Brian Laird on WNYC, well, we have now heard from Andrew Cuomo, Curtis Slewa, and Jim Walden

in our latest round of candidate interviews in the New York City mayoral race.

Zeran Mamdani and Eric Adams yet to come. We're expecting to know those dates soon. Let's talk about what we just heard and the state of the race generally now with Jeff Mays, who covers New York politics and policy for the New York Times and is covering the mayoral campaign closely. Jeff, always good of you to come on. Welcome back to

WNYC. Hey, thanks for having me, Brian. And listeners, do you have a reaction to Andrew Cuomo?

Anything from that segment? As we just heard him or any questions about the mayoral campaign

generally, call or text us, 212-433, WNYC, 433, 9692 with a call or a text message.

So did Andrew Cuomo make any news there to your ear, or did anything jump out at you,

is really characterizing his campaign at this complicated point?

No, I don't think so. I think what's interesting to note is that

he's actually on your show talking to you because during the primary, he pretty much ran a

Rose Garden strategy where he avoided the press. He avoided being on stage at forums with his

fellow candidates. And he acknowledged at the end of that race, which he lost by 12

points, that, you know, that might have been part of the problem is that he should have been out

talking to voters more. And this past weekend, he's been out, you know, he did what he called

the Five Borough Tour where he was at parades and other events out talking to

New Yorkers. So I think it's newsworthy, the fact that he set down for a 20, 30-minute interview

with you. He had plenty of bad stuff to say about Eric Adams and Curtis Slewa, and yet this

longtime leading Democrat is asking at least Mayor Adams to drop out of the race

if he's behind Cuomo in the polls to prevent the Democratic nominees and Ron Moundani from being

elected. I was wondering if it was new to your ear in this conversation that he excluded

Curtis Slewa from that. He did seem to say at the end that he wouldn't rather have the

Republican nominee than the Democratic nominee as the next mayor of New York. Did you hear

...