Plenty of words have been written this week about the mayoral race for New York City — and why not? We’re just over a week away from the election, and the man most likely to walk away with the win has (unlike most of his fellow Democrats) an uncomfortable tendency to be shockingly open about his desire to fix the city’s many problems by attempting policies Karl Marx would approve of.
That’s a baffling political anomaly in the minds of most of the country. Didn’t we defeat communism with pickaxes at the Berlin Wall 35 years ago? Doesn’t history prove that community grocery stores lead to bread lines and rent controls produce unlivable apartment complexes? (RELATED: Zohran Has Two Daddies)
But we’ve been over this a million times since Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary. The discussion this week was less about convincing the average New Yorker — apparently desperate for any solution other than the current state of affairs — that Mamdani isn’t the fix they’re looking for, and more about convincing the only sane politician (a relative term; after all, we’re dealing with politicians) in the race to drop out of it. (RELATED: Representative Democracy and Convoluted Elections)
On Monday, the New York Post’s editorial team noted that, should Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate in the election, drop out and endorse Andrew Cuomo, it might just save the city from “the disaster of a Zohran Mamdani mayoralty.” They weren’t the only ones. John Catsimatidis, the owner of WABC Radio station and Sliwa’s boss, joined in. (RELATED: New Yorkers: Stand and Fight Mamdani)
The reasoning went as follows. Sliwa, who has just 14 percent of votes according to recent polling, is essentially hogging those percentage points from Andrew Cuomo. If Cuomo could somehow pick up every last one of them, the race would be a bit closer (within single digits).
It would be an attractive mathematical argument if polling math were that simple.
As it happens, polls attempt to measure positive public opinion — something Cuomo has in short supply. Even a full-throated endorsement from Sliwa probably wouldn’t hand the man whose bungling of COVID-19 enjoyed national attention, and whose legal team has to work overtime to keep the sexual allegations against him from ruining his life, the favor of that coveted 14 percent.
As if to prove that point, Mamdani spent Wednesday night’s mayoral debate hitting Cuomo precisely where it hurt the most.
“In 2021, 13 different women who worked in your administration credibly accused you of sexual harassment,” Mamdani told Cuomo during cross-examination. “Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer funds to defend yourself all while describing these allegations as entirely political … One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private gynecological records … she cannot speak up for herself because you lodged a defamation case against her.”
Cuomo’s response: “If you want to be in government, then you have to be serious and mature.”
Brilliant. Does anyone seriously think this guy can beat Mamdani? His public record is bad. His defense of that record is even worse.
What conservative political analysts have wanted for months is a two-way race that will make it clear to New Yorkers that they’re in the unenviable position of merely voting for or against an ideological candidate who fully intends to wreak havoc on their city via political and social policies that have been tried and found disastrous. (RELATED: Mayor ‘Madman’ Mamdani Will Do More Economic Damage Than 9/11)
Maybe that would have worked, but we’ll probably never know, given that even if Sliwa were to accept the $10 million he claims has been offered to him to drop out of the race, Cuomo has just days left to capitalize on it. Even then, he’s not the kind of candidate likely to inspire the average New Yorker to go to the polls — unless it’s to vote against him.
As Shane Harris at AMAC, a conservative advocacy organization, pointed out, Sliwa’s Republican supporters are more likely to stay home rather than fall in behind Cuomo. Who can blame them? “Cuomo is not offering to represent their interests; he’s offering to exploit their frustration for his own comeback.”
To date, Sliwa has made it clear he has no intention of dropping out of the race. Good for him. It’s not that anyone thinks he’ll win — he won’t — it’s that, at least, he’s willing to show up to the fight to be the one reasonable option in an otherwise impossible election. New Yorkers will have no one but themselves to blame for the socialist hellscape that’s coming.
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