For the first time in this year’s mayoral race, a pro-Andrew Cuomo super PAC is launching an attack ad campaign targeting Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa — and the effort is aimed, in particular, at luring Russian-speaking voters away from the GOP nominee.
The web of pro-Cuomo super PACs active in the 2025 race, which have raised tens of millions of dollars among them, have spent the money almost exclusively on efforts to either advocate for Cuomo’s candidacy or rail against Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani.
The shift to an anti-Sliwa posture from the New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 super PAC comes as Cuomo and others have pressured the GOP nominee to drop out of the race, arguing he needs to do so for the ex-governor to have a real shot at defeating Mamdani in the Nov. 4 election.
Sliwa has been steadfast in rejecting the calls for him to pull out, saying he will stay in no matter what. Early voting in the Nov. 4 contest starts Saturday, and polls have consistently shown Mamdani defeating Cuomo by double digits, with Sliwa trailing both of them in third place.
With the prospect of Sliwa exiting the race appearing unlikely, New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25 — which has raised more than $1.5 million to date — placed a $100,000 buy on Saturday to run an anti-Sliwa ad in Russian on Facebook, Google and other digital platforms, disclosures show.
The ad, which hits on an emerging theme in the campaign, says: “ALERT! A vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani. Andrew Cuomo is the best choice for New York,” according to a translation provided to the Daily News.
Jeff Leb, the treasurer of the New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, said Tuesday the PAC plans to spend about another $300,000 on deploying about 50 canvassers to hand out palm cards with the same messaging in Russian-speaking communities in southern Brooklyn, central Queens and east shore Staten Island. The palm card will be in both Russian and English, a copy of it provided to The News shows.
Leb said the PAC is specifically targeting Russian-speaking communities because they tend to lean more conservative and generally vote Republican in local elections, if they participate at all.
“No one has been focusing on the Russian-speaking communities except for the Sliwa campaign,” said Leb.
To that end, Leb suggested Cuomo — who all but certainly needs to grow his voter base to have a fighting chance against Mamdani — could compete with Sliwa for Russian-speaking voters thanks to his PAC’s efforts. Leb said his team has identified “around 200,000 voters” they’re going to try to target with the latest outreach push.
Leb’s PAC is being funded by real estate firms like the Lightstone Group and hedge fund managers like Daniel Loeb, among others. Leb’s entity is coordinating its activities with Fix the City, another pro-Cuomo outfit that’s the largest super PAC operating this year.
Sliwa brushed off the outreach to Russian-speaking voters, saying he’s confident in the “grassroots support” he has built in that community.
“The Russian community, like so many others, is near and dear to me, and if the powers that be are targeting them to try to hurt my campaign, it only shows how panicked they are because they won’t fall for it,” said Sliwa, who has regularly appeared on Russian-speaking media outlets throughout the campaign.
Mamdani’s campaign didn’t immediately return requests for comment. A spokesman for Cuomo, who by law can’t coordinate with any super PACs supporting his mayoral run, declined to comment.
Cuomo, who’s running as an independent in next month’s election, has out of the mayoral candidates by far benefitted the most from outside spending in this cycle.
On top of the Leb entity and Fix the City, a new group of anti-Mamdani and pro-Cuomo super PACs launched last week that have been boosted by more than $3.2 million contributed by an entity controlled by a trio of wealthy New York businessmen.
One of those PACs, For Our City, disclosed in a new filing Tuesday that it spent $750,000 over the weekend on a new TV ad that accuses Mamdani of not being a real Democrat, pointing to his past criticism of ex-President Barack Obama and ex-Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Zohran Mamdani is not who you think he is,” a voiceover says in the TV ad.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist, has been endorsed for mayor by Harris.
