Zohran Mamdani Has Less Experience But More Integrity Than Andrew Cuomo, Most Of Democratic Leadership

The desperate flailing from Cuomo campaign continues.

A January poll from Politico showed New York Mayor Eric Adams with just six percent support among Democratic primary voters. That was a fair showing for a corrupt failure of a mayor, but what’s interesting about this poll is that Adams was tied at this dismal six percent with Zohran Mamdani, who’d go on to win the Democratic primary outright and will likely replace Adams as New York’s next mayor. It’s truly a Cinderella story if Cinderella were a generational political talent and could manage to keep her shoes on.

In that Politico poll, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was in the lead with 32 percent of primary support. He hadn’t yet announced his campaign, but he was a clear frontrunner so long as no one asked why he was a former governor.

New York Mayor Eric Adams Now At 6% Swagger

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Adams initially dismissed polls showing Cuomo ahead. Alluding to 2021 primary polls that had Andrew Yang in the lead, Adams said, “So in February, Andrew was kicking my rear. And you know what? We don’t say Mayor Yang. We say Mayor Adams. So polls don’t make mayors. People do.” Turns out he was right, but just not in any way that would keep him in the mayor’s mansion next year.

Cuomo didn’t perform much better than that 32 percent in the January poll. He managed 36.1 percent in the first round of primary voting in June, coming in second to Mamdani’s 43.8 percent. By the final round of ranked-choice voting, Mamdani had surged to 56.4 percent to Cuomo’s 43.6 — clearly benefitting more as voters’ second or even third choice. Adams didn’t even factor into the primary. By April, knowing he’d lose, Adams announced that he would run in the general election as an independent. Cuomo predictably had trouble accepting “no” as an answer and ignored the choice Democratic primary voters had made. He also ran as an independent, though he’s shamelessly claimed that he’s the “real” Democrat in the race. No one’s buying this.

Cuomo And Trump Is The Supervillain Team-Up No One Demanded

Adams even tried circulating petitions to run on an “EndAntiSemitism” ballot line, as well as a “Safe&Affordable” ballot line. Democrats might have considered running in tough races on a “EndAging” and “Puppies&IceCream” ballot line, but this didn’t work that well for Adams, who languished in single digits before eventually ending his doomed quest for a second term. He’s still on the ballot, though, because he waited so long to accept reality. However, a stampede of centrists voters didn’t necessarily rush to Cuomo. A recent Fox News poll showed Mamdani gaining after Adams’ withdrawal with 52 percent to Cuomo’s 28 piddly percent. This was a five-percentage point improvement for Mamdani from last month’s poll. It makes sense that left-of-center voters, especially Black New Yorkers who are actually loyal Democrats, would rally behind the actual Democratic nominee. Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand might struggle with this concept, but that’s why they all deserve a left-of-center independent challenger in their own general election races. They obviously don’t consider primary victories decisive.

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Cuomo is sort of Schrodinger’s sex pest candidate — running as the “reasonable” Democrat, one for whom Schumer’s celebrity cousin Amy proudly casts a ballot, while also feeling entitled to support from New York Republicans who never cared that much for him when he was governor. Thus, there has been pressure for the actual Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to withdraw and maybe even endorse Cuomo. The flaw here is that Sliwa loathes Cuomo, like all decent people. On Fox News, he called Cuomo a “creep … slapping fannies and killing grannies.” During last week’s mayoral debate, Sliwa scoffed at Cuomo’s assertion that he’d actually stand up to Donald Trump.

“The president is going to back down to you?” Sliwa said. “Andrew Cuomo, I know you think you’re the toughest guy alive, but let me tell you something, you lost your own primary. You were rejected by your Democrats. You have a difficulty understanding what the term ‘no’ is.”

Cuomo has called Sliwa a “spoiler,” which is a Bizarro World definition of the term. Sliwa won his primary and is the Republican nominee. Cuomo is the one who actually fits the definition of “spoiler.” Sliwa correctly noted that he has an obligation to the party to stay in the race as other Republican candidates are running on the same ballot line. Cuomo is hardly a team player, so that doesn’t resonate with him.

Zohran Mamdani’s Opponents Have Billions Among Them But Can’t Buy Shame

Although Cuomo has suggested he’d offer Sliwa a position in his corrupt administration in exchange for him dropping out, Sliwa isn’t interested. In fact, he said on a radio interview: “Remember that scene in Braveheart? Mel Gibson at the end, when the executioner was impaling him? If all of a sudden, the executioner would’ve stopped, and I was on that gurney, and said, ‘Hey, you can work for Mayor Andrew Cuomo,’ I would say, ‘Finish the job. Impale me.’”

It’s possible that while Sliwa might have curious taste in hats, he has more integrity than Cuomo. He insists Cuomo is the one who should drop and out “go hang out with your billionaires in the Hamptons. Leave the streets to me and battling the Zohranistas.” (I guess New York Democrats are now “Zohranistas,” which should delight Jeffries and Schumer.)

Desperate billionaires have so far failed to buy off Sliwa’s candidacy, and have now resorted to begging him to withdraw and consolidate around Cuomo, who he hates. This is more wishful thinking than the supposed socialist fantasies behind Mamdani’s mostly reasonable policies.

In a last-gasp attempt at relevancy, the current disgraced mayor is apparently in negotiations to officially endorse the former disgraced governor. It’s unclear what good an Adams endorsement that will do for Cuomo other than present a united front of crappy one-time “Democrats” who are a disgrace to “centrism.” They don’t care about any New Yorkers whose names aren’t on their driver’s licenses.

After Adams dropped out, Mamdani said, “Donald Trump and his billionaire donors might be able to determine Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo’s actions but they will not dictate the results of this election. New York deserves better than trading in one disgraced, corrupt politician for another.”

Polls show Mamdani still edging out Cuomo in hypothetical head-to-head matches, but even that faint capitalist hope ignores the reality that both Adams and Sliwa’s names will remain on the ballot, regardless of their candidacy. Sliwa’s supporters aren’t guaranteed to back Cuomo. It’s not as if they ever seriously believed he could become mayor, so their votes are less tactical and more ideological.

The best-case polling for Cuomo also discounts the significant enthusiasm among young voters for Mamdani’s campaign, which itself isn’t hypothetical. It clearly materialized during the primary. Cuomo even concedes that voters find Mamdani far more appealing personally than himself, but in his typically absurd way:

“I think they’re responding to he is smiley and whatever says he says with a smile. When you look at me, do you see likability?” he said. “No, I’m big, I happen to be Italian. And I happen to be a serious person.”

If Mamdani is elected mayor next month, the true story will be how he managed to do so without any real assistance from Democratic leadership, even after fairly winning the primary and contending with a vicious, negative campaign from a serial sex pest. Integrity will have trumped experience across the board.