Overview
- Tonight’s 90‑minute debate begins at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News NY1 and WNYC before a live audience at LaGuardia Community College, the final forum before early voting starts on Oct. 25.
- Republican Curtis Sliwa reiterated he will not exit the race despite appeals from Andrew Cuomo and wealthy backers such as John Catsimatidis and Bill Ackman, and he says he has even been offered money to quit.
- Cuomo is casting Sliwa as a spoiler and courting conservatives, pointing to a Gotham Polling/AARP survey showing Mamdani 44.6% to Cuomo 40.7% in a head‑to‑head, while recent three‑way polls continue to put Mamdani comfortably ahead.
- Opposition research has resurfaced past controversies involving Sliwa and the Guardian Angels, including IRS records showing the group lost tax‑exempt status in 2022; Sliwa’s campaign attributes it to a former treasurer’s errors and says the matter has been corrected.
- Mamdani has worked to stay on message about affordability and governance as Cuomo and Sliwa trade attacks, with last week’s debate doing little to alter the race’s basic dynamics.