After a joint appearance at a New York Knicks game on Oct. 22, it was a foregone conclusion that incumbent Eric Adams was going to endorse Andrew Cuomo for mayor, setting aside earlier condemnations where he called the former governor a “snake.”
They journeyed to East Harlem on Oct. 23 to make if official. “Andrew and I are two kids from New York,” Adams said. “And when you think about it, Andrew’s a brother and I have three of them. And brothers fight.”
Adams had been also been sharply critical of the Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist who has enjoyed a double digit lead in most polls since beating Cuomo in the Democratic party which Adams sat out.
“When families are attacked, brothers come together,” Adams said in his endorsement.
The most recent poll from AARP/Gotham of 1,040 likely voters released Oct. 20 had Mamdani leading with 43.2 percent of the vote against Cuomo’s 28.9 percent and Sliwa’s 19.4 percent.
“In a head-to-head scenario between Mamdani and Cuomo, Mamdani leads 44.6 percent to 40.7 percent, with nearly 15 percent undecided,” AARP [stated](https://states.aarp.org/new-york/new-aarp-new-york-poll-mamdani-maintains-double-digit-lead-in-nyc-mayoral-race-undecided-50-voters-could-decide-outcome)
The poll had a margin of error of four percentage points. But Sliwa gives no sign of backing out.
Perhaps just as problematic, Cuomo, as an independent candidate, is far down on the ballot, which still has eight candidates listed ahead of him even though Adams and another independent candidate Jim Tilden dropped out in September. Dropping out only five weeks before the election meant it was too late to remove the names from ballots printed by the Board of Elections. Tilden immediately urged a stop Mamdani campaign and urged everyone else except Cuomo to drop out. Nobody other than Adams heeded the advice.
Anyone looking for Cuomo will have to hunt for him in the ballot line up on Row “I.”
Mamdani’s appears on row A as the Democratic candidate and a second time as the Working Families candidate on Row D. The obscure Conservative party candidate, Irene Estrade, is in the number three spot on Row C. And then comes again Sliwa in the fifth slot as the Protect Animals party. Two non-candidates appear, Walden and Adams. Then finally comes Cuomo in eighth place. Only Jim Hernandez on the Quality of Life party (Row G) ranks lower on the ballot.
The independent candidates are picked in random by the board of elections when there is no vote tally from past elections. And since the bulk of the independents are essentially little more than vanity vehicles created by the petition process to support single candidates before disappearing after the election.
And place in the line up could have an influence if the race tightens in the final days as undecideds finally make up their minds.
”There’s no doubt ballot placement affects some percentage of the vote but there’s no consensus how much an effect it has,” said veteran strategist Jerry Skurnik of Engage Voters USA. Two mayoral elections ago it had an impact which if it happened this year could matter. “In 2017, Conservatives endorsed the Republican candidate and there were five independents who received 5.4 percent.”
That many votes in play would be important in a close race, but only if the race tightens inexplicably in the home stretch.
“It’s very important for undecided votes,” said Kenneth Frydman, a PR consultant who was press secretary for Rudy Giuliani’s successful run for mayor in 1994 before turning into a relentless critic of the former mayor in recent years. “Voters are not going to go five or six across and two down to find Cuomo,” Frydman ventured, and in a close race that may matter.