New York City Republican nominee for mayor Curtis Sliwa says former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign and others have tried to bribe him to leave the race.

Sliwa is part of a trio of candidates, also including Cuomo and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who are trying to beat mayoral favorite Zohran Mamdani. Speculation has mounted for months that a one-on-one matchup would be the best shot for an opposition candidate to beat Mamdani, the Democrat in the contest.

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“This is classic Andrew Cuomo tactics. This has been steady, cumulatively around $10 million. Why don’t you strap up Cuomo to a lie detection machine and ask him, and we’ll all be blown to kingdom come because he’s behind it,” Sliwa said.

“Curtis Sliwa doesn’t have a price,” Sliwa told reporters. “It’s all Cuomo. I know that I’ve had conversations with them. ‘Oh, come on, Cuomo is a flawed candidate, we all know that. But we all have to come together in order to defeat Mamdani.'”

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi denied the accusations and attacked Sliwa in a post on X.

“So here’s what a joke,@CurtisSliwa is: he – with no evidence at all – accuses our campaign of a crime. Hours earlier, his team was begging us & the Adams campaign to join their publicity stunt lawsuit against @ABC7. We decline, they lose their minds & today Curtis pulls this,” he said.

Mamdani told Fox 5 News that he trusted Sliwa the most out of any other candidate in the race when told about his bribery allegations. “I can tell you that out of Andrew Cuomo, Eric Adams, and Curtis Sliwa, I trust Curtis Sliwa the most,” he said.

A recent poll showed Sliwa in third place for the New York City mayoral race. Mamdani led the pack by 18 percentage points at 45% support. Cuomo came in at 27%, and Sliwa landed at 11%.

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Mamdani has led for months in the race, and the Democratic establishment has slowly embraced the socialist. Some, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), remain skeptical.

The city appears to be waiting to reckon with Mamdani as mayor, with the three other candidates likely to split the opposition vote. A consolidation of the opposition vote could help their cause, but it hasn’t happened yet.