The Bible recounts the tale of a flawed leader, Jephthah, a “man of valor” who was sent away from his people, only to be summoned back to lead when a hostile kingdom “made war against Israel,” as the Book of Judges puts it. Jephthah went on to achieve a military victory against the enemy and then served as a leader for six years. Which — not to draw any overwrought comparisons — reminds us of the second chance being sought by Andrew Cuomo.

The story of Jephthah came to mind as we were preparing this editorial urging a vote for the former governor as the 111th mayor of New York. In one of Mr. Cuomo’s strongest credentials, he was rejected by his own party in favor of a socialist opponent of Zionism, Zohran Mamdani. Mr. Cuomo proceeded to run as an independent. He is polling behind Mr. Mamdani but well ahead of the Republican, Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angels.

Our editors had an encouraging hour-long interview last week with Mr. Cuomo, who is now an independent who is unobligated to the anti-Zionist wing of the Democratic Party. In the latest polls, the 67-year-old son of Mario Cuomo — now gone, alas — is more likely than Mr. Sliwa to defeat Mr. Mamdani. Mr. Sliwa may be a Republican, but he has failed to advance in the polls to a contending position.

Mr. Mamdani’s agenda makes class war-inflected promises to “tax the rich” to aid what columnist Michael Barone calls the city’s “Barista proletariat.” His envisioned rent freeze would upend the city’s housing market, while his lax policies on crime would foment social disorder and ruin New Yorkers’ quality of life. His hostility to Israel and vow to arrest its duly-elected premier would poison relations with a key American ally.

To be sure, Mr. Cuomo would not under normal circumstances be the first choice of conservatives to lead the city. As governor, he signed in 2019 the bill that loosened bail requirements and made it harder to prosecute defendants, helping to fuel a surge in crime. His handling of the Covid pandemic, critics say, led to the needless deaths of thousands of seniors in nursing homes. He terminated the Moreland commission, derailing a push for ethics reforms. 

Mr. Cuomo, though, in his conversation with the Sun, presented himself as having been a bulwark at Albany against the worst excesses of the left. He depicts himself now as a moderate Democrat and of his party laments that “they’ve changed.” He warns that the far left of the party, embodied by Mr. Mamdani, is “losing touch with the base,” which he characterizes as favoring “working-class common sense” and “law and order.”

The results of New York City’s mayoral primary could be said to belie that view, at least here in the Five Boroughs. Yet it’s hard to deny Mr. Cuomo’s view that a “civil war” is afoot within the Democratic Party nationwide and that Mr. Mamdani’s victory would bolster the party’s leftist fringe. The former governor cautions that a win by the Marxist candidate would be “devastating to New York City as you know it.”

Mr. Cuomo predicted that, in the event of a Mamdani mayoralty, “You will see businesses leave New York like their tuchus is on fire.” He piped up for fiscal discipline, lower taxes, and a reform of the “public education bureaucracy,” which he calls “bloated and dysfunctional.” Music to our ears, though one takes such pledges with a grain of salt coming from one who has averred that, say, pro-life conservatives have “no place in the state of New York.”

As with Jephthah, though, it could well prove to be a moment to let bygones be bygones at a time when an ascendant far left poses what Mr. Cuomo calls an “existential threat” to the city. The damage, he reckoned during his conversation with the Sun, “could be irretrievable.” Whatever our past differences with Mr. Cuomo over policy or character, it’s hard to disagree with him when he declares: “This is the most important election I have ever been in.”