At the News 12 debate on Sept. 28, Mike Lawler asked Cait Conley four separate times whether she would denounce Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s antisemitism. Four times she would not. She said she condemns antisemitism “from anyone” and has disagreements with Democratic Socialists, and she left it there.
Sixteen days later, on the PIX11 stage, Lawler asked again, this time about Mamdani’s Oct. 7 statement. Ms. Conley answered, “Yes, I do denounce Mamdani’s statement on October 7th.” She called that day the greatest loss of life to the Jewish community since the Holocaust. She was right, and I was glad to finally hear it.
What I want to know is what changed between Sept. 28 and Oct. 14.
Nothing about Mamdani’s record was a mystery in September. The question was the same question, asked by the same man, about the same mayor. The only thing that moved in the meantime was the calendar. Early voting opens Oct. 24.
My family has been in Westchester a long time. We have watched antisemitism stop being something that happens somewhere else and start being something our neighbors plan around. When a candidate for Congress has to be asked five times across two debates before she will name one man, her eventual answer sounds like arithmetic.
I would rather have a representative whose convictions show up before the polling does. Mike Lawler answered this question in September, in October, and every time in between without being asked twice.
That is the difference, and on Nov. 3 it is the one I will be voting on.
Stephanie Azadian
Somers, NY