When people donate money to a political party or candidate, it’s because they largely agree with the ideas, policies and principles being presented. There can be exceptions to the rule, such as giving money to a friend or relative’s campaign in spite of having vastly different political views. Those infrequent acts of generosity aside, the vast majority of campaign donations come from sources who are onside politically and economically.

Which makes one wonder about a recent political donation in a high profile election that doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Elizabeth Simons, daughter of the late billionaire hedge fund investor Jamie Simons, donated $250,000 (USD) to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s super PAC, New Yorkers for Lower Costs. “The contribution is the largest made to the group,” the New York Post reported on Aug. 20, “which has already raised nearly $2 million from nearly 300 separate donations.”

Why would this be regarded as an unusual donation? The longtime philanthropist and mayoral hopeful seem to be the antithesis of one another.

Mamdani is a three-term Democratic member of the New York State Assembly who belongs to the NY chapter of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America. He’s supported various radical policies and ideas in his relatively short political career. In a resurfaced 2021 speech to a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference, Mamdani defended what his fellow Socialists “firmly believe in” and want to accomplish in politics. This included boycotts, divestment and sanctions as well as championing “the end goal of seizing the means of production.” The latter comes out of an old Communist playbook that raises red flags for some individuals. “Those of us who grew up under communism know this all too well,” Brooklyn Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, who grew up in Ukraine when it was controlled by the Soviet Union, told the New York Post on June 30. “Our home countries were destroyed by ideas that came dressed in pleasant, persuasive packaging.”

He has spoken out against billionaires and wealthy individuals. Several comments Mamdani made on NBC’s Meet the Press on June 30 emphasized this. He was unable to defend a racially-charged policy on his campaign website during the Democratic primaries that proposed to “shift the tax burden from overtaxed homeowners in the outer boroughs to more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods.” He also blurted out “I don’t think we should have billionaires” to host Kristen Walker, “because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality, and ultimately, what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country,”

He has been repeatedly accused of being anti-Israel. “Speaking up for Israel comes with everything you might want, and we need to show that it’s not that way anymore,” Mamdani told the Muslim Democratic Club of New York in 2021, and “there are consequences for speaking up in favor of apartheid.” He also made this post on X that same year, “We pay our electeds with our tax $$$ to represent us but they go on paid-for trips to Israel. We have 3 letters for them: #BDS. Every elected must be pressured to stand with Palestinians, oppose Apartheid & assert that the fight for dignity knows no exception.” A June 22 Politico article depicts other comments about Israel that have put Mamdani into hot water, including leading an Israeli academic boycott in his college, condemning Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, defending the controversial phrase “globalize the intifada,” refusal to sign two resolutions in the state legislature that condemned the Holocaust and honored Israel.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. There’s much more to choose from.

Think about it. Mamdani is a far-left Democratic socialist. He’s attacked billionaires. He’s criticized Israel. And yet, Simons – described by the Jerusalem Post as a “Jewish billionaire heiress” on Aug. 23  – thinks he’s the cat’s meow. Unbelievable.

In fairness, the mayoral candidate is obviously allowed to hold his far-left views in a democratic society like the U.S. Mamdani’s super PAC can also accept donations from a wealthy individual like Simons in spite of the candidate’s personal issue with billionaires. In turn, the billionaire philanthropist has the freedom to support his screwball ideas and give him money. Simons can also come from a privileged lifestyle built on the backs of capitalism and private enterprise and enthusiastically donate to the campaign of a Democratic Socialist who rejects just about everything she and her family have represented.

As I wrote above, it doesn’t make a lick of sense. Then again, it doesn’t have to.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a billionaire Jewish Democrat, was furious at Mamdani for speaking out against wealthy individuals. He made this intriguing comment that was reprinted in the New York Post piece, “Look, how much money you have doesn’t determine what your values are.”

He’s right, of course. Little did Pritzker know at the time he was actually describing a fellow billionaire Jewish Democrat, Simons, to the letter.

Michael Taube, a long-time newspaper columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.