By Jeffrey Lax

Dear Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mr. Curtis Sliwa,

I firmly believe that a strong majority of New York City’s voters do not want a mayor who wants to “seize the means of production,” have government-run grocery stores and defund the New York City Police Department. The vast majority do not want a mayor who has actively engaged in countless antisemitic endeavors, including founding a chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine and pushing BDS, and promising to do so as an elected official by removing Cuomo’s anti-BDS executive order. And let’s not forget supporting a call for the global genocide of Jewish people.

All of which Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party candidate for mayor, stands for. So why does every poll have anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour’s pal firmly in the lead, averaging a nine-point advantage over his nearest competitor?

It is because each of you—Adams and Cuomo as independent candidates, and Sliwa as the Republican Party candidate—is splitting the votes of common-sense, decent New Yorkers who are not happy about this year’s election.

Yes, it is very concerning that 26% to 41% of voters support Mamdani’s terrifying agendas. But that is a longer-term problem to be addressed at a later date.

New York City is at DEFCON 1, and each of you is acting like the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and that your campaigns are on the verge of surging ahead of everyone else.

News flash, fellas: They are not.

The only thing that should be on all New Yorkers’ minds right now is aligning together and doing everything possible to create a coalition to stop Mamdani from becoming the next mayor.

But the three of you are blocking that necessary coalition. You’re all on the ballot, already a big problem in and of itself, and none of you has indicated any intention of coalescing with the other two.

This, despite Cuomo racking up, on average, only 25.8% of the vote in several of the most recent polls, with Adams receiving just 13.5% and Sliwa garnering 15.3%, while Mamdani holds steady at 34.3%.

How loud must the alarm bells ring?

None of you can win like this. Voters know it, and they are angry that all three of you are still foolishly fighting alone.

To each of you: Stop campaigning and start the process of coalescing.

Right now.

Current polling shows that negative views of Mamdani are skyrocketing. So, it’s not ideology that is handing the city to a communist. People seem to be begging, “Give us anyone else.” What we have is now just a math problem created by the egos and hubris of three people who refuse to coalesce around one.

It’s time to let ego and hubris go.

You are all true New Yorkers who have dedicated your careers to its people. That legacy will be permanently and forever ruined—not merely tarnished, but vilified for years or decades to come—if you all remain in this race and allow it to fall to a communist antisemite.

The city will be ruined, and the public will blame all three of you for it. And they’ll be right.

Think about the consequences to the people of New York, doomed to become the next Chicago.

Now, it is no one’s prerogative to tell any particular one of you to step down. I will not do that here, and I do not support all of the leaders who are out there pushing one or another candidate to drop out. That is not our place, and it is disrespectful to your campaigns and the hard work you have put into them.

But it is our responsibility to implore all three of you to get together in a room, analyze all of the polling data and come to some creative agreement that benefits all of you, wherein two of you will step aside and throw their support behind just one candidate. Fake the exuberance about it if you must.

But do it.

If each of you cares about the city as much as you say, this is simply the right thing to do. Perhaps Cuomo becomes the chancellor of the City University of New York or Sliwa becomes schools chancellor or Adams becomes commissioner of the NYPD. For goodness’ sake, at least we’d still have an NYPD.

It is time to make a choice: Go down as three losers who destroyed the greatest city in the world, or work together to become the heroes who save this great city.

You’ll be remembered one way or the other, so choose nobly.