What Steve Fulop Needs to do to Make the Partnership for New York City Relevant and Effective Again

Former Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop was recently chosen as the next CEO of the Partnership for the City of New York. This represents a real opportunity for change.

The Partnership will tell you that they represent the business interests of New York City. Perhaps, but their underlying choices about how they engage has rendered them generally ineffective politically. The reason why is simple. Other than raising money from affiliated PACs, the Partnership does not get involved in elections. They think that when you tell a politician from South Brooklyn or the North Shore of Staten Island, “Well Jamie Dimon thinks this…” that matters and it should be enough. It does not and it is not.

Throwing names that are big in one segment of New York City at politicians who live in entirely different realities achieves nothing. Politicians only act on one thing, which Mayor Fulop well knows — how handling your issue will impact their next election. If politicians believe that you can influence their next election, if they believe that working with you increases their chances of success or if defying you can really hurt them, they’ll work with you. Otherwise, even if they listen to you and nod and smile, it means nothing. Which is why business interests in New York consistently lose.

Fulop can change that. He understands politics extremely well. He’s very, very good at it. He should start engaging in it when he gets started here. The CEOs who comprise the Partnership board might hate the idea of engaging directly in lowly city council or state senate primaries. The idea of conducting oppo or holding rallies may feel uncouth to them. Most of them still naively think that money is the only thing that matters in elections. But they’re also not stupid. If you make the case to them that this has to happen for their views to become policy and law, most of them will get it.

There is currently no centrist organization in New York City that serves as a counterpart to the DSA or the WFP. No organization to recruit or train candidates. Build grassroots operations. Build a bench. Craft policy positions that matter to actual voters. It’s just white papers no one reads and breakfast events with no outcome and then throwing money in a panic once they realize that someone they don’t like is going to win.

Fulop recently ran for Governor of New Jersey and lost in the primary (in full disclosure, he ran against my brother in law, who lost too). He fashioned himself as a true progressive. I imagine the Partnership thought that a former mayor who is a progressive will be able to work well with Mamdani. That may be true. And Fulop should do everything he can to have a constant dialogue with Mamdani on a wide range of issues.

But ultimately, that will only matter at the margins. Mamdani will care if he feels like sticking his neck out for the Partnership will yield enough return in the next primary or general election. If he knows that’s not possible, he might take your call – but it won’t ultimately matter.

I am excited that Steve Fulop will soon be at the helm. He has the chance to remake the Partnership and turn it into a relevant political force, which then makes them a relevant policy force. The business community in New York City has failed to do the hard work we’ve seen the left doing for decades: recruiting candidates, training candidates, building grassroots networks, holding rallies, building policy operations, dealing with real voters.

But they can. It just takes work and money. And Fulop can make it happen. Yes, it will take changing norms, breaking eggs, upsetting the apple cart, rocking the boat, etc… I am sure Fulop will face a lot of internal resistance. I hope he does it anyway.