Just when we thought he was out, please, don't pull him back in. Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York, is gearing up for another run at office, this time as mayor of New York City.
The leaked intention comes amid a flurry of investigations and resignations around Mayor Eric Adams' administration. Adams, who famously asked "Have you ever seen this much chocolate leading the city of New York?" may be asking himself if anyone has ever seen this much legal activity surrounding one mayor.
The dragnet of investigation has ensnared top fundraiser Brianna Suggs, former NYPD commissioner Edward Caban and his twin brother James, three aides--all brothers--David, Phil, and Terence Banks, aide Winnie Greco, Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, former head of the city Department of Buildings Eric Ulrich, and former FDNY Chiefs Anthony Saccavino and Brian Cordasco.
Politically speaking, Adam's house is on fire.
And Cuomo knows an opportunity when he sees one. Further, he's impatient to return to a position of power. But is it too soon? Is there ever an appropriate hour for such a disgraced figure? Cuomo was one of the Nursing Home Five, a group of Democrat governors who decreed that Covid-positive patients be allowed to stay in nursing homes.
Governors Gavin Newsom (CA), Gretchen Whitmer (MI), Phil Murphy (NJ), and Tom Wolf (PA) all followed Cuomo's blue lead on the fateful decision, as did Ned Lamont (CT), another Democrat, who inexplicably joined the infamous group in 2022, well after the deadly outcomes were known in the five states that preceded Lamont's directive.
The leak about Cuomo's mayoral plans comes one week after House hearings wrapped on Cuomo's role in the death of over 13,000 nursing home residents.
During the hearings, Cuomo played his usual tricks. From the New York Times:
In July 2020, the state Health Department released a report saying that its nursing-homes directive was not responsible for the more than 13,000 nursing home residents who died from the virus in New York between March 2020 and February 2021. The House subcommittee found that the state report was “not independently drafted” by the Health Department and had been heavily edited by Mr. Cuomo’s close aides and by the governor himself.
Cuomo, famous for his micro-management style, claimed not to recall seeing the report. He claimed to be simply following federal guidance. Just a victim of circumstance...when anyone with a shred of common sense knew that placing contagious persons in facilities full of frail, elderly citizens would be like "fire through dry grass."
Lost in the emotional fracas of the hearings: the money trail. As our parent site CDMedia reported over four years ago, the real story behind the nursing home scandal is much uglier than a mere botched call on housing for infected patients.
Cuomo took in millions from hospital and nursing home union donors just months before the pandemic. The eleventh-hour contributions helped to push Cuomo over the finish line in a tight re-election campaign.
Further, Cuomo slipped legal immunity for hospital and nursing home officials into his state budget:
And then came Cuomo’s annual budget – which included a little-noticed passage shielding corporate officials who run New York hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities from liability for Covid-related deaths and injuries.”
It’s not just shielding these facilities and officials from liability in civil proceedings, the legislation also grants criminal immunity:
“Shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, for any harm or damages alleged to have been sustained as a result of an act or omission in the course of arranging for or providing healthcare services” to address the Covid-19 outbreak.”
--ibid.
That Cuomo pushed forward immediately following the hearings tells us that his internal polling is showing minimal damage from the wrist slap Republicans gave him. Mass media essentially ignored the hearings, so maybe Cuomo's aggressive instinct will serve him well. It's not hard to be more popular than Eric Adams right now, and who would challenge Cuomo anyway?
Guilty of heinous crimes, Cuomo called on his fellow Democrats to bail him out. The sex scandal that resulted in Cuomo's voluntary resignation may well have been real, or exaggerated, or even downplayed. The point is that it wasn't felonious, as were his actions in the nursing home scandal. No criminal neglect, no mass manslaughter charges, no fraud for keeping nursing home coffers full.
And the coffers stayed very full, per the Center for Medicare Advocacy:
During the coronavirus pandemic, nursing homes have received billions of additional dollars and non-monetary support from all levels of government in addition to reimbursement for care through the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Federal Government has given, or in some cases, loaned facilities (with many loans forgiven) hundreds of millions of additional dollars through multiple programs. Most of these federal payments have been made without regard to facilities’ performance.
So Cuomo called in a favor, the old Democrat legal bait and switch maneuver. Similar to Hunter Biden taking a gun charge and tax evasion hit instead of facing the music for much larger crimes of selling influence to China and Ukraine through his father (and whatever the hell this was), Cuomo pulled a Br'er Rabbit routine.
None of this should be surprising, for Andrew learned at the elbow of his father, Mario Cuomo, former three-term governor of New York.
Mario, while less blatantly power-hungry than Andrew, was an effective politician who was even considered a front-runner for the presidency late in his career. Mario took the path opposite of his son's, trying and failing for mayor, then winning election as governor.
In both elections, Mario faced Ed Koch. In the 1977 mayoral election, Koch narrowly won the Democratic nomination over Cuomo, so Cuomo ran on the Liberal Party ticket. Leaflets appeared around the city saying "Vote For Cuomo, Not The Homo", a dig at Koch's indeterminate sexuality.
The dirty tactic (for which Cuomo denied responsibility) failed. Koch cried anti-Semitism, Cuomo decried mafia stereotypes, and the Jews-vs-Italians era of local politics continued apace.
In the next election cycle, the two men faced off again, but for the governorship. Cuomo emerged victorious, and reigned in Albany for 12 years.
Andrew's brother Chris knows a thing or two about comebacks as well.
The problems of New York City politics are manifold:
A lack of party choices plus a dearth of good candidates is a bad combo. Throw in the fact that mayor becomes an overnight celebrity, and not many people are willing to steer such a massive ship while under a constant spotlight. We let Bloomberg break term limits for a reason: he did the job well, and the other options were communist lunatics like Bill aka "Big Bird" aka Warren Wilhelm, Jr. DeBlasio.
“You are the former governor of New York State and you will never hold office again,” Rep. Stefanik told Cuomo in the contentious House nursing home hearings last week.
Let's hope she's right.
