New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s apparent Democratic mayoral primary victory in New York City has sent shockwaves through the party’s establishment wing in the Empire State, with some prominent Democratic officials already distancing themselves from him ahead of the allocation of ranked-choice votes in the coming days.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is among them, saying in a radio interview Thursday on the issue of the “Globalize the intifada” chants from the pro-Hamas mobs who back his candidacy that the AOC/Bernie Sanders-backed Democratic Socialist should unequivocally denounce them.
“As a leader of a city as diverse as New York City, with 8 million people, as the largest Jewish population in the country, he should denounce it,” Gillibrand stated. “And that’s it. Period.”
“It is a serious word. It is a word that has deep meaning. It has been used for wars across time and violence and destruction and slaughter and murder against the Jews,” she also said.
It is perhaps with the growing Democrat panic in mind, not to mention the GOP already turning Mamdani into the face of the Democratic Party, that disgraced former NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo has reportedly decided to stay in the race even after conceding the primary to Mamdani:
Andrew Cuomo will not drop out of the New York City mayoral race by the Friday deadline to remove himself from the general election ballot, sources tell CNN. That leaves in place contingency plans he had established before the Democratic primary to challenge Zohran Mamdani and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams in November.
The former New York governor, who quickly conceded the Democratic primary race on Tuesday night to Mamdani, has not fully committed to running an active campaign through the summer and fall. But Cuomo will keep the place he already secured on the “Fight & Deliver” ballot line for the November election, three sources say.
Cuomo is calculating that the full city’s electorate would be significantly different from Democratic primary voters who were energized by Mamdani’s focus on affordability and his campaign’s online videos. His camp also believes Mamdani and his policy ideas, from a rent freeze to city-operated grocery stores, will receive increased scrutiny now that Mamdani is positioned to secure a Democratic primary win once ranked-choice votes are allocated next week.
Critics have concerns that Cuomo staying on the ballot might take votes away from Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent:
“Cuomo’s name in the race is fantastic for Mamdani,” said Sal Albanese, a former Brooklyn city councilman. “A thousand percent Cuomo is playing the spoiler. It makes Mamdani’s task of getting elected mayor much easier.”[…]“If Cuomo stays in the race he splits the anti-Mamdani vote and helps Mamdani,” said state Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, a Dyker Heights resident.“He’s playing the spoiler — 100 percent. He has no chance of winning and only takes votes from Adams and Curtis,” Kassar said, referring to GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa.
Former state assemblyman Dov Hikind called on Cuomo *and* Adams to drop out, apparently believing Sliwa has a chance to defeat Mamdani:
Meanwhile, Eric Adams isn’t wasting any time letting voters know what’s at stake in this race:
It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that NYC has gone from a terrorist attack like 9/11 to possibly being on the verge of electing an anti-American, pro-Hamas, antisemitic candidate like Mamdani, and yet here we are.
While it’s hard to predict with any degree of certainty how this ultimately will play out, the first post-mayoral primary poll is out and shows Cuomo and Mamdani both with equal levels of support, and Adams trailing badly:
As speculation swirls over whether former [governor] Cuomo will continue his campaign as an independent after conceding the Democratic primary to Mamdani, a new poll shows the two candidates in a statistical tie heading into November’s general election.The polling, conducted independently by the Honan Strategy Group 48 hours after Mamdani’s stunning victory, showed both Mamdani and Cuomo garnering 39% support among likely general election voters in a five-way race between them, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, independent candidate Jim Walden and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who trailed at 13%.[…]In the scenario that Cuomo does not appear on the ballot, pollsters found that Mamdani would lead Adams by 15 points.
But if Adams were to drop out, Cuomo appears to pick up the support of likely Adams voters and gains a slight edge, leading Mamdani by 4 points — just outside the poll’s margin of error of ±3.4%.
Adams officially kicked off his general election campaign Thursday.
-Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter/X.-
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