This week’s biggest Winners & Losers

Dressed in a suit, tie and his signature red beret, Sliwa walked into a packed American Legion Hall in northern Queens as “Eye of the Tiger” blasted. He grinned and waved to the Whitestone Republican Club as they gave him a standing ovation. Sliwa has good reason to smile. The City Council Republicans just endorsed him, and he stayed above the fray while Adams and Cuomo called on each other to bow out. He even scored points for calling the controversy over Mamdani’s college application a distraction.

We have to keep a high bar for Mamdani because he’s been winning a lot recently. But this week we learned he officially got more votes than anyone else ever in a Democratic primary, and he picked up major endorsements from UFT and both the Manhattan Democratic Party and the Squadriano. A new general election poll showed him way ahead of Andrew Cuomo (whom he already trounced once), Sliwa and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams. His campaign is attracting national talent, and business leaders have so far failed to mobilize any real strategy to stop him.

It’s been a decade in the making, but the residents of Hoosick Falls are close to the end of their lawsuits over toxic chemicals in their drinking water. Stephen Schwarz and James Bilsborrow served as co-lead plaintiffs for residents seeking damages from major companies that they said were responsible for the contamination. And they’ve now added another $27 million in a new settlement with DuPont, adding to the $65 million residents will get from three other manufacturers.

Gone, but not forgotten… Generally that’s a good thing. But if you are a former New York City Police Department commissioner who resigned in the wake of federal agents descending on your home, you probably don’t want to get dragged back into the news cycle like this. Edward Caban now faces four different lawsuits filed by former NYPD chiefs. The suits describe a chaotic police department in which corruption and cronyism allegedly reigned under his tenure.

If there’s one thing you don’t do on Long Island, it’s mess with property taxes. Longtime Atlantic Beach Mayor George Pappas found that out the hard way after he decided to peace out of government rather than continue as the subject of residents’ ire over a 87% tax hike. His resignation also happened to come right after the village settled a lawsuit over antisemitism for nearly $1 million. Pappas’ L’s caused the local government to effectively collapse, leaving Atlantic Beach in the lurch.

Team Lawler is no stranger to political subterfuge, but lately things have been getting interesting. Erin Crowley, deputy district director for Rep. Mike Lawler, reportedly infiltrated a Signal group chat of Lawler protesters and advocated for them to disrupt one of his town halls. Both Democrats and Republicans have called for investigations into the alleged espionage. No one is quite sure what Lawler’s staff was trying to achieve, but if they wanted to hold rambunctious town halls, well… it certainly worked.