NEW YORK — Their probabilities of changing into the subsequent mayor of New York Metropolis could have dimmed. Their mission now? Stopping former Gov. Andrew Cuomo from attending to Metropolis Corridor.
Within the remaining day of campaigning earlier than the town’s Democratic main, candidates who’re seen as longer pictures to win the nomination urged voters to go away Cuomo off their ballots within the metropolis’s ranked alternative election in a last-ditch effort to dam the previous governor’s comeback from a sexual harassment scandal.
“Let’s be certain that Andrew Cuomo will get nowhere close to Metropolis Corridor,” candidate and metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander mentioned Monday on WNYC radio, which interviewed the key candidates forward of the election.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, one other candidate, equally requested voters to not vote for Cuomo, telling the station, “We want recent management, we have to flip the web page and we want daring options at this second.”
The pitches got here as Cuomo, who has been thought of the frontrunner for months, has been attempting to fend off a cost from Zohran Mamdani forward of Tuesday’s election.
Mamdani, a 33-year-old state assemblyman, could be the town’s first Muslim and first Indian American mayor if elected. A democratic socialist who acquired elected to the Legislature in 2020, Mamdani began the marketing campaign as a relative unknown however has received assist with a energetic marketing campaign centered on enhancing the price of residing.
He spent half the second-to-last day of the marketing campaign visiting companies and potential voters in northern Manhattan, adopted by a crowd of supporters and a person banging a drum.
“That is the costliest metropolis in america of America and New Yorkers are uninterested in having to fret each hour of each day of whether or not they can afford to dwell right here,” mentioned Mamdani.
Cuomo spoke at a union corridor, the place he warned Democrats towards each radicalism and choosing a candidate with out expertise.
“This isn’t a job for a novice. This isn’t a job for an individual who by no means actually had a job earlier than,” Cuomo mentioned. “We want somebody who is aware of what they’re doing on day one, as a result of your lives rely upon it.”
Mamdani, in the meantime, exuded confidence, telling WNYC he’s “at some point from toppling a political dynasty.”
Mamdani and Cuomo characterize the Democratic Celebration’s ideological divides, with Cuomo as an older average and Mamdani a youthful progressive.
Former President Invoice Clinton endorsed Cuomo on Sunday, saying voters shouldn’t “underestimate the complexity” of the challenges confronted by a mayor. The New York Occasions didn’t situation an endorsement this 12 months, however wrote an editorial praising Lander and saying Cuomo could be a more sensible choice than Mamdani, who it mentioned was unworthy of being on individuals’s ballots.
Mamdani has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The 2 candidates’ reactions to the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear websites on Sunday supplied extra proof of the get together’s inner cut up.
Cuomo, in an announcement, criticized “the best way Trump went about this with out consulting Congress, with out consulting the traditional congressional officers” however burdened that “Iran can not have nuclear functionality.”
Mamdani launched an announcement that slammed Trump however rapidly shifted focus again to his key points, saying “these actions are the results of a political institution that will reasonably spend trillions of {dollars} on weapons than raise thousands and thousands out of poverty, launch infinite wars whereas silencing requires peace, and fearmonger about outsiders whereas billionaires hole out our democracy from inside.”
Cuomo, who received three phrases as governor, resigned in 2021 after a report from the state legal professional normal concluded that he sexually harassed 11 girls. He has denied wrongdoing.
New York Metropolis is utilizing ranked alternative voting in its Democratic mayoral main election Tuesday, a system that enables voters to rank as much as 5 candidates so as of desire. If one candidate is the primary alternative of a majority of voters, that particular person wins the race outright. If no person hits that threshold, the votes are then tabulated in a number of rounds. After every spherical, the candidate in final place is eradicated. Votes solid for that particular person are then redistributed to the candidates ranked subsequent on the voter’s poll.
That continues till one candidate will get a majority.
Cuomo’s opponents have urged voters to not rank him in any respect and due to this fact deprive him of assist in later rounds of counting.
Eleven candidates are on the poll within the Democratic mayoral main. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams isn’t one in all them. He’s a Democrat however is operating as an unbiased. The Republican Celebration has already picked its nominee, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
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Related Press video journalist David Martin contributed to this report.
