Mayoral race morning line: Its too early to place a single bet

It’s less than 10 weeks ’til the June 24 primary — which for once definitely won’t settle the near-certain winner come November in what’s set to be the wildest New York mayoral race in decades.The Democratic primary campaign is so far dominated by ex-Gov.Andrew Cuomo’s drive for redemption and radical Zohran Mamdani’s surge to the top of the far-left pack — a dual dynamic that serves both of them by letting each pose as the best hope to block the other one.Cuomo’s other strategy has been to leverage his name recognition into looking inevitable; that’s encouraged a whole pack of political rats to jump onto what seems the rising ship.Yet his support is a mile wide and an inch deep: The instant he doesn’t seem the surest thing, many of the rats will jump to whatever better opportunity presents itself.Mamdani, meanwhile, offers all the performative passion for free stuff and Israel-bashing that Democratic Socialist hipsters love to hear — no matter that the nepo baby’s never really done anything.The rest of the pack is so far struggling for any oxygen, caught somewhere in the middle between Cuomo’s cynical transactionalism and Mamdani’s ideological fervor.But Scott Stringer beat the last scandal-slain governor trying to bounce back in a city race, edging out Eliot Spitzer in the 2013 comptroller primary.And Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos and others may yet find more traction on the left by actually mixing ideals with an awareness of what’s remotely practical.

Even Brad Lander expects to boast fund-raising prowess to match the two front-runners.Plus, primaries are low-turnout: That may favor Mamdani’s fervor or Cuomo’s edge with the political machines — but it allows any candidate with a solid base to hope, and no one really knows if ranked-choice voting could upend expectations.In three months, anything can happen — and then it’s likely a four-way race.If none of its picks grabs the Democratic nomination, the Working Families Par...