New York woke up in November to a political earthquake. Zohran Mamdani is now mayor-elect. For years, he tested how far he could push extremist rhetoric into the mainstream. And this week, some told him he could go all the way.

No one smoothed that path more than comptroller Brad Lander.

Lander has perfected a certain New York political aesthetic: soft-spoken, earnest, quietly dangerous. In his eagerness to win favor with the loudest ideological blocs, he embraced Mamdani’s worldview long before New Yorkers realized just how truly radical it was. He amplified him. He validated him. And now, as Mamdani assumes the most powerful office in the city, Lander is cashing in on the alliance by preparing his own run for Congress.

This did not happen in a vacuum. It happened because leaders belie

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