I know it’s fashionable in certain circles to sneer or cheer that a Muslim Communist is the Dem nominee for Mayor of New York City, but if you remember 9/11 or the BLM riots, you know that what happens in big cities doesn’t stay in them.

And no, this is not because New Yorkers are the worst people on earth. As I showed, Mamdani only won the votes of between 5% and 7% of New Yorkers. The primary had less than 30% turnout for Dems. Mamdani’s base turned out, but it also turned out that no one was enthusiastic about voting for Cuomo. And who can blame them.

Despite that, Cuomo is staying in. Mayor Eric Adams is still running. As is Curtis Sliwa on the Republican line. Between them they’ll elect Mamdani.

The polling is pretty clear.

46% of New Yorkers would never vote for Mamdani, but 51% would never vote for Adams and 39% would never vote for Cuomo.

Mamdani polls at 41%, Cuomo at 26%, Eric Adams at 16% and Sliwa at 9%.

A single candidate people could credibly vote for might beat Mamdani, but there’s no such candidate. Cuomo is a loathesome creature whom most people hate. Eric Adams isn’t likely to get much beyond the black and some Jewish votes. And Sliwa will get whatever is left of the conservative vote.

Now as we saw with previous polling, none of this matters. Turnout does. Mamdani’s leftist and Muslim base will turn out full bore. Will Cuomo and Adams voters? We already know the answer.

Yes, it’s easy to blame anyone willing to vote for Mamdani (and for that matter anyone staying home), but look at it from an apolitical standpoint (and most people are apolitical), the political establishment failed them, Cuomo and Adams are discredited candidates representing the past, while Mamdani is promising change. And some people will vote for change just to send a message to the establishment.

In this case that’s stupid and suicidal, but running against Mamdani is not enough. I called it “dead rat politics”. You can’t just run for office by pointing at your opponent and shouting he’s terrible. Even if it’s true. Nor can you ask voters to eat a dead rat because the alternative is worse.

Even if Adams and Cuomo work out some sort of deal (and that’s unlikely because neither care about anything beyond themselves), will voters turn out insufficient numbers to beat out the motivated Mamdani base?

New York’s establishment political system is falling to the far left because it locked out Republicans and anyone unwilling to reject radical leftist politics and now the far left is pushing even farther and it can’t offer an alternative to them.