Sliwa Levels Bribe Claim at Cuomo; Anti-Mamdani Super PACs Ready Attack Ads

A bare-knuckle brawl is about to get a whole lot nastier in the New York mayoral race.

The latest poll shows Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani pulling 45 percent of the vote with a 20-point lead over his closest rival, former governor Andrew Cuomo.

The New York Times was reporting that several super PACs are now banding together for anti-Mamdani attacks. Shortly after Mamdani’s stunning victory in the Dem primary, the Times notes an email was warning business leaders that if they “fail to mobilize, the financial capital of the world risks being handed over to a socialist this November.” Now the pro-Cuomo super PAC Fix the City is joining forces with Protect the Protectors and New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, creating an anti-Mamdani coalition, the NYT reported.

Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa meanwhile ignited a firestorm of his own by claiming in a recent press conference that “emissaries” from the Cuomo camp have offered millions of dollars in bribes for Sliwa to leave the race. He said he has been approached at least seven times. “C’mon Curtis, everybody has a price,” Sliwa claims the “emissaries” say. “Curtis Sliwa doesn’t have a price,” he said he counters.

Cuomo’s spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, denied the claims and calls Sliwa a liar. “Curtis Sliwa is a liar and a fraudster who has admitted to faking crimes for publicity. . . . This is more of the same.”

Sliwa claims that Mayor Eric Adams has also been offered money by the Cuomo camp to quit.

”I suspect that any day now, Adams will determine that the price is right and he’ll leave the race,” Sliwa said at the same press conference.

To which Adams countered in a statement, “Curtis Sliwa is a clown who is trying to turn New York City into a circus. Mayor Adams has never been offered anything to leave the race. . . . It’s insulting to suggest otherwise.”

Mamdani himself seems to be enjoying, for the moment, the bonfire ignited by Sliwa against Cuomo. “Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams, and Curtis Sliwa? I trust Curtis the most,” Mamdani said when pressed about the controversy at an unrelated event in the Bronx.

The poll from Boston-based Suffolk University was based on a survey of 500 likely voters between Sept. 15 and 18.

At 45 percent, that means that there may be more people who don’t favor the man who pulled off a stunning upset in the June primary. But the opposition is split three ways. Sliwa was polling third with 8.6 percent of the vote in the latest Suffolk poll, while Adams was fourth, polling only 8.2 percent. Adams recently spent more than a week without any active campaign events beyond TV and radio interviews. The reports that he was going to drop out of the race several weeks ago and take a job in the Trump administration appear to have died down. Adams, who has been denied matching funds, continues to insist he is not dropping out, at least at our press time.

While charges fly among the anti-Mamdani rivals, the Dem nominee has finally been getting many of the Democratic party stalwarts, who are leery of much of his progressive platform, to endorse him. The latest to endorse is former vice president Kamala Harris, although only tepidly. She has said that as the Democratic standard-bearer in the race, Mamdani deserves her support.

While the progressive wing of the party, including Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congress member AOC, endorsed Mamdani early on, other leaders at the national level worry that Mamdani’s identity as a Democratic Socialist will hurt the Dem party in Senate and Congressional races next year as it battles President Donald Trump and tries to wrest back control of Congress. At press time, Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, has talked with Mamdani recently but has yet to formally endorse him.

So far nobody has followed the lead of Jim Walden, who ended his own longshot campaign and urged the others still in the race to unite behind one candidate.

Respondents in the Suffolk University poll said the top issue in the mayor’s race is affordability (21 percent), followed by crime (20 percent), economy/jobs (14 percent), housing (9 percent), local response to Trump initiatives (8 percent), racism/justice/equality (7 percent), and schools/education (6 percent). All other issues polled below 4 percent.

“This poll shows that the issues New Yorkers really care about in this election are affordability, crime, and the economy,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.