Zohran Mamdani is the likely next mayor of New York City, partly because three of his opponents are expected to split the moderate and conservative vote. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa all insist they are the best candidate to beat the democratic socialist who stunned the city by winning the Democratic primary in June. None of them is polling higher than 30%.

The going assumption is that the only way to beat Mamdani would be for the anti-Mamdani interests to coalesce behind a single candidate. In a plan endorsed by Cuomo, longshot independent candidate Jim Walden suggested the “free-market candidates” agree to back the one among them with a lead in polls come fall. (Cuomo has been saying mid-September, while Walden suggests Oct

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