John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of WABC Radio and Red Apple Media, has called on Republican mayoral nominee and WABC host Curtis Sliwa to drop out of the election — citing concerns that the Guardian Angels founder’s candidacy may split the vote and “inadvertently help another candidate.”
The “another candidate,” as Red Apple Media described in an Oct. 20 announcement, seems to be Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who Catismatidis previously labeled as someone who “wants to be the Fidel Castro of New York City,” referring to the murderous communist Cuban dictator.
Sliwa, who has worked with WABC Radio for decades, is currently on a leave of absence from his regular Sunday night show while running for mayor. The Republican candidate is currently polling third in the race behind Democratic nominee and clear frontrunner Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent.
A number of Republicans and moderate Democrats have previously called on Sliwa to withdraw from the election and instead support Cuomo to give the former governor a better chance of defeating Mamdani in a head-to-head race.
Catsimatidis, a supermarket magnate and billionaire businessman who previously sought the Republican nomination in the 2013 mayoral election, has now joined those figures, stating that it is essential to consolidate support behind a “viable alternative” for mayor.
Sliwa campaign resists drop-out call
Sliwa has repeatedly stated that he will not be dropping out of the race and has, through a campaign spokesperson, responded to Catsimatidis’s comments reaffirming that stance.
“Curtis Sliwa stands firm and is not dropping out,” Sliwa’s campaign spokesperson Daniel Kurzyna said in a statement. “Others may have their opinions, but the voters will decide in 15 days.”
Kurzyna further accused Cuomo of being absent from public view for the past 10 days and said the former governor must persuade voters to vote for him in a three-way contest.
“If he seeks support, he must actively earn it,” Kurzyna said.
Speaking to conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg on WABC-AM, however, Catsimatidis said Sliwa would be doing the “wrong thing” by remaining in the race.
Catsimatidis described Sliwa, 71, as the best candidate in the race but called on the Republican candidate to withdraw and offer Cuomo the best chance of winning. He said Sliwa’s withdrawal would give the Republican candidate an excellent chance of winning the 2029 mayoral election because voters will remember him doing the “right thing.”
“Curtis would make the best mayor of all the candidates … but Curtis has to realize that he should love New York more than anything else,” Catsimatidis told Rosenberg.
“He could win the next election because people will be proud of him for doing the right thing for New York City, instead of the wrong thing. We cannot take a chance on Zohran [Mamdani] winning and every common-sense New Yorker feels the same way.”
Catsimatidis’s comments on Monday coincided with a new poll from AARP and Gotham Polling & Analytics highlighting that Mamdani holds a double-digit lead over Cuomo in a three-way contest but a lead of only 4% in a head-to-head race.
The poll found that 44.6% of voters would back Mamdani in a two-way contest if Sliwa withdrew from the election, with 40.7% of voters breaking for Cuomo, which falls within the poll’s margin of error.
Kurzyna said the new poll “does not change anything,” and stated that Sliwa will remain in the race ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 4. Early voting in the contest starts this Saturday, Oct. 25.
