Title: Early NYC Voting Preview

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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Back to the New York City mayoral race on the morning after the morning after the final debate, and the news has kept on coming. You've heard by now that Mayor Adams endorsed Andrew Cuomo yesterday, and maybe you've heard the exchange or seen it on social media between Cuomo and conservative talk show host Sid Rosenberg on WABC yesterday that's offending a lot of people and bringing charges of Islamophobia against Cuomo. This 18-second clip starts with Andrew Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo: Any given morning, there's a crisis, and people's lives are at stake. God forbid another 9/11. Can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?

Sid Rosenberg: Yes, I could. He'd be cheering. [chuckles]

Andrew Cuomo: It's another problem.

Brian: Sid Rosenberg says Mamdani would be cheering 9/11, and Cuomo chuckles and says that's another problem. The campaign has since tried to say that Cuomo was making an indirect reference to Mamdani going on Hasan Piker's podcast. Piker once said that the US deserved 9/11 and referred to Jews as inbred, according to reporting I've read. During last week's debate, Mamdani said Piker's comments were reprehensible. More to the point, neither Sid Rosenberg nor Cuomo mentioned Hasan Piker yesterday. Rosenberg just said Mamdani would be cheering another 9/11, and Cuomo said that's another problem. This is all after Cuomo in Wednesday night's debate said he would be the one to end divisiveness in the city.

Now, The New York Times reports that Congressman Dan Goldman, who some of you know, just this week said he was "very concerned" about Mr. Mamdani's language about Israel, called the suggestion that the candidate would cheer on a terrorist attack "naked Islamophobia." That's Dan Goldman. It says Representative Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat who has had his own sharp disagreements with Mr. Mamdani over Israel, wrote on X that "to insinuate that a mayoral candidate would celebrate a second 9/11 is beyond disgusting and disgraceful," from Ritchie Torres. That from The New York Times, which adds that a Cuomo spokesman later said Cuomo does not believe Mamdani would celebrate a terrorist attack.

We'll talk about that and more now with Samantha Maldonado, senior reporter at the news site THE CITY. She usually covers climate, energy, housing, and development. Also covering the mayor's race generally, as it's kind of all hands on deck on that right now in a lot of New York journalism. She also has an article, 5 Takeaways from the Final New York City Mayoral Debate. We'll get into some races other than for mayor that might be competitive in the city as early voting begins tomorrow. Samantha, thanks for coming on. Welcome back to WNYC.

Samantha: Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.

Brian: Clearly, from trying to walk it back as his campaign did, this isn't a position that Cuomo is digging in on, but of course, it still raises an issue if his initial impulse was to agree with Sid Rosenberg that Mamdani would be cheering on another 9/11 rather than having an impulse to say, "Hey, that's unfair,' whatever my disagreement with the candidates over Israel or anything else, no that's wrong. How did Mamdani himself react?

Samantha: Mamdani, and I should say he is going to address this and Islamophobia's role in this entire race so far at one o'clock in front of a mosque in the Bronx. He'll have more to say on that. So far, he was like, "This isn't about me. This is about Islamophobia, and it really has no place here."

Brian: Someone like Congressman Dan Goldman, who, correct me if I'm wrong, I think he hasn't even endorsed Mamdani because of their disagreements on Israel and the implications for antisemitism in New York that Goldman is concerned about. He keeps raising criticisms of Mamdani's position on Israel. Now he's in the position of also denouncing Cuomo as engaging in "naked Islamophobia." Are you surprised Dan Goldman, Ritchie Torres another example, pounced on Cuomo rather than shrug it off as a gaffe?

Samantha: I'm not surprised. I think they understand that there are many Muslim New Yorkers in New York, and they see this rhetoric as inflammatory. I think they can have concerns around Mamdani's stances when it comes to Israel, for instance, and also denounce the kind of rhetoric that both Cuomo and, frankly, Eric Adams have used in suggestion to Mamdani. I think one of the things that Cuomo said yesterday, appearing at a press conference, was Democrats are allies to Israel no matter what.

Mamdani has really changed that. I think he's had a lot of supporters who have been very skeptical of this sort of unrelenting support towards Israel, given the conflict. He's been staunch about his support for Gaza and for the Palestinian people for many, many years, even before he entered politics. That's something we don't see very much from Democrats.

Brian: In the debate Wednesday night, Cuomo did criticize Mamdani for allegedly being divisive and that Cuomo would be the one to end or reduce division in the city, bring unity. He's definitely got an issue now, Cuomo. Adding fuel to the fire in Mayor Adams appearance endorsing Cuomo yesterday, Adams said this.

Mayor Adams: New York can't be Europe, folks. I don't know what is wrong with people. You see what's playing out in other countries because of Islamic extremism. Not Muslims. Let's not mix this up. Those Islamic extremisms that are burning churches in Nigeria, that are destroying communities in Germany, that have taken over the logical thinkings, and that's what I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for the family of New York. That's why I'm here today to endorse Andrew Cuomo.

Brian: Samantha, do you know why Adams brought up Islamist extremism in Europe in a mayoral candidate endorsement?

Samantha: I have no idea. I think myself and a lot of reporters who were present for that, all kind of looked at each other and raised an eyebrow, "What is he talking about? I'm not sure." It's frankly a racist dog whistle, and I think a lot of people who have weighed in have agreed with that.

Brian: Also on the Adams endorsement, the prospect of it as something only hypothetical did come up at Wednesday night's debate in this lightning round question from moderator Katie Honan, your colleague at THE CITY.

Katie Honan: Would any of you accept Mayor Adams' endorsement? Mr. Mamdani?

Mr. Mamdani: No.

Katie Honan: Mr. Cuomo?

Andrew Cuomo: Yes, I would.

Katie Honan: Mr. Sliwa?

Mr. Sliwa: Absolutely not. Put that crook in jail where he belongs.

Brian: The next morning, of course, it came out that Adams was going to endorse Cuomo, and of course, Cuomo was going to accept it. Why do you think Cuomo accepted Adams endorsement? Adams is very unpopular at this point. I don't even know if it helps.

Samantha: Cuomo, many weeks ago, once Adams did drop out, he did say he would be having conversations with him. He would welcome his support. He would welcome the support of Adams supporters because Cuomo is fighting for his life at this point in the election. It's not impossible that he could win, but given the coalition that Mamdani has created and the voters he's brought out to the polls in the primary that previously had not been coming out, it's kind of a high bar.

Cuomo, in trying to get voters to come out, is not only appealing to Democrats who have known him and maybe are skeptical about Mamdani, but also conservatives, Republicans, and certainly Eric Adams supporters. This is just a bid to grab them. Of course, Eric Adams was polling so low before he dropped out of the race that, even if every single one of Eric Adams supporters voted for Cuomo, that still wouldn't really push his numbers up enough.

Brian: Listeners, any questions or comments about the mayoral debate that we had Wednesday night? We can still talk about that, about the stories we're talking about this morning with Samantha Maldonado from the news organization, THE CITY. We're also, in a few minutes, going to talk about other races that are competitive, down-ballot races that aren't getting that much attention. We just want to make sure that you know if you're a listener to this show, are competitive in some cases, so that you can spend a few minutes making up your mind in some of those. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text.

The Adams endorsement may not be the only one in the news by the end of the week. Of course, early voting begins tomorrow, so it's getting late for anybody to endorse. Of course, there are a number of prominent Democrats who have not endorsed Mamdani because they do have concerns either about just the politics of how this is going to play in the midterms next year or substantive concerns about things with respect to Israel and/or antisemitism. Here's an exchange on Al Sharpton's radio show yesterday between him and Brooklyn Congressman and House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

Al Sharpton: Do you expect to make any endorsement? Early voting starts Saturday.

Hakeem Jeffries: Early voting starts on Saturday. I do hope to talk to our Democratic nominee at some point, either late today or tomorrow, in advance of early voting. I do think that his decision to announce that he would reappoint Commissioner Jessica Tisch is a positive step in the right direction.

Brian: Hakeem Jeffries with Al Sharpton. Samantha, do you have anything more on that? It's been a very gradual walk-up to this endorsement if he actually makes it.

Samantha: Tomorrow is early voting, so I'm expecting to hear something from Jeffries today, but I'm not sure yet. His team and Jeffries, for that matter, have been emphasizing that he's been having conversations with Mamdani. He really didn't know him before he won the primary. We're looking to see, but it's getting down to the wire.

Brian: Of course, that's not the only concern that some Democrats have had with Mamdani. Some are concerned that Trump would come down so much harder on the city if Mamdani is mayor than if Cuomo is mayor. Others are concerned about public safety, as Jeffries indicated there. It was interesting that that's what he hung the path to an endorsement on, the fact that Mamdani said he would retain Jessica Tisch or at least invite Commissioner Tisch to stay on as head of the NYPD.

Samantha: That's a signal, I think, to the more moderate or conservative Democrats that have been wondering about that, about the public safety situation, or even just someone who just has concerns about who Mamdani would appoint in his administration if he were to win. He's been pretty mum on that. Jessica Tisch is someone that has a lot of respect across the board politically. I also think it's a signal to, frankly, the monied class who say, "Oh, we couldn't ever stay in the city if Mamdani was here. It would become unsafe."

Jessica Tisch already has had a lot of experience with just getting the rank and file cops into a better situation, given some of the corruption at the top that had happened in the Mayor Adams administration. Also, being in touch with the Trump administration, saying we've got this. You don't need to send in the National Guard. We're dealing with it ourselves.

Brian: Do you know if Commissioner Tisch and Mamdani have had conversations about whether she would accept an appointment from him, a reappointment from him, or given that we presume Eric Adams' approach to policing is different from Zohran Mamdani's, that she would feel comfortable, for some reason, running the NYPD under either?

Samantha: I personally have not talked to her. She did, through a spokesperson, I believe, told The New York Times it's too premature to even say anything about what she would do under whoever would become mayor next. I think that is probably a wise thing to say at this point, given that the election hasn't happened yet. For Mamdani, I think he always says his focus is on affordability, and you can't be safe without feeling-- I'm sorry, I'm getting this wrong now. I'm getting a little mixed, but basically, safety and affordability go hand in hand, and so he doesn't want a city in chaos. I think he understands that people do need to feel safe to feel like they have a good quality of life here as well.

Brian: I want to replay another lightning round question from Wednesday night that put Mamdani on the spot. We referred to this on yesterday's show, but I didn't have the clip that I thought I had pulled. This is a lightning round question from me. There is a ballot question to align mayoral election years with presidential election years in the future. Do you support this? Mr. Sliwa?

Mr. Sliwa: Absolutely not. All the attention would go to the presidential election, not to the mayoral election and all the down-ballot elections, all of our city council people.

Brian: That's a no. Mr. Mamdani?

Mr. Mamdani: I haven't yet taken a position on any of the ballot references.

Mr. Sliwa: Oh, shocker.

Brian: Mr. Cuomo?

Andrew Cuomo: [laughs] Again and again and again. Yes.

Brian: Samantha, this is one of the takeaways in your five takeaways from the debate article on THE CITY news site: Mamdani not taking a position on any of the ballot questions, most notably the ones on housing development. Why not? He's more known for taking strong positions on things.

Samantha: That's true, and that's sort of a question that we've been asking. The answer we keep getting is I haven't taken a position because I haven't taken a position, which is a non-answer in my opinion. He did say, recently, that he would come out with something soon on that. Again, early voting starts tomorrow, so we're getting down to the wire here. Just the fact that his opponents have had very clear stances on these ballot proposals also just really highlights his lack of conviction here.

Brian: Coming up, we're going to pivot and we're going to talk about other races, races other than mayor in New York City, down-ballot races that might be competitive. As I said earlier, if you're listening to this show, obviously, we're doing mostly mayoral coverage and New Jersey gubernatorial coverage, but there are city council seats. There are other things that are competitive in the election. So many elections in New York City are not competitive in November. They're more competitive in the primaries because this is largely a one-party town, but not entirely. We're going to spotlight some of the competitive races around the city when we come back in a minute. Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

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Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC as we continue to talk about the New York City elections with Samantha Maldonado from the news site, THE CITY. As I said, we're going to go on to some races other than mayor right now. We should say Jumaane Williams is the current public advocate, and he's running for re-election against two challengers, but that debate got canceled because neither challenger raised enough money to qualify. That race is being seen as non-competitive. What about comptroller, Samantha? Brad Lander ran for mayor, and so he won't be on the ballot for re-election. What's the story in the comptroller's race?

Samantha: It's also an open seat, but the person who won the primary, who is Mark Levine, who is currently the Manhattan borough president, he won the Democratic primary, and he's the likely favorite. His opponents also have not raised very much money, and they also lack name recognition. There is a Republican nominee and an independent candidate as well.

Brian: There are borough presidents, and in all but the Manhattan race, the current borough president is up for re-election and is the heavy favorite. What about in Manhattan, where Mark Levine is the Democratic nominee for comptroller? I have a hard time thinking, given the history of Manhattan borough president elections, that that's going to be very competitive. Is that accurate?

Samantha: Yes, that's exactly right. Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal had won in the primary, and he's the likely favorite as well.

Brian: All right. City council races, most of them were decided in the primary. You want to just start going down some that you're watching as somewhat competitive and worth people actually looking at the candidates and making decisions on who to vote for. Of course, it's always a good idea to do that in any ways, but particular ones where we can't sit here and say we probably know the outcome already.

Samantha: Sure, yes. There's three districts that I've been looking at in particular that are interesting to me, and it's an open seat or someone trying to topple a Republican and incumbent. I'll start with the Bronx in the Morris Park, Pelham Parkway, Westchester Square, Throggs Neck District. We've got a Republican incumbent, Kristy Marmorato. She is the first Republican to represent the Bronx in almost 20 years, and she unseated a Democrat in 2023. The Democrats are looking to take that seat over again.

We've got Shirley Aldebol, who is aligned with the unions. She's a longtime labor leader. Frankly, she's getting a hand from the Working Families Party and from the Mamdani campaign as well. That's one of the races I'm looking at. It's a question to see if the incumbent will keep her seat. In Queens, there's also an interesting open seat. Bob Holden is the current council member there. He's a Democrat, but is very aligned with Republicans and conservatives.

This race is sort of interesting because the people who are running both the Democrat and the Republican are his staff members. They say that they will hire each other. Whoever wins will hire the other, and there's not much daylight between their politics. Phil Wong is the Democrat. He's Council Member Holden's budget director. Alicia Vaichunas is the deputy chief of staff at the moment. Central Queens, that's Maspeth and Middle Village, they'll be getting someone pretty similar to their current council member. Oh, go ahead.

Brian: No, you go ahead. Lastly?

Samantha: [chuckles] Running down my list. Lastly, in Brooklyn, in Bay Ridge and Coney Island, that's also an open seat, given that Council Member Justin Brannan is term-limited, and so he has to vacate it. There are two challengers for that seat. The Democratic candidate is Kayla Santosuosso. She speaks Arabic. She runs a bar in Bay Ridge, and she worked for Justin Brannan. She's, again, the Democratic candidate. She has the backing of the Working Families Party.

That's a pretty competitive race, given that the district voted heavily for Trump in 2024 presidential election. Her challenger, the Republican candidate, is George Sarantopoulos. He is the founder of an ATM and credit card processing company. I've definitely got my eye on that to see if the seat will flip from Democrat to Republican, and just to see how people come out. There's a question mark if Mamdani voters will vote for Kayla or if the Republicans will come out strong.

Brian: Listener writes in a text, "What about Ben Chou in District 19 in Queens running to unseat Vickie Paladino?" Paladino, for people who don't know, is kind of a very MAGA Republican who represents parts of Northeast Queens, and Ben Chou is the Democratic nominee. Is that seen as competitive? That's not a district that always votes Republican.

Samantha: Yes, it's true. I think that is a pretty competitive race. It's hard to unseat an incumbent. Ben Chou is from Douglaston. He is a firefighter. He's very young. I believe he's 33. His fundraising numbers look pretty good, especially given that she's the incumbent. We'll have to see how that works out. Vickie Paladino is pretty popular in her district, but she is inflammatory. We will see how that goes.

Brian: Let's take a phone call. This goes back to the mayor's race and the comments that Andrew Cuomo made on Sid Rosenberg's talk show on WABC yesterday. Gabe in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Gabe.

Gabe: Hi, Brian. How are you? Thank you for taking my call, and great job in the debate a couple of days ago. I am a Jewish New Yorker. I've lived in New York for almost a decade, originally from Florida. I have just been really disgusted with the amount of Islamophobia, really surprisingly, not from Republicans, from Democrats.

I remember when Kirsten Gillibrand was on your show a couple of months ago, she associated Mamdani with jihad. Then at the debate and yesterday on the talk show with Andrew Cuomo and then Eric Adams talking about, we don't want it to turn into Europe. I really don't know where we go from here with our democratic leaders, former governor, the current mayor, a senator calling Mamdani, equating him with jihadists and with terrorists.

Brian: After Gillibrand was on the show that time in June, right after the primary, she felt forced to make a public apology for what she had said here, and people who heard that segment know that I was Googling it like crazy. I hadn't heard this allegation before, and I could not find any reference to what she said Mamdani had said about jihad. Then sure enough, a few days later, Gillibrand turned around and publicly apologized and apologized to Mamdani's face. Yet we hear this kind of thing being raised again by Eric Adams, by implication, in the clip that we heard from just yesterday, as well as Cuomo.

Again, I said it before, even though Cuomo comes out later and says, "No, I do not think that Mamdani would cheer another 9/11," the fact that his impulse on that radio show and the host brought up that notion was to laugh and say, "Yes, that's another problem," the impulse you would think from somebody who's running on competent common sense would be that his antennae would go up at a comment like that and say, "Wait a minute, let's not go that far," even if he has other concerns about Mamdani. I think that's one of the reasons that it's getting so much attention, and people are so offended. It's that it was that casual that Cuomo was able to have a casual response to that kind of baseless charge.

Gabe: This is someone that wants to be mayor for almost 1 million Muslim New Yorkers. I just don't understand, even with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer not able to endorse, even though Hakeem said he would make a decision well before early voting. He still hasn't endorsed. What is the issue with our democratic leaders that we have voted into office, not being able to support the nominee, and even beyond that, back-mouthing him and saying he's an Islamic terrorist on the radio?

Brian: Gabe, thank you for your call. Wendy in Westchester wants to raise another issue. This is one of the many that went by pretty quickly in the debate. I noted it, and I jotted down a note that maybe we come back to this in a segment, but it hasn't risen so far with all the other stuff that seems kind of bigger. Wendy, I'm glad you called with this, so we at least get to mention it. Hi. You're on WNYC.

Wendy: Hi. Thank you. In Crain's polls yesterday, they noted that Mamdani had backed down on his support of expanding harm reduction centers in New York City. There's currently only two. In that lightning rod segment, he said no, along with Cuomo.

Brian: He didn't say no. I'll tell you exactly what he said, and it's interesting. Samantha, I don't know if you've covered this at THE CITY or you have anything to say about it, but we had a very productive lightning round. We see how much of the news from that debate came out of the lightning round questions. I'll say, I mentioned this yesterday, but behind the scenes, some places use lightning rounds in debates to just be really lighthearted and ask what people's favorite kind of car is or favorite color. I don't know, I'm using unreal examples, but you know what I mean.

We try to do, and our partners with you guys at THE CITY and with NY1, we believe in lightning round questions to be part of the debate, but substantive lightning round questions that might illuminate something. One of the questions was, would you increase, decrease, or keep the same the number of harm reduction centers in the city, that is, safe injection sites, as they're also called, where people who are that kind of drug user can go and safely inject. That's why it's called a harm reduction site. It doesn't get them off their addiction, but it reduces the potential harm, theoretically, to them and others.

Wendy and other people were surprised, Samantha, that Mamdani's answer to that question was he would keep them the same. He would keep the number the same. I've seen it reported, Wendy, I guess this is what you're referring to, that he has previously said he would increase the number of harm reduction or safe injection sites. Sliwa said, "Shut them all down because allegedly there's crime associated around there." Cuomo also said, "Keep the number the same." Is that a change, Samantha? Do you have anything on this? Did Mamdani back off a previous position because he didn't want to start another controversy, or for any reason?

Samantha: I believe so. I believe his previous position was that he wanted to expand the program, and so this was a change. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything more explaining the change. He declined to comment to Crain's who had written about this, and there's not very much out there that would explain why he reversed or shifted his position. There's some speculation about, as you were saying earlier, the perception of disorder or crime around these sites. Maybe in relation to keeping on Jessica Tisch, perhaps, this sort of position shift was to signal to people that he is aware of the concerns around chaos that could come with his mayoralty, and he wants to tamp that down.

Brian: Do you know if Tisch has taken a position on that? Because Mamdani was willing to disagree with her just after announcing that he would invite her to stay on as police commissioner. When I asked him, I asked all of them, about the raise the age law, Commissioner Tisch wants the age of adult criminal responsibility to go back down to 16, not 18, because she says it's increasing gun violence in the city with the change that took effect a few years ago. They disagree on that, and they'd have to work that out one way or another.

Of course, that's a state law, so the mayor can't wave his hand and make that go away. I guess they'd have to decide whether to lobby the state hard to re-lower the age to 16 for adult criminal responsibility for violent crimes or gun possession crimes. On this, do you know if Tisch has taken a position against the safe injection sites?

Samantha: I'm not aware. I'm not sure if she has.

Brian: All right. We will follow up on this and, at some point, do a separate segment on harm reduction sites as an issue for whoever the next mayor is. Wendy, thank you for calling in and raising it. We're out of time in this segment, so we're going to leave it here. Obviously, the race continues. Remember, folks, in both New York and New Jersey, early voting starts tomorrow. If you have made up your mind and you don't have a mail-in ballot, you can get ready to go to your early voting site, which is not always the same as your election day voting site. Check that out if you plan on early voting.

Next week, we're going to be in almost full election mode. We're going to be doing a lot on New York City mayoral, doing a lot on New Jersey gubernatorial because we know that while some of you listening, probably many of you listening to this show, are kind of politically very engaged and you know where you're going on this and you know what a lot of the issues are and the candidates different stances on the issues are. A lot of people are just tuning into this race, people who don't pay as much attention to the news or to political news.

We're going to do a lot next week, as hopefully a public service, on both sides of the Hudson, and we will get to lots of stuff. We'll do political analysis of what candidates are doing on these final days, like with these cascading endorsements, and continue to look at issues in our 30 issues election series.

 

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