By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
With all the familiar swagger he could muster, this week, former governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would be running for mayor as an independent.
Agreeing with fellow independent Jim Waldon’s idea to run a poll before the November election, and support the highest polling candidate against the frontrunner Zohran Mamdani supported, as they drop out of the race. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, now running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa both rejected the notion.
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said, “While this is unorthodox, these are unusual times. We are at a dangerous moment for our city.”
“New Yorkers aren’t dumb,” Adams proclaimed. Cuomo lost by double digits—13 points. Are we supposed to trust the same polls that said he was up by 10 points?”
Posting online, Mamdani said, “While Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams trip over each other to win the approval of billionaires in backrooms, our campaign remains focused on working New Yorkers and their clear desire for a different kind of politics.”
Slingshot Strategies polled the candidates, with Mamdani at 35%, Cuomo at 25%, Sliwa at 14%, and Adams and Walden trailing with 11% and 1%, respectively.
A new Harris X poll has a tighter race though. With all four candidates Mamdani is at 26%, Cuomo 23%, Sliwa 22%, Adams 13%,and undecided voters at 15%.
In a race without Adams, Cuomo is at 31%, Mamdani 29%, and Sliwa at 28%.
In a race without Cuomo, Mamdani leads with 35%, Sliwa at 25%, and Adams at 19%.
If it was one on one, the poll has Mamdani 43% over Adams 36 percent, but has Cuomo at 50% versus Mamdani at 35%.
“The youth seem to like Zohran Mamdani, they are excited by his campaign, he is the image of change,” youth counselor Osato Irene told Our Time Press. “He would be the ultimate diversity hirer because with his background, he can naturally connect with lots of different people and cultures, Africans, Asians, Caribbeans, Latinos, and white people. He brings hope after the last presidential election, and what is happening nationally now.
“People haven’t felt this great about a candidate since Obama. They understand that he may not be able to do everything he says on the campaign, but they are willing to try.”
Mamdani is out here collecting support like the UFT, New York State Nurses Association, New York City Central Labor Council, District Council 37, Hotel and Gaming Trades Council AFL-CIO, 32BJ SEIU property service workers union, Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, Manhattan Democratic Party chair Keith Wright, and Congressman Adriano Espaillat.
Meanwhile, almost as if consolidating his campaign path to City Hall as an inevitability, this week, the Queens Assemblyman planned his assurance meetings with business leaders and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who is demanding to know how he will treat Jewish New Yorkers.
“We supported Eric for years, during some serious issues from police and community violence, and post-COVID. We were fighting for him, while he was fighting just for Eric,” Danny Goodine, youth worker and co-founder of Men Elevating Leadership, told Our Time Press. “He is originally from Brownsville, but the community has very low tolerance for the unfulfilled promises made in the past.
He came to Tapscott Street, where some community organizations were on hand doing stop-the-violence work. He said he would offer jobs, opportunities, and work with the young people–and that never happened. Brownsville feels let down by him.
Mamdani came to the Safety Alliance, formed by Commanding Officer Terrell Anderson, who worked with the community in the 73rd Precinct. I saw handshakes and smiles, and did not hear any negativity, same thing when Curtis Sliwa came to the Brooklyn Recreation Center for our Juneteenth event. They were mostly young people, and they were glad he came to Brownsville. We are yet to see Eric during this campaign.”
However, some are suspicious of the relative newcomer to city politics.
“So, we are going to vote for someone we do not know, over a person we have known for decades?” a staunch Adams supporter asked rhetorically. Speaking to the paper under the condition of anonymity, the well-placed city worker queried, “Are we going to give it to someone who has no relationship with our community? We are so easily manipulated.
We were disappointed in Bill de Blasio, Rudy Giuliani, and Michael Bloomberg – but they got second terms. So now, we are going to David Dinkins Mayor Eric Adams, and give him only one term? We must hold ourselves to a higher level. The Democratic Party attacked the Mayor on the immigrant crisis,, whom he had to house and feed, post-pandemic.. He asked the Biden administration for money, and this is what they did.
Mamdani is brand new, and all of the things he has proposed, he can not do. But people just blindly vote Democrat.”
Roger Toussaint, former president of TWU, who led the 2005 strike which shut down the city during the MTA strike, told Our Time Press, affordability is a huge driver of general public motivation and opinion. “The policies which Zohran Mamdani advocates are essentially popular democratic policies considered normal in much of Europe,” he said.
“Regarding the question of who represents Black identity more in comparing Zohran to Adams, it is important to examine whose program and platform benefits the Black community more. Eric Adams’s policies have been shown to further big business interests. After 4 years in office, the Black community is either still where he found it, or arguably worse off by some indices, such as housing and affordability.
The numbers show folks are being priced out and are fleeing. Whereas Zohran, born in Africa and having demonstrated a history of identification and alliance with Black and working class culture, steadfastly proposes a program that would advance the interests of Black and poor people’s livability, access to opportunity, and even crime and safety.”
Marlon Rice, Bed Stuy, community activist, told Our Time Press that there is a new paradigm in operation. “Zohran’s primary win puts into perspective the failures of the establishment moderate Dems with regards to connecting with the people, ” he said. “In fact, his win proves that such a connection has been taken for granted.
The voter is aware and informed. Rose Garden campaigning – thinking that press conferences and name recognition is enough – won’t work anymore. We want our servant leaders to be found in the trenches with us. We want them to be OF us. This is the new paradigm of politics in NYC, and I believe it’s for the best.”
Controversial community activist Hawk Newsome said, “I really don’t understand how any Black people in New York City could place Eric Adams or Governor Cuomo over Zohran. He talks about free buses. I don’t understand how people think that’s a socialist policy when it worked for us during COVID.
He’s talking about stabilizing and or freezing rent. How could poor people have a problem with that? Especially when we saw three rent hikes and harmful legislation that promoted landlords exploiting us under Eric Adams.”
The co-founder of Black Lives Matter New York told Our Time Press, “If he’s talking about improving healthcare for everybody–that’s in Obama’s policy. So when you look at these churches and these Black leaders, you have to question what their alliances are, too. Either they’re loyal to money or the benefits that come with these candidates, but if they were looking out for the greater good, then Zoran is the candidate.”
