The Final Leg of New York’s Mayoral Race Has Gotten Ugly

As early voting begins, the race for mayor is barreling to an ugly conclusion, marked by bigotry, bitterness, and broken friendships. Picking the next mayor was never going to be a smooth affair — this is a high-stakes power struggle, not a church picnic — but New Yorkers hoping for relief from the turmoil and scandal of the Eric Adams administration are going to be disappointed.

At the same time that ex-governor Andrew Cuomo was turning in a forceful and effective performance at the final televised debate of the campaign, his campaign released (and then quickly deleted) a disgusting, AI-generated video featuring a pimp, a drug dealer, a shoplifter, a domestic abuser, and a drunk driver all purporting to be “Criminals for Zohran Mamdani” and committing crimes as New York literally burns. The campaign blamed the release on an unnamed low-level staffer without explaining who commissioned, created, and approved the racist slop, which ends with the words “Paid for by Cuomo NYC.”

Lest anyone miss the point, Cuomo followed up the video with an appearance on the WABC radio show of frequently fired Sid Rosenberg, who has built a career out of making foul, hate-filled public tirades. (One recent sample: At last fall’s Trump campaign event at Madison Square Garden, Rosenberg told a roaring crow, “She is some sick bastard, that Hillary Clinton, huh? What a sick son of a bitch. The whole fucking party, a bunch of degenerates, lowlives — Jew-haters and lowlives. Every one of them.”)

That Cuomo, a lifelong Democrat who served in the administration of Bill Clinton, chose to chat with Rosenberg on the air is a sign of how desperate he is to round up conservative votes. The gambit, predictably, backfired. “God forbid another 9/11. Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo said. Rosenberg responded: “Yeah, I could. He’d be cheering,” as Cuomo chuckled along. Amid public cries for Rosenberg to be fired yet again, Governor Kathy Hochul chided Cuomo online: “Time to get out of the gutter. Fear-mongering, hate speech, and Islamophobia are beneath New York — and everything we stand for as a state.”

In response to Cuomo’s attacks, Mamdani released a remarkable, emotional address to New York’s Muslim community, in which he denounced the insults, spying, and outright violence the community has endured in the years since the 9/11 attacks. “There are still forms of hate that are acceptable in this city today,” he said, and made a defiant public vow: “More than 1 million Muslim New Yorkers exist in this city, only to be made to feel as if guests in our own home. No more.”

Despite a commanding lead in the polls, Mamdani is also in a hunt for votes outside of his base and has begun making end-of-campaign moves that are sure to upset some supporters. Mandani confirmed during the final debate that he intends to keep Jessica Tisch as NYPD commissioner, which would hand one of the most powerful positions in any city administration to the billionaire scion of one of America’s wealthiest families.

That’s a bit of a shocker, and not just because Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has opined that “I don’t think we should have billionaires.” Commissioner Tisch, like her boss, Mayor Eric Adams, has been a vocal critic of progressive criminal-justice reforms and called for hardline policies, such as prosecuting young teens as adults, that Mamdani and other progressives oppose. When asked about the discrepancy by the Hell Gate news organization, Mamdani more or less shrugged. “I think everyone will follow my lead,” he said. “I’ll be the mayor.” Insiders also note that Tisch, a Harvard classmate of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, might provide a personal back channel to the White House if Trump cracks down on New York.

Mamdani also appears to be attempting to build alliances among members of the City Council by refusing to take a stand on three housing-related referendum questions that appear on the fall ballot. The measures, if approved, would strengthen the mayor’s hand and weaken the power of individual councilmembers to block development projects.

“I’m appreciative that those measures will be on the ballot and that New Yorkers will be able to cast their votes for them,” Mamdani said at the debate when I asked if he supported the reforms, eliciting a chorus of boos and groans from the audience and outbursts from Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa (“That’s not an answer — what’s your opinion, Zohran? Come on!” Sliwa said.) Mamdani’s effort to build goodwill among councilmembers puts him at odds with progressive activists including Cea Weaver, Comptroller Brad Lander, and Amit Singh Bagga, a Democratic strategist, who all support passage of the measures.

We got a preview of Mamdani’s evolving political-management skills at the recent “New York Is Not for Sale” rally in Forest Hills, when Hochul, a key ally, was greeted by a loud chorus of Mamdani followers chanting “Tax the rich.” “I hear you,” said Hochul, who is steadfastly opposed to imposing any new taxes. Things got so funky that Mamdani had to come onstage, where he calmed the crowd by clasping Hochul’s hand and raising it over his head approvingly. If he wins, expect many more efforts by Mamdani to keep the left and center factions of the Democratic Party aligned.

Republican candidate Sliwa, a longtime broadcaster, made a last-minute move of his own by defiantly denouncing John Catsimatidis, the owner of his radio station, who has called on Sliwa to drop out of the race in order to boost Cuomo’s chances.  “You will never see me at the studios of WABC again, never, no matter how this election turns out,” Sliwa told Rosenberg in a remarkable on-air rant.  He also blamed the station’s relentless attacks for creating a poisonous atmosphere and threats so serious that Sliwa has hired armed security.

“If anything happens to me or anything happens to my wife because of this frenzy that I hear constantly coming from some of your colleagues there at WABC, it’s on you guys and you gals,” he said. “My life is on the line here.”

Obviously, nothing at stake in the election is worth killing or dying for. The good news is that New Yorkers have more decency, judgment, and solid good sense than the frantic, power-hungry politicians who will spend the next week clawing for the keys to Gracie Mansion.