The Sprint for City HallWe’re nearly one week out from the critical Nov. 4 election for New York City mayor.
Good morning and welcome back to The Sprint for City Hall. I’m Katie Glueck, here to remind you that early voting begins today. You can find your polling spot here. Today we’ll catch up with Dana Rubinstein, who helps lead our mayoral coverage, about the most important developments of a wild week. Then we’ll highlight six of the biggest recent moments of the campaign, and why they matter.
What we’re watchingKatie Glueck: Dana, it’s been a busy, ugly, head-spinning week in the mayor’s race, and New Yorkers start voting today. Where does the race stand? Dana Rubinstein: After an energetic debate, Curtis Sliwa’s refusal to leave the race, Andrew Cuomo’s descent into doomsday prophecies, and Eric Adams’s endorsement of Cuomo, we continue to have three men running for City Hall, and no new polls to show that Zohran Mamdani is anything but the front-runner. KG: What surprised you most this week? DR: An A.I.-generated video that Cuomo’s campaign posted on Wednesday, and then quickly took down. It was remarkable both for its use of very crude stereotypes and the extremely dark message it sent to voters. To suggest that another candidate’s supporters are criminals — particularly when that candidate is, by all measures, poised to win at least a plurality of votes in the city — does not seem like a recipe for earning New Yorkers’ support. KG: What will you be watching over the weekend and headed into next week? DR: I’m very curious to see if any new polling emerges that shows any change in what has come to seem like a very static race: Mamdani well ahead, followed by Cuomo and then Sliwa. Six storylines to follow
What happened: A conservative radio host said that Mamdani, a Muslim mayoral candidate and the Democratic nominee, would celebrate another Sept. 11-style terrorist attack on New York City. Cuomo, the former governor and an independent candidate for mayor, laughed along. Why it matters: Cuomo, trailing significantly in the polls, has increasingly sought to play on voters’ fears as the race enters the final stretch. The exchange with the radio host went too far even for some of Mamdani’s Democratic critics, who condemned the conversation as Islamophobic. Cuomo is trying win over undecided voters who disagree strongly with Mamdani on policy, but this approach may resurrect questions about Cuomo’s character.
What happened: Mayor Eric Adams has not always had warm words for Cuomo, to say the least. But he put that history aside this week to endorse the former governor, a last-ditch effort to slow the momentum established by Mamdani, the front-runner. Why it matters: Adams abandoned his own re-election bid earlier this fall, an acknowledgment that he had no path to victory, so it’s unclear how many voters he can still persuade. But the mayor signaled that he would try to help Cuomo in neighborhoods where he still has support.
What happened: Mamdani said on Wednesday that he plans to ask Jessica Tisch, a popular technocrat seen as tough-minded on crime, to stay on as the police commissioner if he wins. Why it matters: Mamdani still faces fierce opposition from some business leaders and political moderates. But for critics who worry about whether he takes matters of law enforcement seriously — or whether, as a relative political novice, he will have experienced voices in his administration — this was among the most reassuring moves he could make.
What happened: Sliwa, the Republican nominee, couldn’t be clearer or more colorful: As long as he lives, he is not going to drop out of this race to try to help Cuomo stop Mamdani. Why it matters: While polls show Mamdani with a strong lead in the race, a significant swath of the electorate appears to oppose him. But the anti-Mamdani vote is divided between Cuomo and Sliwa, who trails the former governor in available surveys. Without a consolidation of that vote in the final stretch, Mamdani appears tough to beat.
What happened: The mayoral candidates met on the debate stage this week for the final time. Why it matters: For Cuomo and Sliwa, it was perhaps their best and last chance to try to slow Mamdani’s momentum. Cuomo, for his part, delivered a more energetic performance than he had in the first debate, but it wasn’t clear that anyone landed the sort of knockout blow that would fundamentally alter the race’s trajectory.
What happened: Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, endorsed Mamdani for mayor on Friday, a day before early voting was set to begin. Why it matters: Even as Mamdani has pulled in endorsements from previously skeptical party leaders, there have been notable holdouts, Jeffries among them. A sharp critic of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jeffries has had his differences with Mamdani, a democratic socialist. The endorsement is the latest sign that many mainstream Democrats are going to support their party’s nominee, despite some reservations. But don’t expect them to embrace all of Mamdani’s left-wing message.
Nicholas Fandos, who is helping guide our mayoral coverage, takes a step back in this video, tracing Mamdani’s improbable rise and charting how he has tried to expand his appeal in the general election. We want to hear from youIf you go vote this weekend, I’d love to hear what the vibe was like at your polling site. Celebratory? Tense? Quiet? If you decided how you’d vote in the past week — what was the deciding factor for you? And if you are still unsure about how you’ll vote — what are you weighing? I’m at katie.glueck@nytimes.com and would love to hear from you. Thanks for reading, have a great weekend and see you Tuesday.
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