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A Marist University poll shows Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is still stiff-arming his competition, as the front-running Queens State Assemblyman has a 45%-24% lead over his nearest challenger, former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The poll indicates that Mamdani’s lead isn’t growing, but his opponents aren’t gaining any ground on him, either. That means Mamdani’s critics are, at worst, starting to brace themselves with each passing day for what’s seemingly inevitable- that New York City will soon be run by a self-avowed socialist. City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (R-19TH) may be changing her outlook on who she sees winning the race for Gracie Mansion. Speaking on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program, the normally defiant firecracker of the City Council sounded more somber than ever when handicapping the mayoral race.
Paladino told host Larry Mendte that, in the wake of the murder of Charlie Kirk, she sees a tragic parallel between London today and New York in the not-too-distant future if Mamdani wins the election: “This is bad news for us all. Freedom of speech- you see what’s going on in England, right, and Zohran Mamdani… he’s going to set up a separate department for community safety, and that’s going to be his own people, and he and his people are going to determine who is speaking out of hate, hate crimes, and freedom of speech is going to come into that. So, we’re looking at England, and you can see New York now as a reflection, and people better examine that very closely and very clearly.”
Paladino also had a message for Governor Kathy Hochul, who made headlines over the weekend when she announced she was endorsing Mamdani for the position: “For her to take a knee to Communism, to anti-Semitism, to capitalism- she talks out of two sides of her mouth, this woman… the Democratic party as we know it is dead; it has now become the party of the DSA movement.”
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