I’ve been friendly with Curtis Sliwa since the early 1990s. I was working for then-mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani and Curtis was running the Guardian Angels, the volunteer crimefighters he founded when Ed Koch was mayor, and supporting Rudy’s run on the Republican line.
Fast forward 30-plus years. Curtis is running as the Republican nominee for the second time to be mayor; he lost, garnering only 28% of the vote against Eric Adams in 2021. This time, Sliwa’s up against socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani and independent, incumbent candidate Adams seeking his second term.
Ironically, Sliwa must drop out of this mayoral race to help Adams raise money and defeat Mamdani in the general election. Sliwa’s 28% of the vote in 2021 could be the difference between a democratically-run city and one that’s managed by a 33-year-old state assemblyman who doesn’t believe in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nation, but does believe in giveaways paid for by corporations and 2% of NYC’s residential population.
Born in Canarsie in 1954, Sliwa is a proud and stubborn man with a sizable ego who deeply believes that Adams is corrupt and that he can beat Adams, Mamdani, unknown lawyer Jim Walden and Andrew Cuomo — who has foolishly and selfishly decided to keep his independent “Fight and Deliver” ballot line in November after getting his butt kicked in June — to become the 111th mayor of the City of New York.
It won’t be easy to convince Sliwa to drop out of the race. Especially since his campaign staff believes that, if he can add seven points to his 2021 percentage, Sliwa can win in a crowded field with 35-36% of the vote. I’ve told Sliwa’s team that’s unlikely but, at least for now, they’re dug in. The recent endorsement of Sliwa by prominent Jewish leader Dov Hikind has only solidified their certainty that the Orthodox voting bloc will put him over the top.
Not that prominent political and business people aren’t trying to reason with Sliwa. Rumors are afloat that the Trump administration, to help Adams get reelected, will offer Sliwa a big job in D.C. and that Republican bigwig John Catsimatidis will let Sliwa out of his WABC radio contract. Neither of those carrots will entice Sliwa to abandon his quixotic campaign. Here are a couple of sweeteners that might:
Sliwa drops out, endorses Adams and is appointed deputy mayor for public safety in a second Adams administration;
Bill Ackman, Ken Langone and other wealthy city donors generously fund the expansion of Sliwa’s Guardian Angels network around the world and beef up the original NYC “non-profit crime prevention organization.” Other chapters operate in D.C.; New Orleans; Savannah; Seattle; L.A., San Diego, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento and Stockton, California; Chicago; Philadelphia; Boston; Springfield and Brockton, Mass.; Denver; Dallas; Houston; Orlando; Portland, Maine; Indianapolis; York, Pennsylvania; London; Toronto; Tokyo; Cape Town and Auckland.
The presence of more Guardian Angels on the streets and subways of the city would indebt its citizens to Sliwa more than if he, somehow, was elected mayor. Play to your strength, Curtis.
Sliwa is a tough guy. He and his fellow Guardian Angels have patrolled the city for nearly 50 years with nothing but their red berets and hand-to-hand-combat skills. In the 1970s, he ran a McDonald’s in the tough Fordham Road neighborhood of the Bronx and survived a 1992 hit allegedly ordered by John Gotti Jr.
But he’s also got a soft side. In 1998, Curtis came to dinner. As a gift, he brought a baby-sized red beret and T-shirt for my newborn son, Benjamin “Beau.” My wife, Liz, served leg of lamb and insisted Curtis remove his ever-present beret before entering the apartment. Fittingly, the impression of the beret left a permanent Guardian Angels “halo” embedded in his crown. Liz later furnished the Guardian Angels headquarters on Eighth Ave. Curtis is still grateful to Liz.
In July 2001, when I joined the Daily News as head of communications, Curtis attended our sales conference in Puerto Rico as guest speaker and longtime friend of the paper; he’d delivered The News as a kid. I had broken my leg two days earlier and was hobbling around San Juan on crutches. On stage, Curtis called me a “warrior” in front of my new colleagues. I’m still grateful to Curtis.
Liz and I — and our fellow, longtime New Yorkers — would be even-more grateful to Sliwa now if he drops out of the mayoral race for the good of our city.
Frydman is CEO of Source Communications LLC, a strategic and tactical consulting firm in Manhattan.
