NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's mayoral candidates are set to meet for their final debate Wednesday night, with Democrat Zohran Mamdani looking to stay in control of a race increasingly seen as his to win while former Gov.Andrew Cuomo amps up the pressure on Republican Curtis Sliwa to drop out.With just days left until early voting begins, Cuomo has made a series of urgent pleas to the city’s conservative voters to ditch Sliwa and instead to support him, casting the Republican candidate as a “spoiler” whose presence in the race will deliver Mamdani a win.The debate may be the former governor's last and best chance at making his case to run the country’s biggest city ahead of next month's election.But Sliwa, the swaggering creator of the Guardian Angels crime patrol group, has forcefully maintained he will not exit the race and has in turn ramped up his criticism of the former governor.
Mamdani, meanwhile, has spent his recent days campaigning on local issues and energizing his own supporters.Though he is expected to face an aggressive version of Cuomo on stage, as he did during last week's first debate, he will need to balance his counterattacks with the hopeful vision of the city that has driven his campaign's momentum.Here's what to watch for during the 90-minute debate Wednesday night, which will air live on Spectrum News NY1 and be streamed on the station’s website beginning at 7 p.m.:Mamdani will attempt to stay above the fray and keep his focus on voters.
“While my opponents are focused on speaking about each other and which one of them should drop out, my focus will be on New Yorkers themselves and the concerns I’ve heard from them,” he told reporters Tuesday, according to the Daily News.But as the Democratic nominee, presumed frontrunner and rising national star, the state assemblyman is still expected to take heat on Wednesday night.Opponents of the 34-year-old democratic socialist have focused on his relatively thin politica...