As her mayoral race heads into the final stretch of the ballot, attention is on the front-runner, the anti-establishment Democrat, and his main challenger, Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent but also from the Democrats. Few are concerned with the third man in this historic contest, Curtis Sliwa, who is running on the Republican Party flag and is the key person, insofar as he will cut votes from the systemic Cuomo.
Curtis Sliwa, 71, is a populist Republican, advocate of law and order, but he does not belong to the MAGA movement of Donald Trump with whom he has been at odds for many years. A native of the American metropolis, born in South Brooklyn, from an Italian mother and a Polish father, Sliua is a mirror of the contradictions, conflicts and alliances that make up the political scene of multicultural New York. Sliua did not finish high school and was delivering newspapers (paperboy) when he rescued people from a burning building. He became the hero of the day, gained fame and an invitation to tour the White House.
Self-appointed punisher of crime
At the age of 23, Sliua, who was a night shift manager at a McDonald’s in the South Bronx, formed a “self-defense” group against crime. The group evolved in 1979 into the “Guardian Angels” organization with hundreds of “volunteers, unarmed but knowledgeable in martial arts” and today has branches in more than a hundred American cities and abroad.
Patrols of red-beret and t-shirt vigilantes on nighttime subways, in stations, then in bad neighborhoods, were adopted by Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg despite allegations of racist attacks against the homeless, immigrants and LGBTI people. The organization refutes the accusations, stating that its membership includes African-Americans and Latinos from the beginning.
Sliua later admitted that he had “set up” incidents of his Angels “rescuing” citizens in order to gain publicity. The organization’s supporters included Mario Cuomo, governor of New York for a decade and father of Andrew Cuomo, also a former governor and current opponent of Sliwa. In 1992, the leader of the Angels survived an assassination attempt attributed to John Gotti, leader of the Gambino mafia family.
Along with running his organization, Sliua was for three decades one of New York’s most popular radio commentators, blasting the “politicians” with far-right rhetoric, i.e. mainly the Democrats who have the upper hand in the city. In the 2021 municipal election, Curtis Sliua ran with the Republican Party flag and received just 27.7% (312,000 votes) while Democrat Eric Adams received 77% (753,000 votes).
Pressure from politicians and businessmen
During the current election campaign, Sliua did not receive the slightest public support from President Donald Trump. After all, he himself had declared that he did not vote for Trump in 2016, nor last year. According to US reports, Sliwa rejected pressure from businessmen to drop out of the race to benefit Cuomo
“Cuomo would do well to get off his horse. Anyone who wants votes has to go out on the streets, win them from the people,” Sliua said while praising outgoing Mayor Adams’ inability to deal with everyday problems such as cleaning the sewers and the plague of rats. He has made the support of the work of the police as well as his philanthropic feelings, especially towards cats, a flag of his campaign. He says the city should fill New York with stray cats to solve the mouse problem, hire more police to fight crime. As for the more complex problems, Sliua states that he may not have the proper knowledge, but he has a wealth of experience and is willing to listen to expert advice.
The Trump intervention
But what if Curtis Sliua’s name wasn’t on the ballot? According to an AtlasIntel poll published Monday afternoon, a few hours before today’s polls, Cuomo would win with 49.7% over Mamdani who would get 44.1%. In the same poll, published by the New York Post newspaper, Cuomo closes the gap but loses 39.4 – 43.9% to Mamdani while Sliua drops to 15.5%. Last Saturday the rolling poll of the same company gave 40.6% to Mamdani, 34% to Cuomo and 24.1% to Sliouas.
The retreat of Sliwa’s percentages and the closing of the gap between Mamdani and Cuomo took place, which left the Republican candidate in the cold. “I’m not a fan of Cuomo, but between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’ll choose the bad Democrat,” the US president said.
And for those who didn’t get the message or pretended not to understand, Trump returned to the topic with a post on social networks a few hours before the polls opened. “Whether you like Cuomo or not, you have no choice but to vote for him. A vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani,” Trump wrote.
