Giovanni Lanzo is “still tossed up” about the mayor’s race – that’s Brooklyn for undecided. But he understands the stakes.

New York City has often set the political, cultural and financial course of the country. Tuesday’s mayoral election — and a New Yorker watching from Washington — could scramble it all.

Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo lobbed attacks at each other during the first of two general election debates in the New York City mayoral race on Thursday, as ...