Despite my warnings to the Democrats of New York, Cuomo consistently leads in the polls.
One of the more disturbing political developments of 2025 — so far — is the increasing likelihood that disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo will be the next mayor of New York City. Despite my warnings to the Democrats of New York, Cuomo consistently leads in the polls. The guy who’s running second, State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, thinks getting tough on crime means promising to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Even Mamdani’s internal polls put Cuomo ahead, 4o percent to 27 percent. New York City’s ranked-choice voting system muddies the waters a bit, but Cuomo is still the man most likely to be the next mayor.
If you’re looking for reasons to not vote for Cuomo, you’ve got a whole buffet table of options. Start with Cuomo’s horrific decision during the pandemic to force nursing homes to accept more than 9,000 coronavirus-infected people who had been hospitalized, and his administration’s subsequent efforts to cover it up. Or turn to state investigation that found Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women, whose accusations he denied, and numerous state staffers described abuses of power. (It takes true shamelessness, fearlessness, and recklessness to feel up an armed state trooper.) There’s the $5.1 million book deal for his self-aggrandizing tale of how he saved the state from the pandemic, and his efforts to shut down the state ethics commission that objected to Cuomo’s lucrative deal. Heck, Cuomo’s scandals even took down his allies like the Time’s Up organization and got his brother Chris dismissed from CNN.
The New York Times, today: “Mr. Cuomo’s campaign is also predicated on what it says is another key difference: proving to voters that he is a better manager than Mr. Adams has shown he is during his scandal-tarred tenure.”
Voting for Andrew Cuomo for scandal-free government is like voting for Joe Biden for his youth, Donald Trump for his humility, or Tim Walz for his hair. New York City would have better odds of clean government with Wilson Fisk.
Last week, we learned that the U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about decisions he made during the coronavirus pandemic as governor. On April 21, James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to attorney general Pam Bondi, alleging Cuomo made “criminally false statements” when he said he was not involved in the draft and review of the New York State Department of Health’s July 2020 report that undercounted the total number of deaths in nursing homes by 46 percent.
There is not one hint that Cuomo has been the least bit humbled or changed by his fall from the highest heights of political power.
In his comments to reporters Sunday, President Trump didn’t seem all that bothered by the prospect of Cuomo becoming mayor.
Q: President Trump, Andrew Cuomo, he’s under a federal investigation. Uh, do you have a comment on that and how that should impact the mayoral election coming up?
Trump: No, I was surprised. I didn’t know exactly, I just read about it just like you did, having to do with Andrew. I’ve known Andrew and we’ve had an on-off relationship. He was saying the greatest things about me. I’m the greatest President, et cetera. And then the next day, it hit us. But I did a lot for them. I brought in the ship during the COVID crisis. I brought in the, uh, the Mercy ship and I built about 3,000 units in the Javits Convention Center. And he didn’t use them. I don’t understand it. He wanted them, but he didn’t use them. But I hope it’s gonna be okay. I hope it’s not gonna be, uh, serious for him. Let’s see what happens.
New York City holds its mayoral primary in less than a month.