If the pundits and politicians are right, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s agonized and belated departure from the November 4 general election is unlikely to realign the now three-way contest that favors the avowed socialist and Islamic candidate Zohran Mamdani. Adams’s farewell message was “I urge New Yorkers to choose our leaders not by what they promise but by what they have delivered.”

When Adams finally acceded to political reality on Sunday, polls showed him at 7-10%, Mamdani at 40-45%, former Governor Andrew Cuomo at 25-30% and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa at 15-18%. It’s apparent to most that, no matter how Adams’s sliver of the electoral pie is redistributed, it won’t make a difference in the outcome. Cuomo’s calls for Sliwa to step down wouldn’t affect the outcome either, according to nearly every public poll.

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Unfortunately for those New Yorkers who understand that the primary responsibilities of the mayor include managing mundane operational tasks such as providing public safety, healthcare, sanitation, and housing, the zeitgeist of the mayoral election appears to be anti-Israel and pro-social justice and free stuff. Mamdani’s young voters are comfortable with his risible pontifications, such as one in June stating that “violence is an artificial construction,” believing them relevant to governing America’s biggest city.

What could alter the course of Mamdani’s destructive missile is an event that jolts a significant portion of young voters back to the reality of living in a big city, rather than in an academic Marxist fantasyland. That jolt could come if, at the upcoming October 17 and 22 debates, either Cuomo or Sliwa can persuasively articulate the case for effective governance, and if that articulation is coupled with Mamdani making a poor showing. Lots of ifs.

A few other factors could also affect the outcome, favoring Sliwa over Cuomo.

What many observers don’t realize is that Mamdani and Sliwa are the only major party candidates on the ballot, occupying post positions........

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