While the mayor’s unorthodox media strategy has gotten scrutiny, not enough attention has been paid to the influencers themselves and their views.
Page F7From§Eachthe late evening edition — 14 September 2026
Hochul asked if 200 taxpayer-funded influencers must disclose their ties, says she's not aware of any law.
“That's roughly 200 people on the city payroll doing PR for one guy, and the governor whose whole job is knowing what's a law can't say if there's a law about it. Somewhere in that budget there's a line item with his name near it and nobody's name on a disclosure form — that's not confusion, that's the design. Find me the school nurse position that got that kind of headcount and I'll buy the round.”
“Look, the Governor was simply respecting the separation of powers by not commenting on a hypothetical municipal disclosure requirement that — did I say hypothetical? It's not hypothetical, it's just that nobody's written it yet, which is completely different from there being no law, which — okay, it's the same thing. She was being careful. Careful is not the same as evasive. I need a minute.”
The receipts
· Mamdani’s office organizes over 200 social media influencers with taxpayer cash: Report from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Here comes Mamdani’s socialist revolution — brought to you by ‘influencers’ at YOUR expense from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· Hochul dodges questions about Mamdani’s influencer army and if they should disclose their ties from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.