Brian Romero, the Democratic Socialist nominee for New York's 34th Assembly District, launched a GoFundMe last week titled "Help Brian Cover Rent After State Assembly Run." The goal was $2,000. He needed strangers on the internet to help him cover his $2,600-a-month apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens, which he shares with his partner.

The job he's about to walk into pays $142,000 a year plus a $203 daily per diem.

Romero won the June Democratic primary with 66 percent of the vote, beating Rosa Sanchez. He faces no Republican challenger in November, meaning he's virtually guaranteed a seat in the state legislature. The man who will soon help write New York's budget raised just over $1,000 from 13 donors before quietly pulling the page down on Friday — right after the New York Post started asking questions about it.

"I decided to take it down," Romero told reporters. "It was kind of done pretty quickly in consultation with some friends."

He called it "a mistake." Which is one way to describe publicly admitting you can't manage a checking account while asking voters to hand you control of a $230 billion state budget.

Romero's previous gig was senior advisor to state Senator Kristen Gonzalez, where he pulled in $106,469 a year. He left that position earlier in 2026 to focus on his campaign, reportedly on ethics guidance related to his candidacy. He says he's since exhausted his savings and has been unable to collect unemployment benefits while searching for consulting work.

So to recap: he voluntarily left a six-figure government job, burned through his savings running for a different government job that pays even more, and then asked the public to float him until the new taxpayer-funded paycheck kicks in.

The Democratic Socialists of America backed his campaign.

There's a version of this story where a young candidate from a tough background gets some sympathy. But Romero isn't running on humility. He's running on an ideology that says government should control more of your money because regular people can't be trusted to spend it wisely. He's the guy who wants to redistribute wealth — and he needed 13 strangers to redistribute some into his rent check.

The 34th District covers Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, two neighborhoods full of people who work long hours, pay their bills, and never once considered asking the internet to cover the gap. They're about to be represented by a man who did.

Socialism has always been better at spending other people's money than earning its own. Brian Romero just made that metaphor literal before he even took the oath.