Curtis Sliwa ran mayoral campaign he was never – Latest News
Curtis Sliwa ran a heck of a mayoral race.
But face it: He was never going to win. Everyone knew that — even Sliwa.
The Guardian Angels founder was on the Republican poll as a result of no one else needed to run. No one severe anyway.
Curtis Sliwa speaks at his election watch occasion as he concedes the mayoral race at Arte Cafe in Manhattan on Nov. 4, 2025. Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post
Failing to seek out one other candidate turned out to be a mistake for the GOP. An enormous one.
In a three-way race no one might have anticipated, Republicans had a crack at recapturing City Hall. Didn’t occur.
The occasion was caught off guard. Republicans blew an alternative that traditionally arises solely about as soon as each quarter-century.
Four years in the past, to some fanfare, Republicans vowed to seek out a top-tier nominee for mayor in 2025 after getting blown out by a weak Eric Adams.
A rich business chief or a crime-fighter maybe. Maybe a turnaround professional.
Everyone had an thought, however no person had a candidate — even with the “free” thousands and thousands coming from New York City’s profligate candidate matching-funds program.
Populist appeal
It’s a crying disgrace as a result of the 5 boroughs are winnable for the GOP, even more so right this moment, theoretically, than when Republican Mayors Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg captured 4 of 5 boroughs of their respective ’97 and ’05 re-elections.
For higher or for worse, right this moment’s GOP is more populist than its earlier iterations. It appeals far more to immigrant and working-class communities than the occasion of Reagan and each Bushes did.
That’s been exhibiting up in tangible methods in ethnic enclaves throughout the 5 boroughs.
Eastern Europeans, Asians and Hispanics are more and more voting Republican. Orthodox Jews are actually semi-reliable GOP voters, and lots of secular Jews could never absolutely trust the Democratic Party again after it anointed an emphatically anti-Israel standard-bearer for mayor.
In short, New York’s long-standing ethnic political silos are starting to crumble.
The key to Republicans profitable statewide in New York is to win round 32% of town vote. Former Rep. Lee Zeldin hit the 30% threshold in 2022 and fell simply short.
A pair more factors out of the boroughs and a Gov. Zeldin can be making ready for re-election proper now.
The Republican candidate for New York governor subsequent yr, be it Rep. Elise Stefanik, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, or some darkish horse out of nowhere, will need to have a five-borough candidate strategy.
Indeed, they need to begin with a five-borough strategy. It will decide more than half the statewide vote.
The occasion with the vitality and presence on the streets of town is the occasion that may entice new or crossover voters.
Right now in New York that vitality is on the far left. The Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists of America are sensible, organized and well-funded.
To them, politics is every thing. It’s year-round.
Republicans need to counteract them with their own vitality — after which double it.
Republican Gov. George Pataki understood that. He gained three statewide phrases from this strategy partially. He all the time sought converts.
Conspicuous, year-round GOP headquarters of the kind Pataki instituted in Washington Heights and elsewhere are needed in Flushing, Brighton Beach and in all places in between now.
There is alternative in each group. Republicans can ignore none of them. (Bloomberg gained practically half town’s black vote in ’05.)
County cooperation
This begins on the county degree.
Each borough — Kings, Queens, Richmond, New York and The Bronx — has a GOP chairman and committee in charge of developing candidates. The nods of three of 5 are needed to anoint a mayoral nominee.
Too usually these committees work as particular person fiefdoms.
It’s no one’s fault. Happens naturally. Brooklyn does Brooklyn, Manhattan does Manhattan, and ultimately there’s a scramble.
But if Republicans are to win statewide in 2026 and citywide in 2029, these chairs need to start out working collectively now.
They need to develop a strategy, together with the Republican State Committee, to maximise a voting trend already in movement.
Everyday sources should go the place alternative is biggest: the Asian, Latino and Jewish communities for starters.
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Anti-biz backlash
The GOP also needs to increase its outreach to the New York City business group.
It’s been owned by the Democrats for many years, however Zohran Mamdani’s radical, anti-business candidacy ought to have put that relationship in jeopardy.
The GOP ought to exploit the breach.
The greatest prize conceivable is obtainable in the event that they succeed: If New York Republicans can start reliably profitable 32% of town vote each 4 years — Bloomberg scored 58% in ’05 — New York would no longer be a flyover state.
Imagine that.
We would even have a say again in presidential elections, to not point out US Senate elections, like one presumably that includes a weak Chuck Schumer in 2028.
The state that after boasted 47 electoral votes, and that has now atrophied to twenty-eight, would again have leverage.
A state in play is a state that will get sources from Washington.
I’m genuinely grateful that Curtis Sliwa stepped ahead to run again. May or not it’s his final race, although.
Republicans deserve a probability to win. We didn’t get one this time.
William F.B. O’Reilly is a New York-based Republican guide and a former Newsday columnist.
