Over the last few weeks, it has been reported that Donald Trump is trying to pressure NYC mayoral candidates to drop out in order to have a head-to-head battle with Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party nominee.
Polling, to this point, had shown that Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor, was the only candidate who could beat Mamdani heads up, but that Mamdani would win easily if even one other candidate remained in the race.
New polling has come out, and the news is disappointing for people hoping New York City would not fall under the rule of a socialist.
As the frontrunner against Mamdani, Cuomo knows he needs a commanding lead over the other two candidates, Curtis Sliwa and Mayor Eric Adams, if he has any hope of convincing them to drop out of the race.
So, Cuomo made a big shakeup in his staff to bring in longtime operative Greg Goldner as his campaign manager.
Goldner hails from Chicago and has a history of successfully running candidates against socialists in elections.
Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi stated, “Greg is a tough-as-nails Chicago operative. He saw what happened when that city got into the grips of socialism with public safety grinding to a standstill. He doesn’t want that to happen in New York City. He moved halfway across the country to make sure it doesn’t.”
Rumors surfaced last week that the Trump administration was negotiating a cushy ambassadorship for Adams if he would agree to drop out, but Adams said that the story was fake news, and he is not leaving the race.
Sliwa, who ran unopposed on the GOP ticket, has also stated that he is not going anywhere either, and it would seem that some of this stubbornness comes from a beef Sliwa has with Trump that goes way back to him feeling disrespected by the president.
The Republican, who is polling the worst among all the candidates, still has loyal supporters who want to see him stay in the race, and that is what he plans to do.
George Pataki, a major Sliwa booster, stated, “He has an obligation to other Republican candidates running down ballot. He would be abandoning them. That’s not going to happen. Curtis is committed to the city. I don’t understand the pressure to get him out.”
The last poll I saw had Cuomo handily beating Mamdani in a head-to-head battle, but that is no longer the case.
Polling just released now shows Mamdani beating Cuomo 48-44, according to the Siena Research/NY Times survey. If Adams ran heads up, Mamdani would crush him, 55-35. There was no poll taken for Mamdani to run heads up against Sliwa, but based on the little support he is known to have, it is a fair assumption that he would also be trounced.
Siena director Don Levy stated, “Mamdani holds a huge lead among younger voters while voters 45 and older are split between Cuomo and Mamdani in the four-way race. A lot could change in this race, if Adams and/or Sliwa drop out, or Mamdani could continue to ride his support among young voters and voters concerned about economic issues all the way to Gracie Mansion.”
This is not good news for anyone, as we will now have to rely on the City Council in the Big Apple to keep Mandani in check. If they don’t, well, we will have a full-blown socialist haven in the biggest metropolis in the country.
