Dem
47
GOP
53
Things are getting desperate in New York City's mayoral race. And, as a consequence, things are getting ugly. While Curtis Sliwa (R) and Andrew Cuomo ("I") do not agree on the question of whether Sliwa should drop out of the race, they do agree that Zohran Mamdani (D) is bad for New York City. So, the two non-Democrats spent most of Wednesday night's second and final mayoral debate hurling slings and arrows in the direction of the frontrunner. Mamdani fired back, of course, and had his own bit of "going low" planned, as he announced (truthfully) that he had invited one of the women who accused Cuomo of sexual harassment to be in the audience for the debate, and she accepted.
Meanwhile, yesterday (i.e., the morning after the debate), Mayor Eric Adams made it official and endorsed Cuomo. We are not sure that "Curtis Sliwa agrees with Cuomo about Mamdani" or "Eric Adams has endorsed Cuomo" helps the former governor all that much. After all, all three men are kind of sleazy, and all three are much more committed to their own success than to any particular political philosophy. Surely, most voters who are OK with that package are already on Team Cuomo. And actually, given that Adams is about as popular as athlete's foot these days, we wonder if his endorsement might cost Cuomo more support than it gains him.
In addition to accepting Adams' endorsement, Cuomo continued his desperation tour yesterday, and showed that it's not just the Republican Party that is home to out-and-out bigots (though note that Cuomo is technically an independent right now, and not a Democrat). The wannabe mayor appeared on a right-wing radio show, hosted by a real prize named Sid Rosenberg. The radio talker observed that it would be disastrous if another 9/11 attack happened while Mamdani was mayor, and added that "[Mamdani]'d be cheering." Cuomo laughed at the observation, and added "That's another problem," signaling his agreement.
That's pretty vile. And yet, it's not even the most vile thing Cuomo and his campaign uncorked yesterday. They also posted an unbelievable AI-generated campaign ad to eX-Twitter. Anyone who wishes to watch it can see it here:
For those who do not care to watch, it's basically a modern version of the infamous Willie Horton ad from 1988. It starts with a bizarre scene of Mamdani gorging himself on rice, and then shows a series of six New Yorkers of different backgrounds talking about how much they like Mamdani. Then, the commercial cycles through them again, and you see that one of them is an Italian wife-beater, one's a thief, one's a drunk driver, one's a Black shoplifter, one's a Latino gang member and one's a Black pimp, and the reason they are happy is that they will be able to get away with their crimes if Mamdani is elected. At least Willie Horton was a real person (even if he wasn't actually known as "Willie"); this ad is just out-and-out bigotry. Oh, and it's also a ripoff of a fake commercial from Saturday Night Live, so much so that NBC should sue for copyright infringement. Here is the SNL bit that's being plagiarized; it's actually much more worthy of a minute and a half of your time, because at least it's clever:
The Cuomo campaign eventually deleted the tweet with the racist video, but once something is on the Internet, it lives forever.
Clearly, Cuomo and his people have decided there are no more Democrats to be won over, and that their only hope lies in going all-in on trying to steal away Sliwa's voters. The thing is, not only did this approach produce some truly reprehensible pandering to racists, but it also doesn't actually add up. Even if every Sliwa voter were to say "I want me some of that bigotry," it's still not enough to put Cuomo into the lead. And with stunts like the ones the ex-governor pulled yesterday, he's not going to get the additional independents/Democrats he would need to actually win. We think his goose is cooked, and we must admit we look forward to what will hopefully be his final exit from the political stage. (Z)