New Yorker: “The thirty-three-year-old socialist is rewriting the rules of New York politics. Can he transform the city as mayor?”

A new Quinnipiac poll in New York City finds Zohran Mamdani leads the race for mayor with 46% of likely voter, followed by Andrew Cuomo with 33% and Curtis Sliwa with 15%

“New York City Council member Chi Ossé, a close ally of Zohran Mamdani, is privately discussing a run against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.),” Axios reports.

“Just talking about a potential campaign could drive a further wedge between Mamdani — the democratic socialist in line to be New York’s next mayor — and Jeffries, who so far has declined to endorse Mamdani.”

“Democrats are largely standing by their nominee for Virginia attorney general after revelations that he once mused about killing a GOP lawmaker — worrying some in the party who want to draw a hard line against political violence and drawing accusations of hypocrisy from Republicans,” the Washington Post reports.

“Top Democrats have condemned the 2022 texts from Jay Jones but declined to join Republicans in calling for Jones to drop out, with early voting already underway in the battleground state. Republicans have quickly made the texts part of their closing pitch to voters, highlighting them in ads and attacking other Democrats for their muted responses.”

“A scandal over resurfaced texts from Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones has Democrats in a catch-22,” Axios reports.

“A month before Election Day, pushing Jones off the ticket could fracture Democrats’ chances in a pivotal statewide race seen as a bellwether for next year.”

“But standing by him risks reinforcing Republican attacks about double standards on political violence.”

Virginia Del. Carrie Coyner (R) told the Virginia Scope that Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones (D) told her in 2020 that if a few police officers died, then maybe they would stop killing people.

Jones referenced the conversation in a text message to her two years later: “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.”

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo told The View it would be a “gift” to President Trump if Zohran Mamdani wins the election in November and becomes New York City’s next mayor.

Cuomo said he’s the “last person” Trump wants to see as mayor: “We fought on a daily basis.”

Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones (D) sent disturbing text messages to a colleague fantasizing about killing then-Virginia Speaker Todd Gilbert (R), National Review reports.

Said Jones: “If those guys die before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves to send them out awash in something.”

He then suggested that in a hypothetical situation in which he had only two bullets and was faced with the choice of murdering Hitler, Pol Pot or Gilbert, he’d shoot Gilbert “every time.”

“As the race for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District heats up, some Tennessee residents have expressed concerns after getting a political postcard in the mail,” WKRN reports.

Said the postcard: “Your neighbors are watching and will know if you miss this critical special election. The TN Republican party HQ will see whether you have voted… We are compiling an official list of Republicans who fail to vote.”

If Zohran Mamdani wins the New York City mayoral race, he is poised to become the first New York City mayor without majority support, Politico reports.

“The front-runner has consistently polled at around 45% in the contentious general election, far short of anything that could be considered a mandate, even as he continues to best second-place contender Andrew Cuomo by double digits.”

“If Mamdani wins without even a simple majority, it will make it that much more difficult to construct coalitions to advance his agenda.”

Inside Elections: “Throughout 2017 and into early 2018, election watchers kept seeing the same movie over and over: Special elections in heavily Republican areas were way closer than they had any right to be, as Donald Trump’s presidency galvanized Democratic voters and put several normally safe Republican districts into play. Eight years later, Trump is back in the White House and once again generating intense backlash: Democrats are overperforming in special elections to an even greater extent than they did in 2017-18. But with only four federal special elections in the books so far this year, unlike during Trump’s first term, we have yet to see a truly competitive race develop.”

“That could change on December 2. That’s the date of the special election in Tennessee’s 7th District, a solidly Republican seat that could nevertheless have just enough Democratic voters to make things interesting.”

“A pornographic blog linked to Virginia lieutenant governor candidate John Reid (R) shared content from accounts that fetishized Nazism and sexual violence,” the American Journal News reports.

“Reid has denied ownership of the blog, which was hosted on Tumblr under the name JRDeux, the same handle he uses on Instagram and TikTok. Other news outlets have reported on the existence of the blog, but not its racist content or disturbing imagery.”