The first televised mayoral debate on Thursday offered little surprises or new insight into the candidates’ positions, as front-runner Zohran Mamdani, Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo stuck to their platforms while trading barbs at each other for two hours.
Sliwa and Mamdani took turns taking jabs at Cuomo, who has a longer governing resume as the former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Governor of New York. Cuomo, running as an Independent, had to defend his sexual harassment lawsuits and his relationship with billionaire donors and President Donald Trump.
“If you want more of the same, vote for Andrew Cuomo,” Mamdani said, noting Cuomo’s “lack of integrity.”
However, Cuomo and Republican nominee Sliwa also repeatedly mentioned Mamdani’s lack of experience, with the policies from the 33-year-old state Assemblyman and Democratic Socialist as too ideological and not grounded in reality.
Noting Mamdani’s desire to freeze rent on stabilized apartments and making public buses free, Sliwa said the assemblyman’s affordability agenda was “unrealistic.”
“Your fantasies are never going to come about,” Sliwa, 71, said.
Cuomo chided Mamdani for living in a $2,3000 rent-stabilized unit, noting his preference for those apartments to go to working-class residents.
“You heard it from Andrew Cuomo, that the number one crisis in this city, the housing crisis, the answer is to evict my wife and I,” Mamdani retorted.
When asked how he would pay for universal childcare and other affordability policies, Mamdani said he would raise the income tax on the top 1% of New Yorkers. When reminded that Governor Kahty Hochul has publicly said she would not agree to that, Mamdani said he would raise the corporate tax rate.
On safety issues, Cuomo, 67, said he would add another 5,000 police officers, while Sliwa said he would like to bring in 7,000 additional personnel.
At times, the criticisms got personal. Mamdani said he was appalled that Cuomo had never stepped in a mosque until after the June primary.
“It took Andrew Cuomo being beaten by a Muslim candidate in the Democratic primary for him to step foot in a mosque,” the assemblymember said.
Cuomo often talked about Mamdani’s position on Israel: “The assemblyman will not denounce Hamas.”
Sliwa, while mentioning the 1991 Crown Heights racial unrest, said Mamdani would not be able to handle dealing with potential antisemitic attacks because “Jews don’t trust” that he would support them.
All three candidates agreed that they would stop Trump from sending in the National Guard to New York, while no one, including Mamdani, endorsed Governor Hochul.
Meanwhile, Mamdani clarified that his support for eliminating the Gifted & Talented program, an accelerated academic option in public schools, applies only to kindergarten students. Both Sliwa and Cuomo said they would expand the G&T program, while Cuomo also said he would like to double the number of specialized high schools.
Sliwa also said he was against the second phase of the Second Avenue subway plan, which would expand the Q train from the Upper East Side to Harlem.
The second televised mayoral debate is scheduled for Oct. 22, and early voting starts on Oct. 25.
