This time next week, early voting starts in the New York City mayoral election, which means that the clock is ticking on GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa to drop out of the race.
Even though Sliwa is now the man on the move, it is former Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is currently in second place as an independent candidate.
However, if Sliwa leaves the race, Cuomo suddenly pulls within four points of Mamdani, with a significant number of undecided voters left to woo.
Mamdani appears to be more and more emboldened the closer to election day we get. For instance, he just campaigned with a non-indicted co-conspirator of the 1993 attack against the World Trade Center, and he did so shamelessly.
This did not sit well with Muslims in the city who are trying to separate themselves from such radicals.
Dalia Ziada, a Muslim scholar and fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, was among those who were outraged, stating, “I am particularly concerned to see mosques used as political rallying platforms in the free and democratic United States.”
She continued, “By embracing Wahhaj, Zohran Mamdani is sidelining moderate Muslims and normalizing an extremist ideology that once inspired terror on American soil and still fuels radicalization within segments of the Muslim community today.”
Survivors of the aforementioned WTC bombing also went ballistic on Mamdani for campaigning with Imam Siraj Wahhaj.
Former Port Authority executive director Stan Brezenoff lost officers in that attack, and he was furious, stating, “Nobody should minimize what happened. It was a hellish experience dwarfed by the unimaginable atrocity on 9/11.”
Six people were killed in the attack, and more than 1,000 people were injured.
Wahhaj has denied that he had any involvement in the bombing, also saying that FBI and the CIA are the “real terrorists” in this country.
Gotham Polling and the city AARP have just announced a rather interesting poll for the mayor’s race, showing that if Sliwa drops out, the race tightens up to 44.6% for Mamdani and 40.7% for Cuomo, with a huge chunk of undecided voters capable of settling this race once and for all.
But, what I found interesting was that in the three-way race, it is Sliwa who has been picking up ground after last week's debate, now up to 19.4%, with Cuomo in second place, but having fallen to 28.9%. Mamdani still leads the way at 43.2%. The poll showed me that if Sliwa does leave the race, virtually all of his support slides over to Mamdani. But now I am starting to wonder what would happen if Cuomo left the race and backed Sliwa.
Stephen Graves, president of Gotham Polling & Analytics, stated, “The decisive factor in this race may be the older voters who haven’t yet made up their minds. If the contest narrows to two leading candidates, the 50-plus electorate -- by far the most reliable voting bloc -- will likely determine who becomes the next mayor of New York City.”
To this point, Sliwa has not hinted in the slightest that he is willing to leave the race, and as I have said in other reports, I don’t blame him. He is the candidate for a major party, not Cuomo, who, let’s not forget, was forced out of the governor's office in disgrace over numerous scandals that unfolded during his tenure. Sadly, however, if Sliwa chooses to remain, and I just don’t see Cuomo dropping out, Mamdani wins this election in a landslide, and a socialist gets his hands on the biggest city in the country.
