EDITOR'S NOTE: The accompanying images are digitally generated representations. These specific photographs are AI-generated illustrations created to provide visual context for this story.

Zohran Mamdani's surging ahead like a latter-day Lenin storming the Winter Palace, but instead of grizzled Bolsheviks, he's got a cadre of fresh-faced 30-somethings and Gen Z firebrands pulling the strings. These kids— unearthed by The Post's sleuthing—boast zilch in government chops but résumés bloated with radical lefty activism, Soros cash infusions, and upbringings in cushy mansions courtesy of elite prep schools.

One whiff of victory, and these unblooded ideologues could be yanking the city's levers, echoing that 1917 Petrograd vibe where youthful zealots swapped tsarist pomp for red dawn chaos. Careful, New York—history's got a nasty habit of rhyming.

The Mamdani administration will be less experienced in government than Mayor Mamdani himself. For a city as large as New York, this presents a major operational challenge. Good luck managing the budget and unions.

25: Dora Pekec — “The Spox” is the youngest person in Mamdani’s inner circle.

Dora Pekec could’ve coasted as a debate nerd at Duke, but she turned her wonkish instincts into an all-access pass to American progressive power centers. Her résumé is a “who’s organizing whom” of Democratic politics, from field organizing in snow-locked Maine for Joe Biden and Sara Gideon, to serving as Brad Lander’s comms chief, and then National Press Secretary for the $290 million House Majority PAC juggernaut—flipping four NY seats blue when even DC optimists had written them off.

Not a DSA cadre by badge, but her roles in candidate research for EMILY’s List and on the ground in North Carolina skirt every big-tent lefty coalition. Commended for handling messaging meltdowns, she’s jumped from the spreadsheet set to “call Dora if there’s fire” operations with strategic ease

• Pekec doesn’t just play comms defense—she appears on the record in The Times, The Daily Beast, and CNN. Her moves shape news cycles. Off record, she’s quoted as “House Dems’ best insurance against social media disasters.” And even if she’s not the top earner, this is the rare staffer who can justify every dollar—trust, most junior campaigners aren’t drawing her five-figure monthly retainers.

Fun fact: While most Hill rats post suitcase selfies, Dora once penned an ethical treatise—entirely in French—on French secularism and presented her findings to stone-faced professors at an academic symposium (result: standing ovation, new trophy

30: Maya Handa — The Nomad Organizer

• : Campaign manager for Mamdani by way of every campaign with a progressive flavor. Handa’s hall-of-fame stops include being the National Candidate Pipeline Director for Run for Something, campaign stints with Mondaire Jones, and digital director work for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign during those heady weeks when Twitter thought “big structural change” could actually trend.
• Her credentials with the Working Families Party—where she served as Deputy Elections Director—cemented her status as an operator who can move seamlessly between grassroots assemblies and full-throttle national war rooms.
• Fun Fact:
  No one can out-organize Maya’s group chats; she’s got more grassroots lists than Brooklyn has bodegas.

Unexpected flex: Ran Zellnor Myrie’s campaign, clocked in hours at GiveDirectly, and was a UNICEF intern in Florence—not exactly a hardship posting.

33: Zara Rahim — Name-Drop Royalty

A confessed DSA booster in the Obama 2012 digital wars, Rahim’s post-campaign arc is all brand metamorphosis: Clintonland’s comms maze, Uber’s public fallout, Vogue, and The Wing’s rise and flameout. Known in the house for her Soros connections—her consultancy work overlaps with plenty of Open Society grantees. She makes “staffer salary” a misnomer after a succession of comms retainers, brand deals, and cameo fees that bump her into mid-six figures.

Fun Fact:
Getting Mariah Carey to sign off on a name-check is a flex; weaving yourself into political folklore is another.Unexpected Flex:
Rahim isn’t the only Soros-tied advisor in Mamdani’s camp, but she might be the one with the most bulletproof narrative. When her tweet hoping for Trump’s demise went viral, most PR pros would’ve gone to ground; she landed on more panels and podcasts.Breaking News & Alerts is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

34: Cea Weaver — Tenant Agitator Turned Fixer

A DSA member from Rochester and self-declared “seize private property” campaigner, Weaver is the city’s hardest-hitting rent justice architect. As the coalitions director of Housing Justice for All (George Soros–backed), she built the movement against evictions statewide. NYC’s rent laws are as tough as they are because of Cea, not in spite of her. She’s never shied from advocating full communism on X or from roasting the notion of homeowner innocence. Are her only jobs listed on LinkedIn? All organizing, all the time.

Fun Fact:
She once iced Amazon’s HQ2 invasion in Queens, fueled by a viral spreadsheet and “elect more communists” tweet energy.

Unexpected Flex:
Her appointment to city planning made suits shudder: imagine the architect of rent regulation actually running hearings for the city’s next rezoning. Despite activist roots, Weaver’s salary keeps pace with city commissioners—think low six figures, which would make 2018 Cea blush.

34: Elliana (Elle) Bisgaard-Church — Brain Trust Phantom

Swarthmore cross-country alum turned DSA policy architect, Elle B-C is Mamdani’s campaign manager and at-large progressive whisperer. In just five years, she’s gone from activist summer programs to making $11,000 a month guiding the city’s most left-leaning contender’s policy machine. Not officially stamped Soros, but every major advocacy group from IfNotNow to the Met Council shows up in her union card shuffle. Allies call her “the oracle”—staffers credit her with conjuring Mamdani’s most viral policies, even if she’s not on every press call.

Fun Fact:
Old theater photos reveal a turn as Charlotte in “Charlotte’s Web.” Stage presence, it turns out, converts well to grassroots organizing.

Unexpected Flex:
It’s not just orchestrating daily ops; Elle’s built out a spreadsheet system that rivals Bloomberg’s own campaign tooling for policy research, oppo, and comms—before she even hit 28.

This week: it’s the women. Next, the men get the treatment.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The accompanying images are digitally generated representations based on witness accounts and social media posts from the event. While the wedding details reported are factual, these specific photographs are AI-generated illustrations created to provide visual context for this story.

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DISCLAIMER: This piece is a work of satirical fiction. Any resemblance to actual political campaigns, living politicians, or coherent economic policy is purely coincidental. All quotes, statistics, photos, and policy proposals are products of the author's imagination, except for the ones that aren't. The author assumes no responsibility for readers who mistake satire for actual journalism, though given the current state of political discourse, this confusion would be understandable.