advance and was intended to gauge how the Partnership would respond.”
The Post has approached City Hall and The Partnership of New York for comment.
The previously undisclosed plans for a state-sponsored smear campaign are likely to send shivers down the spines of the city’s business community.
Following Mamdani’s April video promoting a pied-à-terre tax, Griffin — whose firm also has an HQ in Miami — fired back, calling the maneuver a “creepy and weird” personal attack that endangered his safety.
The hedge fund billionaire even suggested he might pull the plug on a planned $6 billion Park Avenue development. The hostile climate and looming tax hikes have sounded alarms at the highest levels of American finance.
Dimon confronted Mamdani in a closed-door meeting in May. The CEO publicly warned afterward that he has seen mayors “fail abysmally” when “ideology blinds them to practical, realistic, real-world policy.”
Dimon has repeatedly cautioned that the administration’s smash-and-grab tax strategy is driving a corporate exodus to lower-tax states like Florida and Texas.
“Individuals vote with their feet,” the Wall Street veteran wrote in his annual shareholder letter this past April. “You can already see a fairly large exodus of people and jobs out of some states with high taxes and high expenses.”
