PREVIEW: Will Kaback talks with John Ketcham
Tangle
Isaac Saul
4.7 • 821 Ratings
🗓️ 4 November 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this special Election Day episode, we delve into the complexities of New York City's mayoral race and its broader implications for the Democratic Party and election reform nationwide. Senior Editor Will Kaback interviews John Ketcham, Senior Fellow and Director of Cities at the Manhattan Institute, exploring the challenges of closed primary systems and the disconnect between public support for reform and political action. This conversation aims to shed light on the national debate over election systems and primary reform and how these issues could shape the future of American politics.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | from executive producer isaac saul this is tangle good morning good afternoon and good evening to the Tangle podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of our take. |
| 0:30.3 | My name is Will Keeback. I'm Tangle Senior Editor, and today we're coming to you with a special interview on Election Day 2025. |
| 0:38.6 | There are a few notable races taking place across the country, but perhaps none is more notable |
| 0:44.9 | than New York City's mayoral election, which is pitting Democrat Zoran Mamdani against Andrew Cuomo, |
| 0:52.0 | who Mamdani defeated in the Democratic primary. |
| 0:54.6 | Cuomo is now running as an independent. |
| 0:56.6 | And Curtis Sliwa, potentially acting as a spoiler on the Republican side. |
| 1:00.4 | It's a race that has inspired quite a bit of national conversation about the direction of |
| 1:06.3 | the Democratic Party should Mamdani win, which he's expected to, as well as how the outcome of the race |
| 1:12.1 | could have ripple effects in our broader politics. However, one aspect of this election that |
| 1:18.4 | isn't being discussed as much is actually how these candidates came to be on the general election |
| 1:23.8 | ballot. And that conversation has to do with primary reform and the election systems that |
| 1:29.3 | New York City uses in its elections. So in advance of the election, I spoke with John Ketchum, |
| 1:36.7 | who is a legal policy fellow and director of cities at the Manhattan Institute. His areas of |
| 1:42.5 | expertise include housing, local elections, infrastructure, |
| 1:45.9 | parental rights, and more, but we spoke specifically about this year's election and election |
| 1:50.8 | reform. The conversation explores the complexities of this issue. In New York City specifically, |
| 1:56.6 | but also nationwide, we talk about some of the challenges that are posed by a closed primary system, |
| 2:03.1 | the entrenched political interests that are fighting on either side of this debate, and the disconnect |
| 2:08.3 | that exists between the public support for reform and the actual political action that we're |
| 2:13.5 | seeing. So again, this is a topic that's focused on New York City, but really has |
| 2:18.9 | ramifications for the country as a whole, particularly as it relates to the primary reform |
... |
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