Three DSA members battling for Mamdani’s Albany seat even more to the left than he is

Whoever succeeds Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the state Assembly seat representing the People’s Republic of Astoria might be even more left than he is.

The three women lining up for the job are all members of the Democratic Socialists of America and angling to get the party’s endorsement — which has proven a powerful force in delivering a win in the Big Apple.

Meherunnisa “Mary” Jobaida, a first-generation Bangladeshi American, has a criminal justice platform at the extreme end with the DSA’s radical agenda that includes “decriminalizing all forms of poverty.”

“Countless residents . . . are punished simply for trying to survive,” she claimed in her platform, which pushes to do away with arrests for things like fare evasion, unlicensed street vending and food theft.

Jobaida, 45, also wants to abolish prison “except in case of violent crimes,” referring to other offenses as mere “mistakes.”

Even Mamdani didn’t go that far, pushing back against claims during the campaign that he was in favor of the local DSA’s proposal to decriminalize all misdemeanors.

Mamdani’s seat, which he’s held since 2021 representing the 36th Assembly District, which includes Astoria and parts of Long Island City, becomes vacant on Jan. 1, when he takes office at City Hall.

Once he’s sworn in, Gov. Kathy Hochul will have 10 days to call a special election, to be held within less than two months. There are no Republican candidates or moderate Democrats running for the seat.

The socialist lawmaker was absent for a whopping 50% of votes in Albany this year — including the one on the only bill he passed.

Yet Mamdani pal Diana Moreno — considered the frontrunner to replace him — found no issues with his attendance and said he “exceeded [her] expectations” as a lawmaker. Moreno worked on Mamdani’s 2020 campaign for state assembly.

She also described the son of millionaire filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani as stingy, recalling how he “who would text me to borrow a $20 to do laundry when he ran out of cash.”

Moreno, 38, parroted DSA talking points when explaining her run, saying she threw her hat in the ring to “fight the rising tide of fascism.”

“I didn’t plan on running for office. But this is a moment of political crisis,” wrote the Queens mom and immigrant organizer on Instagram on Nov. 17, referring to ICE raids and cuts on social services. “As a mamá, I have no choice but to fight.”

The Ecuadorian-born candidate, who officially kicked off her run on Nov. 22, has held leadership roles with the DSA that include communications director and co-chair of the Queens branch.

Rana Abdelhamid, a third candidate, is also a Queens-based activist.

Abdelhamid, 32, a Harvard-educated ex-Google employee who enjoyed a six-figure salary for years while railing on corporate America, says people call her “the mayor of Queens.

Since leaving Big Tech, Abdelhamid has made fighting post-9/11 anti-Muslim hate the cornerstone of her activism.

She spotlighted the issue during her unsuccessful 2022 bid for Congress and founded two groups in response: “Hijabis of New York” and “Malikah,” a women’s self-defense program created after she claimed a man tried to rip off her hijab in 2010 in Queens when she was 16, an incident the “defund the police” candidate never reported to the NYPD.

In the weeks after the Oct.7 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, she shared a video on Instagram of herself getting arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest at Grand Central Terminal.

Moreno has already been endorsed by the DSA’s “Socialists in Office,” which includes State Sen. Julia Salazar, Jabari Brisport and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher.