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Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign guru — now facing heat for allegedly threatening a whistleblowing ex-staffer to US Senate hopeful Graham Platner — has his hands in a series of other congressional bids by far-left candidates.
Wunderkind Morris Katz was ripped for his alleged dirty tactics following a report in the Bangor Daily News Sunday that he tried to browbeat former Platner campaign staffer Genevieve McDonald into denying that the married oyster farmer sexted with multiple women.
The sex scandal is the latest controversy to hit Democrat Platner’s bid to knock off GOP Sen. Susan Collins and has tarnished the gleaming profile of Katz — who is involved with several local lefty candidates this election cycle.
He’s an instrumental part of the populist campaign for Democratic Socialists of America member Claire Valdez, a Queens state assemblywoman vying for an open seat in New York’s 7th House District.
Valdez has been endorsed by her DSA comrade Mamdani, whom 27-year-old Katz has been widely credited with helping catapult to City Hall.
Valdez’s campaign declined to comment Monday when asked about Katz’s alleged threat in the Platner race. Mamdani also did not comment.
Katz is said to be advising Mamdani-backed former City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman from the left in the Democratic primary for the 10th House District.
He was also hired by the campaign of state Assemblyman Micah Lasher, who is running in a crowded Democratic primary for the open 12th House District.
Neither campaign returned requests for comment.
Katz’s firm, Fight Agency, which he runs with other liberal political operatives, has also done campaign work for Nebraska independent candidate Dan Osborn, a mechanic running for US Senate.
Katz is described on Fight Agency’s website as a political strategist who “hates status quo politics and loves long-shots.”
“As comfortable in Philadelphia union halls as he is in auto shops in Nebraska, Morris is always on the lookout for nontraditional candidates that are willing to take on tough fights,” his bio reads.
The political whiz-kid allegedly pressured McDonald, Platner’s former political director, to help stop the Wall Street Journal from reporting that the candidate had sexted several other women after marrying his wife in 2023.
“If the story goes in its current iteration, we’ll communicate directly on the record, and by name, that Genevieve violated the personal trust of Amy and Graham and shared explicit falsehoods to sabotage the campaign,” Katz communicated to McDonald through an intermediary, according to the Bangor Daily News.
When the story came out over the weekend, Katz whined online it was “no one’s f—king business” what happened between Platner and his wife, Amy, before he started his run for office.
Katz also fumed about “incompetent, opportunistic operatives” who “prioritize vengeance over decency.”
One political operative said the alleged threat was “ill-advised.”
“When you’re trying to kill a story, all bets are off. But when the story is happening, don’t make it worse,” the source said. “Katz just made it worse.”
The campaign hotshot comes from a household of privilege: he grew up in Tribeca with a father who is a successful playwright and producer and a mother who is a children’s book author.
His godfather was the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, the New York Times reported in a glossy profile earlier this year — one of several Katz has been the subject of since Mamdani’s stunning election victory.
“Morris was born on third base, reached home plate on error and now, he thinks he’s Babe Ruth who can coach all of the baseball teams into winning the World Series?” one Dem operative snarked.
Rebecca Katz, a business partner of Morris Katz’s at Fight Agency responded: “Morris handled this situation like a political professional. It was all above board. He continues to be one of the best in the biz. The hysteria around him is manufactured by operatives whose best days are behind them.”
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