Curtis Sliwa’s controversial candidacy: Letters to the Editor — July 23, 2025

The Issue: Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa’s run for mayor of New York City.

Finally: Curtis Sliwa is getting some attention (“Sliwa: I have a path,” July 20).

Charles Gasparino followed Sliwa for quite some time, and Gasparino knows New Yorkers.

Sliwa knows the problems of New York; he walked the streets late at night and manned the subways.

Our current candidates ride the subway with a crew of reporters for one or two stops.

As far as his signature beret, Zohran Mamdani campaigned in the beginning in what looked like pajamas.

Maria Musolino

Staten Island

I don’t see why Sliwa has to “kiss the ring” of Kathy Wylde.

Judging by the number of empty storefronts, I don’t think her NYC Partnership is doing much to support local businesses.

Plus, she seems to belong to the group that thinks gambling and marijuana revenues are the way to shore up the city’s finances.

I will vote for Sliwa, particularly, because he seems intent on keeping NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

But, I have some advice, Curtis: Lose the beret now and don’t go to the polls in November cradling one of your cats — it makes you look weird and unserious.

Ilene Heller

Manhattan

Sliwa is as qualified to be mayor as I am to be pope — and I’m not Catholic.

He has never worked as a beat cop or a detective tracking down thugs.

Instead, he devoted his life to a glorified neighborhood watch association.

He never served in the military, but adopted the beret, a symbol of elite troops.

It looks like an attempt to appropriate the prestige of the military.

Sliwa never launched a business, hired scads of people and built it into a powerhouse.

Does anyone on Wall Street, in state and local government or the police unions take him seriously?

Yet he vows to stay in the race.

His sole accomplishment will be splitting the vote and electing Mamdani.

Scott Reeves

Manhattan

Curtis Sliwa is somebody who the people of this city can trust.

He is down to earth and cares about New Yorkers.

New Yorkers continue to move out of the city because of high crime, high rent and high taxes, and Sliwa will work tirelessly to reduce all of those things.

He will work with our wonderful NYPD and FDNY to improve working conditions and salaries for New York City’s bravest.

He will work hard to further improve our public school system for our teachers, principals and students, so that parents will not pull their children out of schools.

Sliwa is the right person for the job of mayor, so let’s show him support.

John Amato

Fresh Meadows

There is definitely a path for Sliwa to win the mayoral election. What he needs most is money.

He also needs Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Adams and Jim Walden to stay in the race and split the vote.

Tom Gagan

Mount Vernon

Sliwa refuses to abandon his tough white outer-borough look and goes strutting around sporting his Guardian Angel outfit, replete with red beret and jacket.

That image does not appeal to the vast majority of New Yorkers.

Democratic candidates will thrash Sliwa.

Dennis Middlebrooks

Brooklyn

The pickings are slim for the New York City mayoral election, but Sliwa truly deserves a shot.

Cuomo and Adams have failed track records.

Mamdani, an avowed socialist and anti-capitalist, will perpetuate further misery.

Meanwhile, Sliwa has literally put his life on the line for New Yorkers and earned our trust.

Peter Cooper

Bronxville

Sliwa is a Republican, which puts him behind the eight-ball in the mayoral race.

However, he has been patrolling the streets and protecting New Yorkers for over 40 years.

He knows the bad places better than the police themselves.

He wasn’t responsible for any of the deaths during COVID, or the money we laid out to house thousands of illegals, and he certainly doesn’t have Marxist convictions like Zohran Mamdani.

Dan Liberati

White Plains

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