In 2017 I interviewed the journalist Ross Barkan when he kicked off his campaign for State Senate in Brooklyn. He made the bold decision to stop just commenting on politics and instead jump into the fray, slap down his credentials, and put himself before the electorate, ready to serve.
He lost -- and returned to journalism.
But Ross' campaign turned out to be an acorn from which a great oak grew. Ross' campaign manager in that race was ... drumroll ... Zohran Mamdani.
Zohran, as we know, would go on to be elected to the New York State Assembly from Astoria, Queens in 2020 and is now the Mayor-elect of New York City.
Mind-boggling.
Ross has written a wonderful column about his relationship with Zohran during the 2017-2018 campaign and afterwards. It is, as he notes, head-snapping to have known someone when he was an anonymous staffer and is now a world-famous, history-making political figure.
I can only imagine.
But it is amazing to realize that, when I interviewed Ross back in 2017 (twice actually and later on in 2020), he was nurturing a one-in-a-million political talent who would go on not only to make NYC and American history but vanquish a fifty-year old political dynasty.
And to think, to ponder, to be amazed by the fact that there is a semi-direct link from a post on this 'umble blog covering a mere State Senate race to, less than a decade later, worldwide coverage of a history-in-the-making election ... curious the fates are.
History has its eyes on us. And to prove, yet again, Mr NYC is ahead of his time!
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