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Staten Island conservatives wrestle with their choice for NYC mayor: Sliwa or Cuomo?
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 1, 2025
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Brigid Bergin / Gothamist
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Nov 1, 2025
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The tough math facing Andrew Cuomo as he runs for New York City mayor was on full display at a Staten Island early voting site, with some conservative voters saying they held their noses as they voted for the former Democratic governor, while others said they would never support his political comeback.
As the mayoral race enters its final days with polls showing Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani maintaining at least a double-digit lead going into Election Day, Cuomo — a Democrat running as an independent — is making a series of overt appeals to Republican and right-leaning voters. Interviews with voters on Thursday in Annadale suggested Cuomo had made inroads in the deeply Republican district, but that GOP nominee Curtis Sliwa had enough support to be a spoiler.
Nick Ponzio, 62, said he was a Sliwa supporter, “100%.”
The retired preschool and special education teacher said he was a registered Republican, but his connection to Sliwa was more personal. When he was a teenager, six Guardian Angels protected him from a group of robbers looking to steal Christmas gifts he’d bought for his family from Macy's, Ponzio said.
“I know he’s not going to win, but I just can’t go against my conscience,” Ponzio said.
Ponzio recalled the tale at an early voting site in Annadale, which is part of a district with some of the highest early voter turnout so far, according to Board of Elections data.
Nick Ponzio enthusiastically voted for Curtis Sliwa, recalling an experience in his teens where he was protected by Guardian Angels members.
Brigid Bergin / Gothamist
Valerie Scotto, 63, who works as a billing controller for a law firm, gave a less complicated reason for her support for Sliwa: “ I don't agree with anything Mamdani wants, and Cuomo had his chance.”
Sliwa also has the support of the five local Republican leaders of each borough and several Republican councilmembers, including Frank Morano, who is running for re-election in this district. Morano said there’s a lot of enthusiasm for Sliwa’s campaign.
“ I think people who may not typically vote in a mayoral race, but only typically come out in a presidential race, they are realizing there's a lot at stake here,” Morano said.
But Cuomo had won the begrudging support of some voters in the district who saw him as the best way to thwart Mamdani.
“I want Sliwa but … Cuomo, I don’t like him, and the other guy is a communist. I guess I got to vote for Cuomo, the lesser of two evils,” said John Cassidy, 62, a retired NYPD detective who now drives a school bus.
Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, is a democratic socialist. President Donald Trump and Cuomo have repeatedly, and inaccurately, attacked Mamdani as a communist.
“Our message is simple, a vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Zohran Mamdani,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said. “At a certain point, voters do not want to light their votes on fire.”
The Cuomo campaign needs more people like Bob Finelli, 62, who said he was voting for Cuomo without hesitation.
“I liked his father,” Finelli said, recalling the late Gov. Mario Cuomo, a Democrat who served three terms leading New York state. Finelli, a retired technology manager, said he never considered voting for Mamdani because he opposes his policies, or Sliwa, because he doesn’t take him seriously.
Doris Stapleton, 70, said she was voting for Cuomo because of his experience.
Brigid Bergin / Gothamist
Doris Stapleton, 70, a retired speech pathologist, said she made up her mind after listening to the final debate.
“I just want someone with experience, with a track record of knowing what he’s doing, that’s why I’m going to vote for Cuomo,” she said.
Several other voters offered less sentimental reasons for supporting Cuomo.
Maureen Vanpelt, 71, said she was voting for Cuomo “under protest” as she walked into the polling site.
“We’d like the Republican to get in, but we don’t feel he has any chance in New York and we feel like voting for him is just giving a vote to Mamdani and we don’t want that,” she said.
While Cuomo wanted to make this a two-person race, Sliwa has refused to give ground. And by remaining in the race, Azzopardi acknowledged Sliwa is making it harder for Cuomo to catch Mamdani. “We are running right to the tape,” Azzopardi said.
Sliwa spokesperson Daniel Kurzyna said Cuomo has already admitted he cannot win.
“Now he is gaslighting New Yorkers into thinking they are fools while propping up a narrative no one believes, but the truth is clear: Curtis Sliwa will win, and a vote for Andrew Cuomo is a vote for Zohran Mamdani, full stop," Kurzyna said.
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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