Curtis Sliwa Has 16 Cats and Is Running a Long-Shot Campaign for Mayor

Curtis Sliwa is certainly no novice in the art of grabbing headlines in New York City.

As the founder of the Guardian Angels, Mr. Sliwa and his trademark red beret became a staple at high-crime areas and at news conferences following high-profile crimes. Years later, he found a new life as a popular AM radio host; survived a shooting that left him with five bullet wounds; and testified at a federal trial against John A. Gotti, the Gambino crime family scion.

But now that Mr. Sliwa is the Republican candidate for mayor in New York City, he finds himself in an unusual position: He cannot seem to get voters’ attention.

“I’m a cognoscenti of local politics for years since I was a kid — I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said in an interview. “This is the first time in the history of local electoral politics that basically you have one person who has to fight to be heard even though I’m on the Republican Party line.”

Mr. Sliwa readily acknowledges that in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans six to one, he is a severe underdog in his race against his Democratic rival, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.

Indeed, in the weeks since winning the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, Mr. Adams has visited the White House, appeared on “The View” and trumpeted himself as the future of the Democratic Party.

Mr. Sliwa has had to contend with a far less glamorous path.

He has welcomed reporters into his 320-square-foot studio apartment, giving individual guided tours of his odd living arrangements with 16 rescue cats. He has held a series of news conferences, but few have received any coverage of note.

And when Mr. Sliwa did something he almost never does — remove his iconic red beret at a recent rally — the move was lampooned when it revealed a tan line that brought to mind a black-and-white cookie.

Through it all, Mr. Sliwa remains rather sanguine.

“Who at the age of 67 is running around wearing a red beret and a red satin jacket and going out there like a crime fighter and a superhero from our days reading comic books?” Mr. Sliwa said on a recent morning while drinking tea on a bench near his apartment on the Upper West Side.

“That’s a bit eccentric,” Mr. Sliwa added.

A woman interrupted: “You better be the next mayor. I believe in you.”

Another passer-by urged him to visit Albany to fix bail reform. A paramedic asked for a photo together and told him that he had worked with the Guardian Angels in Times Square in 1992.

Mr. Sliwa might be a celebrity in New York, but he has failed so far to generate momentum as a candidate. He still has not qualified for public matching funds — a benchmark that even his Republican rival, Fernando Mateo, accomplished before he was trounced by Mr. Sliwa in the primary. Mr. Sliwa won with nearly 68 percent of the vote.

Mr. Adams has already raised millions of dollars, is determined to raise at least $5 million more and is acting like his victory is inevitable. Mr. Sliwa has raised about $590,000 and has only $13,000 on hand.

Mr. Sliwa faces other obstacles. He has never run for office, has no experience in government and has never managed a significant budget. He has received criticism for making racist and sexist comments over the years, including wearing a sombrero on NY1 to imitate Latino immigrants; after making lewd remarks about Melissa Mark-Viverito, then the City Council speaker, he was suspended by NY1 for roughly a month. (He has apologized for both incidents.)

He also admitted in 1992 that the Guardian Angels had faked injuries as publicity stunts.

“Curtis Sliwa destroyed his credibility long ago when he admitted he faked a kidnapping and other crimes for publicity and regularly spewed vile comments that mocked the diversity of New York,” Evan Thies, an Adams spokesman, said. “Every word that comes out of his mouth is either wrong or offensive or both.”

Still, Mr. Sliwa argues that he can appeal to a broad swath of New Yorkers: conservatives, independents, animal lovers, Andrew Yang supporters and voters who want a change from Mayor Bill de Blasio, an ally of Mr. Adams. Mr. Sliwa also hopes that left-leaning Democrats who have doubts about Mr. Adams will sit out the election.

Mr. Sliwa’s major policy proposal is property tax reform. He wants to make institutions like Madison Square Garden pay more taxes — an idea embraced by Mr. Yang. Mr. Sliwa recently backed another Yang idea: a pilot program for universal basic income. His plan would give 500 New Yorkers $1,100 a month.

Mr. Sliwa has also focused on a law-and-order message, promising to hire thousands of police officers. But running against Mr. Adams — a former police captain — makes it harder for him to distinguish himself, said Peter T. King, the former longtime Republican congressman who endorsed Mr. Sliwa for mayor.

“Probably any of the other candidates would have made it easier for Curtis because he could make the argument that they were defunding the cops,” Mr. King said. “It’s much harder to make that argument against Eric Adams.”

“As someone who is pro-cop, these are the two best candidates from my perspective that we could have,” Mr. King added.

Mr. Sliwa is also unabashedly courting animal lovers. He wants New York City to create a major no-kill shelter similar to an ambitious effort in Austin, Tex., and to offer a $1,000 debit card to people who rescue a cat from an animal shelter.

His feline collection began when he moved in with his fourth wife, Nancy Sliwa, in an apartment steps from Central Park six years ago. She had rescued cats for years, and they took in ones that were sick or abandoned.

The cats roamed their apartment on a recent morning and gathered in a front window to watch pigeons. The walls were lined with “Curtis Sliwa for Mayor” signs, a collage of large cat photos and news clips of Mr. Sliwa over the years. A cat named Hope climbed onto the dining table; Tuna sauntered across a photographer’s lap; Apollo and Athena hid in a closet.

The apartment did not smell bad.

“You change the litter three times a day,” Mr. Sliwa said.

Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Sliwa have been public figures in New York City for decades. Mr. Sliwa said they first met in the 1990s when Mr. Adams ran for Congress against Representative Major Owens. Mr. Sliwa has two sons with his former girlfriend, Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, and used to see Mr. Adams when he attended events with Ms. Katz.

“Some Democrats were adversarial,” Mr. Sliwa said. “Eric Adams was always friendly.”

When the men ran into each other at a Memorial Day parade in Staten Island earlier this year, Mr. Sliwa thanked Mr. Adams for defending the Guardian Angels in an essay in The New York Daily News in 2019. Mr. Adams told Mr. Sliwa that the ferocity of his primary debate with Mr. Mateo surprised him.

“I said, ‘Eric, if I get into the general election, you can expect some of that — that’s for sure,’” Mr. Sliwa said. “Because you know me. I come at you from the streets.”

Mr. Sliwa is unlikely to win, but he could get more votes than people expect, said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College.

“He might do surprisingly well,” Professor Sherrill said. “He is more of a natural candidate than the last two Republican candidates for mayor. He has huge name recognition.”

Mr. Sliwa is already attacking Mr. Adams over questions of where he lives and about his close relationship with Frank Carone, a Brooklyn power broker, and he said he was looking forward to their debates in October.

He said that an Adams administration would be plagued by conflicts of interest.

“All it’s going to be is pure cronyism,” he said. “If you helped Eric, you’ll be rewarded. If you’ve been loyal to the Kings County Democratic machine, you’ll be rewarded.”

Mr. Sliwa would seem to have few political favors to return. Before joining the Republican Party last year, he led the Reform Party of New York State; in 2018, the last statewide election, the Reform Party drew the fewest votes for governor among 10 parties on the ballot.

Mr. Sliwa said he plans to hold a town hall event with Mr. Yang’s supporters in the coming weeks. He expressed admiration for Mr. Yang, who, like Mr. Sliwa, ran as an outsider who argued that the city was on the wrong course.

“Adams is embraced by de Blasio and Cuomo, and we’re supposed to expect him to do anything different?” Mr. Sliwa said.

He continued to press that message at a flurry of recent events, including ones where he denounced Mr. de Blasio’s vaccine mandate for restaurants and gyms, opposed teaching critical race theory in schools and argued against building a new jail in Queens.

The events were not well covered. Mr. Sliwa was undeterred.

“I’ve done press conferences in my life in which nobody showed up,” he said. “I don’t take it as a slight. I know the deck is stacked against me.”