Once State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani easily captured the Democratic mayoral primary in June, his opponents switched to Plan B: back another candidate in the general election and get out the vote for him. However, the refusal of Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and incumbent Eric Adams, running as an independent, to drop out of the race- combined with Andrew Cuomo hinting he might still run as an independent candidate himself- presents a conundrum. With nobody willing to drop out, the vote is split among the four-candidate pack come November, and that means the largest city in the country could be in the hands of a socialist mayor who failed to win an overwhelming majority of the vote.
J.C. Polanco is a political analyst and a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in the Bronx. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to say that, unless the opposition thins out and unites behind only one candidate, Mamdani can print his business cards with the title of “Mayor of New York City” on them as soon as he wants.
“I keep thinking about the math- the math ain’t ‘mathing’,” Polanco told host Larry Mendte. “(Mamdani)’s gaining momentum, he’s gaining more money, he’s getting more powerful and he’s getting more likeable with people, and what we’re seeing is a perfect storm for there to be a socialist mayor in New York City. Why? Because you have so many independent candidates running, you have a Republican candidate running on his own as well, and that opposition that can stop Assemblyman Mamdani is completely divided.”
Meanwhile, with Election Day four months off in the future, the voters are less than focused on the candidates right now. WOR’s Beat on the Street reporter Natalie Migliore found people on 57th Street willing to back all four choices. One man who stopped for Migliore is clearly in the “anyone but the socialist” camp: “I don’t think he should ever be in control of anything because he hates America.” Another man said no to Mamdani because Adams has a proven record: “You gotta look at what he’s accomplished. You show me you record… and his record is not going to beat Mayor Adams.”
One potential pro-Mamdani voter, however, stood out far and away from the others as to why the declared socialist could waltz to victory: “I don’t know, people are leaning toward him because this is social, right? Don’t we live in a social world? Everything is on social media, everything’s about outside, you know?”
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