NYS Assembly

Assemblywoman Nicole Maliotakis of Staten Island

If you don’t think campaign 2017 is real and underway, think again. The Reform Party (remember them?) announced their endorsements in citywide races on Thursday, as Mayor de Blasio released plans for a Sunday election rally. The guy whom de Blasio trounced in the general election four years ago just endorsed the hard-charging newcomer to the Republican mayoral primary race, who for her part equated Puerto Rican nationalism with Al Qaeda fundamentalism. And campaigns across the city are angry at me for not including their candidates in our recent list of competitive Council races.

So what races are Max and Murphy watching? Does de Blasio have any chance of losing, and if not, how on earth did that happen? Can Sal Albanese or Robert Gangi dent the mayor’s armor? Can Nicole Maliotakis or Paul Massey capture the GOP line without alienating general-election voters? Is de Blasio running to be a lame duck? And were supposed to believe that all the Justice League members lived in the five boroughs, or is it possible that at least the Flash and Hawkman commuted?

We ask the important questions and, just to keep it simple, answer them in this week’s edition of Max & Murphy: