He’s the Million Dollar Mam.
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani spent the week cozying up to ultra-wealthy liberal power players at pricey private fundraisers to hit his whopping $4 million transition goal — even after insisting during his campaign that billionaires shouldn’t exist.
The Democratic Socialist, elected to City Hall after vowing to take on modern oligarchs and rein in living costs, kicked off his high-dollar haul Tuesday, tapping Michael Novogratz, the billionaire CEO of crypto firm Galaxy Digital, to co-host a sold-out fundraiser at a West Village home, according to the New York Times.
“I’m going to cheer for him until he does something I will really hate,” Novogratz told the paper.
“He’s not batting 1.000, but so far he hasn’t driven the car into the ditch.”
The next morning, Mamdani, 33, was scurrying into a private Tribeca home, where lefty Hunt oil heiress Leah Hunt-Hendrix and crypto booster Marvin Anmori were hosting yet another cash-grab, the outlet reported, citing invitations it reviewed.
Next week, Mamdani will reportedly hit two uptown events and a star-studded Lower East Side bash, rubbing elbows with Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Titus Burgess, and his mother, director Mira Nair — where tickets start at a cool $1,000.
Mamdani met his $4 million goal after relying on deep-pocketed benefactors to fork over as much as $3,700 to boost his small-dollar contributions, his transition team told the Times.
Overall, the transition team added, the mayor-elect raised more than $3 million from nearly 30,000 donors.
“We accept donations from anyone who’s interested in building a more affordable city for all,” Mamdani told reporters Thursday, insisting the wealthy donors he’s been courting won’t hold more sway over him than ordinary residents.
The transition said most of the funds go toward office operations — covering staff salaries, rent, and lawyers for background checks — supporting a sprawling team of 84, bigger than those of recent mayors.
“There are volunteers that need to be fed,” Grace Bonilla, a transition co-chair, told the publication.
“There’s a lot going on,” she said, adding that it was “a really expensive venture to make sure that we are setting up this mayor and any mayor for success.”
Mamdani is currently raking in far more grassroots contributions than most mayoral transitions, with the average gift hitting just $88 in November, according to the team, the outlet reported.
By comparison, Mayors Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio pulled in donations averaging over $1,000 each.
Both Adams and de Blasio hauled in around $2 million for their transitions from about 800 donors each.
But Mamdani hobnobbing with the wealthy elite is a sharp break from his soak-the-rich rhetoric and belief that the 1% shouldn’t hold such influence.
“We are talking about our tax base growing smaller and smaller each day, with New Yorkers leaving to New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, to Connecticut,” the pol told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in June.
“If we do not meet this moment, we will lose the city. I don’t think that we should have billionaires, frankly.”
New York City is home to more billionaires than any town in the world — with 123.
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