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\n Photo: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
Curtis Sliwa<\/a>, the Republican candidate making his second run for mayor, is closing out the campaign the way he does everything: with restless energy, a bull-headed refusal to back down, and an endless string of wisecracks and wild, well-told anecdotes and observations accumulated during a lifetime spent roaming the streets of New York. But behind Sliwa\u2019s constant patter is a plan.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, I start with 28 percent from the last election<\/a>. I don\u2019t think most of them are going to leave me. The Republicans will come home, and I have even more independents than Republicans,\u201d he told me<\/a> recently. \u201cAnd now, with the Protect Animals<\/a> ballot line, first time ever in electoral politics, I figure I\u2019ll get another four or five percent. It\u2019s mostly women. But then I\u2019m a contender.\u201d<\/p>\n At first glance, the political math checks out: The last two Republican candidates for mayor before Sliwa, Representative Nicole Malliotakis and hospital executive Joe Lhota, finished with 28 percent and 24 percent, respectively, against Democrat Bill de Blasio<\/a> in 2017 and 2013. Assuming a baseline GOP vote of 28 percent or so, there\u2019s good reason for Sliwa to think that hard work and a bit of luck could move him within striking range of the Democratic leader in the race, Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, who is polling around 46 percent<\/a> in most surveys.<\/p>\n But Andrew Cuomo<\/a>, the former governor running as an independent, has complicated matters by making steady, stealthy overtures to Republican voters<\/a>, and picking up significant support<\/a> after Mayor Eric Adams<\/a> quit the race. And Sliwa\u2019s efforts to consolidate Republican support took a hit last month when President Donald Trump<\/a> made dismissive remarks<\/a> about him on Fox and Friends.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, I\u2019m a Republican, but Curtis is not exactly prime time,\u201d Trump said. \u201cHe wants cats to be in Gracie Mansion \u2026 We don\u2019t need thousands of cats.\u201d<\/p>\n Sliwa, who is married to an animal-rescue activist<\/a>, shrugs off the mockery.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease, Mr. President, don\u2019t say any nice things about me. Be Switzerland, be neutral, stay out of this race,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t help, you can only hurt. New York City is not Trumpland. Everywhere I go, and I\u2019ve been in all 350 neighborhoods, he has pockets of support, but I\u2019m gonna win them anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n Sliwa\u2019s efforts have been further impaired by pro-Cuomo independent political committees that are spending millions on ads warning voters that electing Mamdani, a democratic socialist, would be an existential threat to life in New York. Pressure on Sliwa to drop out of the race and support Cuomo has been intense, and recently led to threats sufficiently credible that Sliwa has hired armed security to guard him and his wife.<\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta understand, I\u2019m a guy who was targeted by the Gottis and Gambinos and shot five times with hollow point bullets<\/a>. I never had armed-security,\u201d he told me. \u201cObviously, the rhetoric is way too high; Zohran Mandami is getting all these threats. We need to lower it. Let the people decide the election.\u201d<\/p>\n Sliwa\u2019s goal is to create an urban Republican movement that is not socially conservative or pro-Trump, but pro-business, tough on crime and welcoming to communities of color. He made the point by opening a campaign office in Brownsville, Brooklyn<\/a>, a low-income neighborhood that has been a Democratic stronghold for generations. Walking a single block with Sliwa took 10 minutes, as Black and Latino residents stopped him for selfies, chitchat, and promises to vote for him. One bus driver even stopped in traffic, honked and waved Sliwa on board so he could make a quick pitch to passengers.<\/p>\n Setting up shop in Brownsville was a homecoming of sorts for Sliwa, who lived near the corner of Hegeman Avenue and Osborn Street from 1974 to 1976 after getting expelled from Brooklyn Prep, a Catholic high school for boys. Sliwa, the class president, had organized protests against the school\u2019s jacket-and-tie dress code; the Jesuit priests who ran the school were not amused.<\/p>\n