New Yorkers, hold onto your wallets and brace yourselves for financial chaos.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s minions in the Democratic Socialists of America are preparing to radicalize the state Legislature in January, when they take their newly won seats in Albany.
A warning sign of their coming craziness appeared Friday, when Mamdani-endorsed Assembly candidate Brian Romero put up a GoFundMe page with an unusual request.
He begged for handouts to cover his own rent and groceries for the rest of this year, until he’s sworn in to represent East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Astoria and other parts of Queens.
Romero won the Democratic primary in June — and with no Republican opponent, he’s a shoo-in.
But he can’t start collecting his $142,000 salary and $203 per diem until January, and he says he can’t figure out how to support himself in the meantime.
Beggar Boy Brian calls this a “challenging time.”
“I’m trying to find sort of some gigs, but I don’t know how other folks do it,” he said.
“Other folks,” meaning the rest of us who . . . go out and get a job to pay our bills.
He took the page down after The Post started asking questions.
Romero, who earned $106,469 as a legislative staffer before resigning to run for office, says he’s run through his savings.
Yet he’s the guy voters are entrusting with billions of dollars in state spending?
His political platform includes a pie-in-the-sky list of government giveaways — universal child care, free legal services for immigrants and more — all paid for by making the wealthy “pay their fair share.”
The DSA’s agenda is in truth a freeloader’s agenda, and Romero is its living, breathing poster boy.
He’s one of the eight New York City DSA members who swept to victory against more moderate Democrats in the party’s June primary.
The meager 17% voter turnout fueled their “hostile takeover,” as University of Mount Saint Vincent professor JC Polanco told The Post: “They’ve taken over the party locally.”
DSA victors like Mamdani-endorsed state Senate candidate Aber Kawas, an avowed socialist, promise “transformative change.”
Believe her — and Gustavo Gordillo, NYC-DSA co-chair, who last week condemned the entire “Democratic Party establishment” for “selling us out to billionaires, landlords and warmongers.”
And although the DSA caucus will be few in number— 16 in all, four in the state Senate and 12 in the Assembly — their impact will be huge.
History shows they vote as a disciplined bloc, and that they can intimidate incumbent Democrats with the implicit threat of a primary campaign powered by thousands of door-knocking volunteers.
Tax hikes are at the top of their agenda.
“We brought the fight to Gov. Kathy Hochul to tax the rich last session, when we had only nine socialists in the state Legislature,” Gordillo said.
“This cycle . . . there’s a whole new crew of progressive legislators who are going to demand what New Yorkers want, which is for Hochul to tax the rich.”
The DSA agenda — high taxes, ever-expanding giveaways, utopian accounting — would bankrupt New York.
Excessive taxes have already helped push the state into economic decline: The formerly great Empire State now ranks dead last among the 50 states in economic outlook, according to the Tax Foundation’s Business Climate Index and other measures.
The Citizens’ Budget Commission warned in June that the state is already in precarious financial condition due to excessive spending — and could face “serious service cuts in the future even without a recession.”
Jay Jacobs, chairman of the state Democratic Party, laments that Mamdani’s army is taking out moderate Democrats citywide, turning the party into the red brigade.
But where are Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, the party’s so-called leaders?
Cowering and speechless.
And where is the Republican Party?
Romero’s waltzing to Albany without having to face any opponent in November’s general election, because the GOP didn’t bother to recruit a candidate to compete for the seat.
That’s the shameful case in 44 of the 150 Assembly seats being filled this year.
How demoralizing for Republican voters in those districts.
Romero’s embarrassing personal choice — resorting to panhandling instead of earning a living — is a warning of the threat ahead.
Voters who have any option to vote against these DSA radicals must do so.
And because Hochul has shown no backbone to resist Mamdani’s radicalism, Republican Bruce Blakeman deserves voters’ full support.
A vote for Hochul is a vote for the DSA — and for financial ruin.
New York state can’t put up a GoFundMe page when the money runs out: The burden will be on you.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.
