Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa angrily quit his WABC talk-radio job on Wednesday after the station’s owner called on him to withdraw from the race.
John Catsimatidis, also a prominent New York City Republican, made the suggestion in an appearance earlier this week with morning host Sid Rosenberg.
That led Mr. Sliwa to say Wednesday that he will never return to the station, blaming the company for the way it has treated him during the campaign.
“Let me just say, Sid, I am directing my comments to everybody at WABC,” he said. “They have said I’m selfish. Selfish? Are you out of your mind? … But that’s why you will never see me at the studios of WABC again, never, no matter how this election turns out.”
Mr. Sliwa said he felt betrayed by many of his fellow WABC colleagues.
“I feel personally offended by what my friends and colleagues, many of whom I trained at WABC, many of whom wouldn’t have a job at WABC without me, have done,” he said.
Mr. Sliwa said the station’s call letters now stand for the “Always Broadcast Cuomo” network.
Mr. Rosenberg pushed back on Mr. Sliwa, saying he is obsessed with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo too much and not taking his fight sufficiently to the front-runner, Zohran Mamdani.
“This obsession with Cuomo has to stop,” Mr. Rosenberg said. “You can beat Cuomo and still lose the election.”
Mr. Sliwa has been on a leave of absence from the station to run for office before he publicly resigned from his hosting gig.
Mr. Sliwa’s remarks came two days after Mr. Catsimatidis called for Mr. Sliwa to leave the race, noting that his future with the station is “up to him.”
“Look, I love Curtis,” Mr. Catsimatidis said on Mr. Rosenberg’s program Monday. “But Curtis has to realize that he should love New York more than anything else. And it certainly looks like Curtis should pull out right now.”
Mr. Sliwa returned fire the following day, saying he would not pull out.
“Let’s be very clear: I am not dropping out, under no circumstances,” the Republican nominee said during a press conference on the Upper West Side.
“I’ve already been offered money to drop out, I said ‘no,’” he said.
Polling has routinely shown Democratic nominee Mr. Mamdani leading in the three-way race with Mr. Cuomo in second and Mr. Sliwa in third.
Should Mr. Sliwa leave the race, Mr. Cuomo may have a better chance to defeat the socialist assemblyman, which has prompted many Republicans and moderates to urge Mr. Sliwa to exit the campaign and allow the anti-Mamdani vote to coalesce around one candidate.
