Curtis Sliwa on the assumption that his policies are closer to Cuomo’s than Mamdani’s: ‘hopelessly wrong’

Curtis Sliwa was born in New York City, was nearly killed in New York City, and will be buried in New York City. “I pour my sweat and tears into the city, the city that I love, every day,” the Republican mayoral nominee told an audience of business and civic leaders on Wednesday morning.

But the vision he painted of the city was one in crisis.

“It’s a complete catastrophe,” he said of public safety on the subway, reflecting on the 2024 killing of a homeless woman who was set on fire.

“It’s a catastrophe,” he said of New York City students’ test scores.

The Wednesday event was the second in a mayoral series hosted by the Association for a Better New York, an organization of business and civic leaders. Sliwa’s event drew just a fraction of the crowd that Democratic mayoral nominee and current front-runner Zohran Mamdani did last week. Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo is set to appear at the series’ third and final event next week.

Sliwa nonetheless tried to make the case to the crowd that he is the tough-on-crime, common sense candidate. That’s also been part of the pitch made by Cuomo – who has his own gloomy assessment of the city – but Sliwa has continually tried to distinguish himself not just from Mamdani, but the more moderate Cuomo too.

“Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani share the same views,” Sliwa said, pointing to bail reforms passed under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo as an example. “They are protecting the violators, the perps. I am protecting the victims.”

Sliwa is still adamant that he won’t be dropping out of the race. ABNY Chair Steven Rubenstein, who moderated Wednesday’s discussion, nonetheless tried to prod Sliwa on whether he would, in light of his position in the polls. (Currently, Cuomo’s best chance of overcoming Mamdani’s double-digit lead in the polls relies upon Sliwa dropping out.) But Sliwa refused to give credence to a line of questioning that suggested he would prefer Cuomo to Mamdani. 

“Would you stay in the race if you saw in your polls that you were a spoiler that enabled – I don’t want to take a leap, but I’m gonna go with your policies closer to Andrew’s,” Rubenstein said. “Is that a reasonable assumption?”

“No,” Sliwa said. “You couldn’t be more hopelessly wrong.”

As a Republican, Sliwa faces tough odds as registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 6 to 1 in New York City, where the party’s leader, President Donald Trump, remains unpopular. Sliwa is not a Trump acolyte, saying Wednesday that he’s had a “love/hate” relationship with the president for many years.

The party’s brand in New York City could further suffer with Politico’s recent reveal of an internal group text of Young Republicans, including leaders of the New York State Young Republicans, that featured hundreds of racist slurs and other offensive epithets. Asked about the chat on Wednesday, Sliwa said that it reflects poorly on the Republican Party.

“Hopefully they’ll all apologize en masse, learn from these horrible mistakes, move on with their lives, put everything back together again and understand the horrible, horrible harm that they’ve caused – not just (to) themselves (but) their families, the party, the Republican Party,” Sliwa said, adding that he doesn’t want to “see their lives destroyed.”

Sliwa also attempted to signal his seriousness visually: vowing to ditch his signature Guardian Angels-red beret if elected mayor. He arrived at Wednesday’s event beret-less as a preview, suggesting that he was happy to put the cap in storage if it’s “a detriment to your thought process in determining who is the best person to lead us as our next mayor in New York City.”

Despite the venue, Sliwa did not address business or economic issues to a great extent, beyond bemoaning the sight of “ugly” empty storefronts and committing to cutting taxes. He specifically mentioned cutting property taxes and ditching congestion pricing.