Having flashbacks to The Wire. Wasn’t Carcetti hampered by the city council chair or speaker, as well as other mayors, the Governer, the state senator etc? He was nowhere near as principled, had dubious reasons for running and was deeply flawed but essentially got dragged down to their level when finally in office. My understanding might be wildly off though!
From what I remember he was left a giant hole in the budget by the predecessor and had to either ask the governor to bail him out or cut spending. The governor said that he can give him the money but he will have to accept it at a press conference. He reasoned that he had a real chance to run for governor but if he accepted the money for the city the rest of the state will resent him for that. He decided no to accept it and cut spending on everything including police because he believed that as a governor he will be able to do even more for he city. At the end of the final episode we can see him winning another elections so I think they were trying to say that he was right.
A politically hostile speaker can potentially throw a wrench in the works for Mamdani. NYC city council is quite progressive and will be ready to work with him, but an oppositional speaker could really kill that synergy.
Uber is counting on it
