Cuomo’s attempted comeback: NY Dems silent as ex-governor jumps into mayor's race

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo bounded to a podium over the guitar licks of the 1970’s hit “New York Groove” on Sunday, telling a room packed with hundreds of union laborers, seniors and other supporters that he was entering the New York City mayor’s race to rescue a city facing chaos.

Cuomo launched his campaign as the frontrunner, securing 38% of the vote in a recent Honan Strategy Group poll, and surpassing incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.

“ We are here today because we know New York is in crisis,” Cuomo said at his first public event since announcing his campaign by video on Saturday. “But we know something else, we know that we can turn this city around, and we know we will.”

The upbeat and carefully stage-managed event, complete with wristbands and multiple security checks, stood in stark contrast to just four years ago, when Cuomo found himself increasingly isolated as he delivered his first remarks responding to a growing number of sexual misconduct allegations. At the time, he insisted that he would not resign as governor.

But he did step down just five months later after a report commissioned by state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the misconduct allegations corroborated the accounts of 11 women, many of whom worked for Cuomo.

The former governor has denied any wrongdoing.

At the time, most of the state’s top Democrats called for his ouster. But four years later, the same Democratic establishment has remained largely quiet in the early days of his long-expected campaign as Cuomo attempts to rehabilitate his legacy through the city’s mayoral race.

That silence has fueled anger among his accusers and other women —directed both at Cuomo and the Democratic establishment — with just four months until the June primary.

Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual misconduct, said the collective silence among leading Democrats was a sign that the party was failing to “meet the moment.”

“After spending years of talking about how Trump is so corrupt, so monstrous, so misogynistic, to have anyone in our party suggest that Andrew Cuomo has a role to play basically makes our leaders look like cynical do-nothings who have no morals,” Boylan said.

James, the state attorney general, who Cuomo has repeatedly attacked for conducting what he has called a politically motivated investigation, declined to comment about Cuomo’s new campaign on Sunday.

Neither U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer nor Kirsten Gillibrand, who both called for Cuomo to resign in March 2021, responded to requests for comment about Cuomo’s entry into the race.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was among the last to call for Cuomo’s resignation in August 2021, and Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who called for his resignation in March of that year, both avoided making any substantive statements when asked on Friday about Cuomo’s expected entrance into the race.

“ I have no comment on the possible entry of Governor Cuomo into a mayor's race until he makes that decision,” said Jeffries, who endorsed Maya Wiley’s 2021 mayoral primary bid.

He later added that he did not plan “at this moment” to endorse anyone, “until a candidate emerges from the Democratic primary.”

Both Espaillat and Jeffries said they were working with coalitions of clergy, business and elected leaders to evaluate the candidates.

Last week, Jeffries signaled more openness to Cuomo’s candidacy, telling a NY1 reporter, “I think he'd be a candidate that a lot of people, as I've heard from the district that I represent, would be very interested in checking out."

Neither spokespeople for Jeffries nor Espaillat responded to requests for comment after Cuomo launched his campaign over the weekend.

Jay Jacobs, head of the New York state and Nassau County Democratic Party organizations, also called for Cuomo to resign four years ago. But on Sunday, he said he had spoken with the former governor ahead of his announcement and was not surprised he was making a return to the campaign trail.

“I never expected when he left office as governor that that was going to be the end of it, and he would just ride off quietly into the night,” Jacobs said.

Asked what message he thinks Cuomo’s mayoral campaign sends to women in New York City, Jacobs said that was up to voters to decide. He noted the perennial challenges for anyone who becomes New York City mayor, since the city is in many ways beholden to the state.

“The powers of the mayor, in that particular job structurally, I would say, are much less than the powers of the governor in her job,” Jacobs said, referring to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who first assumed the office in the wake of Cuomo’s departure before winning a full term in 2022.

Asked about Cuomo’s entry to the race, Hochul said anyone was entitled to run for any office. She focused her remarks on recent Republican Medicaid cuts on the federal level that would harm the terminally ill children she was visiting at a hospital in Queens on Sunday.

For all the signs of support inside Cuomo’s launch event, a very different scene emerged outside, where a gathering of largely women organizers who oppose his candidacy staged a protest on the frigid sidewalk.

“ The Democratic Party in New York is in disarray,” said Ana Maria Archila, co-head of the New York State Working Families Party, a left-leaning third party on the ballot in New York.

She said New Yorkers deserved an election that was not just a choice between one scandal-ridden politician and another — a nod to Adams, who was charged in a five-count criminal indictment with trading official acts as mayor in exchange for illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel perks.

The U.S. Justice Department under President Donald Trump has sought to dismiss the charges, but a federal judge has not yet issued a final decision.

“Andrew Cuomo four years ago was the person that every single person in the political class said was not fit to lead,” Archila said, “and that's still true.”