Gotham’s Next Mayor: A Commie, a Crook, or a Crime-Fighter

As the battle for New York’s City Hall approaches its Nov. 4 climax, Republicans and conservatives disagree on what to order from the mayoral menu.

No one on Gotham’s Right supports State Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani, D-Queens. The Democrat Party’s mayoral nominee is a self-styled democratic socialist who makes Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., look reasonable. She either does not believe in “seizing the means of production” as her “end goal,” as Mamdani boasts, or she is savvy enough to keep the quiet part quiet. Mamdani wants to hand New Yorkers damn-near everything for free, short of awarding every little boy his own fully functioning FDNY fire truck. Mamdani’s infinite giveaways, and the tax hikes to fund them, will sink America’s A-Number 1 city. 

Even worse, if Mamdani were any softer on crime, he would rehabilitate lawbreakers via Carnival cruises. While he has not gone that far—yet—Mamdani has advocated defunding the police, scrapping cash bail, closing Rikers Island prison, and freeing 53% of its inmates. Going broke in Mamdani’s New York will be hard enough, without having to dodge bullets and avoid knife wounds.

Outside New York, some conservatives are rooting for Mamdani, hoping that his tenure would offer a real-time cautionary tale on communism and its discontents. This is like begging for bladder cancer to spook the liver, lungs, and pancreas into rejecting tumors. Alas, like cancer, communism metastasizes. Mamdani’s election would inspire Marxist-Leninists to run for mayor in Denver, San Diego, Tulsa, or who knows where else. Like cancer, communism does not deserve accommodation. It merits universal obliteration, down to the final cell.

Some Republicans will vote for Andrew Cuomo, New York’s former Democrat governor, an independent candidate. Better a latter-day FDR (fittingly a former governor of New York) than V.I. Lenin’s Mini-Me. It’s tough to dispute that logic. Better someone who will tax one’s property until it screams than someone who will snatch it outright.

But Cuomo is no moderate. In 2019, he said: “We need to take the cash bail system and end it once and for all.” And, as governor, he signed legislation that threw cash bail in jail.

Cuomo also resigned in disgrace amid widespread allegations of Me-Tooing female staffers. One need not be a radical feminist to prefer a governor who keeps his hands to himself, at least until coaxed otherwise.

From the inexcusable to the unforgivable, Cuomo’s beyond-boneheaded policies killed nearly 13,000 senior citizens during the COVID-19 lockdown. He demanded that nursing homes immediately accept COVID-positive seniors, rather than quarantine them until they were COVID-negative. Cuomo easily could have accomplished this via the 1,000-bed medical ship USNS Comfort that President Donald Trump 45 dispatched to Manhattan’s Pier 90 or the 2,910-bed pop-up hospital that Trump installed at Manhattan’s Javits Center. Instead, Cuomo forced senior centers to accept COVID-positive residents.

Surprise, surprise! Contagious seniors unwittingly infected healthy ones. The latter took ill, and 12,743 perished from Cuomo’s terminal idiocy.

Cuomo then concealed his culpability, cooked the books to minimize this death toll, then ensnared himself in a massive conflict of interest: He covered his tracks to appear effective, lest his lethal incompetence jeopardize the $4 million cash advance that he scored for a book about his pandemic-era “leadership.” Dr. Cuomo’s deadly snake oil was a medical and moral shonda. New York voters should not ignore this much blood beneath Cuomo’s fingernails nor this much corruption on his resume.

This leaves Republican standard-bearer Curtis Sliwa. His victory is improbable, but possible. His chief asset is abundant street cred: Since 1979, Sliwa and his Guardian Angels have confronted and neutralized criminals on the sidewalks of New York. Their weapons: Signature red berets, formidable physiques, and sheer determination. Sliwa could restore the law and order, pro-growth, fiscally restrained accomplishments of the Rudolph W. Giuliani years. 

Here’s how the Right could help Sliwa secure City Hall.

First, conservatives should stop chanting, “Sliwa can’t win.” Rather than engineer a self-fulfilling prophecy, they should ask: “How can I boost Sliwa?”

Second, rather than dismiss Sliwa’s chances, Republicans should spend every waking moment pile-diving Mamdani’s negatives through the floor. He is a cop-loathing, criminal-loving, silver-spoon-licking Communist. He is jihad-adjacent and never has run so much as a garage sale. Focus New Yorkers on his abundant shortcomings, which exceed his political acumen and genuine charisma. Mandani’s smile will not achieve public safety nor cleanse Gotham’s filthy streets.

Third, Republicans should remind New Yorkers about Cuomo’s hand-wandering, elder-killing ways. He lost the Democrat primary and is no one’s favorite. At best, he is a political air bag to Mamdani’s head-on collision. Yes, air bags save lives, but nobody wants one barking orders for four years.

Fourth, every Republican and GOP ally must vote. As former Empire State Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey argues, high conservative turnout (coupled with universal GOP participation), indifference toward Cuomo, and slothful overconfidence among Mamdani’s supporters could be Sliwa’s secret sauce.

Fifth, Sliwa also would benefit from Gotham’s eight-to-one match on the first $250 of each local donation. Thus, a $2,000 bonus turbocharges every such contribution. Sliwa could thrive with $2,250 per donor.

For details on the clear and present danger known as Zohran Mamdani, please see here, here, and here.

For New Yorkers, the choices are clear: A Commie, a crook, and a crime-fighter. Mamdani should teach sociology. Cuomo should be indicted for negligent homicide. And Sliwa should capture City Hall.

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