The New York Post reports that Andrew Cuomo is currently laying the groundwork for a mayoral campaign in New York City, apparently “spreading the word” of his intent among the corporate donor class, according to an anonymous source with access to said donors.
The news comes as mayor Eric Adams’ administration appears to be in a death spiral, with two major resignations over the past week. Police commissioner Edward Caban resigned on September 12th, as federal investigators look into an alleged scheme that would involve Caban’s brother taking kickbacks from Manhattan nightclubs in exchange for lenient enforcement. Adams’ chief counsel Lisa Zornberg also abruptly resigned with immediate effect last Saturday. A former federal prosecutor, Zornberg was widely viewed as the mayor’s fiercest ally. Adams himself is facing four different federal investigations, including alleged corruption and illegal donations linked to Turkey.
For his part, Andrew Cuomo is hoping to resurrect his political career, after resigning as governor of New York State in August 2021 in a flurry of scandal. Most significant of these were the numerous accusations of sexual harassment, beginning with a tweet thread published by former aide Lindsey Boylan in December 2020 detailing her experiences. She accused him of making inappropriate comments that created a toxic working environment, and revealed that she quit in 2018 after he “forcibly kissed” her. Over the following year, nearly a dozen other women that had worked with Governor Cuomo went public with their own experiences. Pressure mounted on the governor as local and national political figures alike began calling for his resignation. In August 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report finding that the claims against Cuomo indeed had merit. Cuomo announced his resignation on August 10th.
Cuomo joins the likes of former governor and state attorney general Eliot Spitzer, once known as the “Sheriff of Wall Street,” as political figures that went down in flames as a result of scandals created by their own actions. Spitzer resigned in the midst of a prostitution scandal two years into his term. He failed at a comeback in 2013, when he ran for state comptroller. Congressman Anthony Weiner, who resigned due to a sexting scandal, also made an unsuccessful run for mayor that same year, finishing fifth.
Cuomo was also broadly criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as he moved COVID patients into nursing homes during the summer of 2020 and was accused of covering up the spike in deaths of the elderly that followed. 15,000 New York nursing home patients died of COVID after the “must admit” order requiring nursing homes to accept patients infected with it.
Cuomo testified before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic just last week, defending his decision to move COVID patients to nursing homes, stating that the CDC had validated the move in theory as early as March 2020. He also decried a lack of leadership at the federal level, declaring “there was no preparation, testing, no PPE, no masks, no science, no leadership […] Trump, the general was missing in action, leaving states in a bidding war for PPE. It was the COVID ‘Hunger Games.”
Cuomo has also faced criticism for a $5.1 million book deal from 2021 for a memoir recounting his experiences as governor during the pandemic. A state ethics board tried to claw back the money after initially approving the deal in 2020, claiming that the governor had obtained the approval under false pretenses. Cuomo took the matter to court and won, as a State Supreme Court judge found that the board had overstepped its authority in granting and then revoking approval without due process.
Dragging all this baggage behind him–sex scandal, mishandling of nursing home admittance during Covid, unethical book deal, the former governor would inevitably face an uphill battle in his comeback and probably see the same result as Weiner and Spitzer.
