{"id":241849,"date":"2025-09-20T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241849\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T16:38:10","slug":"staten-island-dem-chair-laura-lobianco-sword-stepping-down-over-backlash-for-supporting-mamdanis-nyc-mayoral-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/241849\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island Dem chair Laura LoBianco Sword stepping down over backlash for supporting Mamdani’s NYC mayoral bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s Democratic Civil War has opened up a new battlefront on Staten Island.<\/p>\n

The most recent casualty is the head of the borough\u2019s Democratic Party, who is stepping down over backlash she faced for unilaterally backing socialist Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaten Island is not Mamdani Country\u201d and party chairwoman Laura LoBianco Sword \u201cwent out of her way to endorse him without the executive committee\u2019s support, and people are in an uproar,\u201d said a top borough Democratic operative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t like the world was crying out for Staten Island\u2019s endorsement. She went out of her way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura LoBianco Sword is stepping down as chair of Staten Island\u2019s Democratic Party \u2013 and sources said it\u2019s over backlash she faced for embracing socialist Zohran Mandani\u2019s mayoral bid. Laura LoBianco Sword\/Facebook<\/p>\n

The conflict in the so-called \u201cForgotten Borough\u201d erupted at the same time longtime state Democratic Party leader Jay Jacobs is being pressured <\/a>to step down \u2014 but for the opposite reason. He refused to back Mamdani following Gov. Hochul\u2019s stab-in-the-back endorsement<\/a>\u00a0of the far-left pol.<\/p>\n

The source credited Jacobs for taking a stand against far-left politics, especially since he\u2019s also the Dems\u2019 chair in Nassau County, where the party has been hemorrhaging support. Mamdani is almost as unpopular on Long Island as he is on Staten Island.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Other sources questioned whether LoBianco Sword went out of her way to endorse Mamdani \u2014 the favorite to win November\u2019s election \u2014 because she has a $155,000-a-year job working as director of homeowner services in the Mayor\u2019s Office of Housing Recovery<\/a> and serves at the mercy of the sitting mayor.<\/p>\n

LoBianco Sword told Staten Island Democratic County Committee members in a recent email it\u2019s time for her to \u201cpass the torch\u201d as chair, so she won\u2019t be seeking re-election and will instead \u201centhusiastically support\u201d state\u00a0Assemblyman Charles Fall\u00a0(D-Staten Island)\u00a0to replace her.<\/p>\n

Socialist Zohran Mamdani is the frontrunner in the NYC mayoral race. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The committee is expected to vote for its leadership during a Sept. 29 reorganization meeting.<\/p>\n

Her email failed to mention Mamdani or provide a reason for stepping down. Instead, she focused on how the committee raised \u201crecord\u201d funds, reformed its bylaws, and made the local party \u201cmore inclusive\u201d under her nearly three-year watch in NYC\u2019s most politically conservative borough.<\/p>\n

LoBianco Sword endorsed Mamdani in November\u2019s general election on behalf of Staten Island\u2019s Democratic Party after Mamdani upset ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the June mayoral primary.<\/p>\n

If elected mayor, Mamdani (left) would be Laura LoBianco Sword\u2019s boss and have the power to cut her $155,000 yearly job as director of homeowner services in the Mayor\u2019s Office of Housing Recovery. Laura LoBianco Sword\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Many Staten Island Democratic leaders are still backing Cuomo \u2014 who remains in the race as an independent \u2014 but LoBianco Sword issued the Mamdani endorsement without consulting executive committee members first, a violation of committee bylaws, a member said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was baffled,\u201d said Matt Mobilla, chair of the borough Dems\u2019 law committee and former state Assembly candidate. \u201cShe endorsed Mamdani without consultation from the executive board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not contacted, I would not have done that. I learned about it from reading the papers, and I am on the executive board!\u201d added Mobilla, who is backing Cuomo.<\/p>\n

New York Democratic Party leader Jay Jacobs is under pressure to step down, for refusing to back Mamdani following Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s stab-in-the-back endorsement\u00a0of the far-left pol. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cuomo had Staten Island Dems\u2019 endorsement in the primary and beat Mamdani in Richmond County<\/a>, but it wasn\u2019t a blowout \u2014 46.5% of the vote to 37.5% during the initial round of the ranked-choice election.<\/p>\n

LoBianco Sword insisted she was not pressured to step down and is \u201csimply not seeking re-election for personal reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone saying there was no discussion with the executive committee is blatantly wrong,\u201dshe insisted. \u201cBut let\u2019s be clear: no decision was needed. The Democratic Party supports the Democratic nominee. That\u2019s our job as county committee \u2014 to represent the will of the voters. And the voters were loud and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also insisted her city job isn\u2019t in jeopardy because it\u2019s unionized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Democratic Civil War has opened up a new battlefront on Staten Island. The most recent casualty…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":241850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5297,6529,7033,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,80,9294,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-241849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-andrew-cuomo","10":"tag-democratic-primary","11":"tag-democrats","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-staten-island","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115237611356769392","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}