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Bill Hemmer’s recent look inside the New York City mayoral scramble captured what many Americans already suspect: this race is wild, messy, and a warning sign for anyone who cares about common-sense governance. Polling now shows a dramatic tilt toward a far-left candidate who is capitalizing on voter anger about cost-of-living issues, and the question Hemmer asked — how do you compete against this? — is one every conservative watching city politics should be asking.
Zohran Mamdani’s surge isn’t a fluke; multiple polls place him well ahead of the pack, often approaching the mid-40s as voters reward big promises on housing and affordability. That kind of lead reflects both real voter frustration and the left’s ability to sell bold, simplistic fixes that often translate to more spending and less accountability.
The field itself has shifted dramatically, with Mayor Eric Adams exiting the race and Andrew Cuomo mounting a late comeback as an independent, reshuffling a moderate lane that many expected would block the most extreme outcomes. Cuomo’s re-entry and brief surge have scrambled conventional calculations, but even with Adams off the trail the progressive candidate’s lead remains sizeable in many snapshots.
What worries conservatives — and should worry anyone who pays taxes — are the policies being touted as quick cures: rent freezes, free transit and other sweeping entitlements that sound great until their price tags and consequences land at the city’s feet. These are not small tweaks; they’re transformative proposals that reward special interests, invite fiscal chaos, and would make New York a test case for the national left’s economic fantasies.
Republican hopefuls, led by Curtis Sliwa, remain a distant third in most polls, which underscores a painful truth: Republicans have offered no unified, compelling alternative to shake voters out of the fantasy that more government programs equal a better life. That failure to present a clear plan on crime, homelessness and accountability costs conservatives any chance to reclaim ground in the city and leaves pragmatic voters with little attractive choice at the ballot box.
This race has also attracted cynical national maneuvering, with reports that outside actors are already trying to arrange deals and influence who steps aside and who gets promoted — a disgraceful reminder that politics has become a game of backstage trades rather than an honest contest of ideas. When national players start dangling ambassadorships and favors to shape a local election, voters get less democracy and more theater.
Conservatives watching should be furious but not helpless: the coming weeks of early voting and final campaigning are when clear messaging on public safety, fiscal discipline and basic accountability can still matter. The media will trumpet every radical proposal as inevitable; it’s up to principled conservatives and concerned citizens to call those claims out for what they are — expensive experiments with real human costs.
New York is a test for the rest of the country. If a city as crucial as New York embraces fiscal giveaways and soft-on-crime policies wrapped in feel-good slogans, the consequences won’t stay local for long. The conservative case is simple and urgent: prioritize safety, restore fiscal sanity, and stop rewarding politics that punishes productivity while subsidizing dependency.
