NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo hasn’t been the underdog in a debate in more than 20 years — and it showed.
His lackluster performance in the first general election debate of the New York City mayoral race Thursday night underscored how difficult it is for him to run an insurgent campaign against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. And the former governor — and his supporters — are pointing the finger at Republican anti-crime activist Curtis Sliwa.
“If Zohran Mamdani wins, then his victory can be blamed solely on Curtis Sliwa,” said Jeff Leb, a Democratic consultant who’s leading an anti-Mamdani super PAC. “Curtis Sliwa being here doesn’t add any substance, it just contributes to noise.”
The frustration among Cuomo’s allies with Sliwa’s continued presence belies the former governor’s muted debate appearance. Cuomo grimaced his way through much of the debate while evincing little cheer. He didn’t land any serious blows that would knock Mamdani off his frontrunner pedestal, and time is growing short to leverage weaknesses by the young democratic socialist. A Fox News poll released prior to the two-hour forum showed Mamdani for the first time topping 50 percent among the three remaining candidates in the race.
The former governor’s Thursday night showing seemed more attuned to a top-tier candidate protecting a lead, not a run-and-gun hopeful fighting to win. He spent much of his time explaining away the scandals that drove him from office four years ago, and he recycled attacks on Mamdani that failed to sink him in the Democratic primary.
Cuomo is consistently polling in second behind Mamdani, while Sliwa, the GOP nominee has been coming in a distant third. And he’s been trying to minimize Sliwa for months, believing that he’d have a shot to defeat Mamdani if only the race became, in effect, a one-on-one matchup.
Anti-Mamdani political operatives and campaign donors have not rushed to abandon Cuomo, pointing to next week’s debate as a chance for him to right the ship and finish strong. There is an acknowledgement, though, that the 67-year-old former governor has struggled against a generational political talent.
“Cuomo is counting on the next debate. He will moderate his style in the next debate and will focus on the real issue he can work with, which is experience,” said Democratic operative Hank Sheinkopf, who is working for an anti-Mamdani super PAC. “The good news for Cuomo is there’s more debates. The question is can Cuomo make the experience argument in the more direct manner and is Sliwa interfering with that?”
Yet it’s his deep resume — a strength against Mamdani’s scant record — that is also a weakness when his back is up against the wall.
Cuomo’s long political career includes effective, lawyerly debate performances in which he has picked apart opponents’ attacks and proposals. The Gotham mayoral race, a comeback bid after resigning in disgrace, has been a wholly different challenge for the ex-governor after his shocking June primary loss. Since his 2006 run for state attorney general and subsequent gubernatorial campaigns, Cuomo has always been the odds-on favorite. His campaign since losing in June — which briefly tried to reinvent itself with short-form videos and a relaxed social media presence — has not reflected the status of an insurgent trying to beat the top seed.
Fresh off the debate stage, Cuomo himself made a plea Friday morning to Republicans on the conservative talk radio station WABC, where Sliwa hosts a show.
“There is no Curtis as a candidate. There’s Curtis as a spoiler,” Cuomo said to radio host Sid Rosenberg. “If Curtis is not in the race, I win. And that’s a choice for Republicans. Do you vote for Curtis so you can say ‘I voted Republican’ and wind up electing Mamdani? Or do you vote for me?”
Polling suggests Cuomo is overstating his case. The Fox News poll released Thursday had 52 percent of likely voters supporting Mamdani. Cuomo, who was in second with 28 percent, would need to pick up all 14 percent of Sliwa voters, the 2 percent still voting for Mayor Eric Adams even after he dropped out of the race, the 2 percent supporting another one of the three longshot independent candidates also on the ballot and the 3 percent of undecided voters. And even then, Cuomo would still need to flip some Mamdani voters.
Of course, polls reflect just one moment in time, and Cuomo has reason to doubt them, given that polling didn’t predict Mamdani’s 13-point win in the primary. But even the typically proud former governor admitted his poor position Friday when Rosenberg asked if he could win with Sliwa still in the race.
“Very, very, very hard mathematically. Very, very hard,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo floated a theory that Republican leaders were keeping Sliwa in the race because they think a Mamdani mayoralty would help the GOP in swing congressional seats. And he said that President Donald Trump could force Sliwa out to help him.
“You know what Trump would do? One phone call. You call the chairman of the Republican Party, (Ed) Cox, and you say ‘I want the guy out of the race,’” Cuomo said.
Rosenberg, who said he’s a friend of Sliwa and talks to him “four or five times a day” said he’d try to intervene himself, and suggested they all get lunch Monday at 12:30 at Fresco by Scotto in Midtown. Cuomo didn’t commit.
Well-heeled donors have watched Mamdani’s rise for months with dread. Though the Sliwa dynamic and Cuomo’s uninspired debate turn have made an uphill climb even steeper, campaign cash to stop the Queens assemblymember’s momentum won’t stop flowing.
“The donor world is just so anti-Mamdani there’s not much that’s going to sway them.,” said Mark Botnick, a former adviser to billionaire ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who contributed $8.3 million to a pro-Cuomo super PAC during the primary. “How active or not active they are depends on the person.”
Sliwa and Cuomo need support from the shallow pool of Republicans who reside in the otherwise Democratic dominated city. Sliwa, a longtime New York City character and Guardian Angels founder, is not an ally of Trump, though he does draw overlapping support from MAGA Republicans — especially in GOP enclaves like Staten Island.
Cuomo has made a concerted effort to court some Republicans and peel support away from Sliwa, who was the party’s 2021 nominee. Both men are running on public safety themes — a shared posture that is likely splitting votes among New Yorkers worried about crime.
The moderate former governor’s centrist positioning between the hard-left Mamdani and the eccentric Sliwa is complicating his ability to break loose from a middle lane.
“Cuomo had a good debate,” said David Greenfield, a former New York City Council member and head of The Met Council, a prominent Jewish charity. “It’s just that he was getting hit from both sides. That was a tough spot to be in. He’s getting hit from Zohran from the left and from Curtis on the right. That made it especially challenging. It was tough for him to make the points that he wanted.”
Batting away spoiler allegations has become the default for Sliwa as wealthy New Yorkers and Cuomo allies are increasingly alarmed by the prospect of a Mamdani victory in November. Pressing the panic button hasn’t worked.
Sliwa has insisted he won’t leave the race even as pressure to do so intensified after Adams, polling in single digits, suspended his campaign on Sept. 28. The incumbent Democrat will remain on the ballot as an independent candidate. Supporters of the GOP nominee believe the effort to push Sliwa out highlights Cuomo’s desperation in the closing weeks of the campaign.
“They’re in denial,” said Republican operative E. O’Brien Murray, who is leading a pro-Sliwa super PAC. “They’re looking at it from a political science textbook point of view instead of the realities of the race. I can’t blame them for believing in their person, but there’s three people on the ballot. They’re saying Cuomo cannot win a three-way race. They’re admitting it, but they don’t know what to do about it.”
There’s one more televised debate scheduled for Wednesday night. And in the aftermath of the first one, even ostensible Sliwa allies, like billionaire Republican donor John Catsimatidis, are questioning the GOP nominee’s position in the race. Catsimatidis is being closely watched by Cuomo allies in particular. An oil executive and chain supermarket impresario, Catsimatidis is also Sliwa’s boss, in a way, as the owner of WABC, and the businessperson is planning to have Cuomo on his own radio show on Sunday. In an interview, Catsimatidis urged Sliwa to direct his fire on Mamdani, not the Democratic ex-governor.
“Curtis loves New York. He’s running as a Republican, but Curtis should be attacking Zohran more so than attacking Andrew Cuomo,” Catsimatidis said. “The clear and present danger is not Andrew Cuomo.”
