Fledgling mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo is being slammed as carpetbagger after it emerged he only registered as a Big Apple voter in the fall — and at the luxury Manhattan apartment where his daughter lived.
The lease for the East 54th Street pad — reviewed exclusively by The Post — shows that Cuomo was the sole signatory on Dec. 13, 2023.
Cuomo’s representatives told The Post that he lived part-time in the $8,000-a-month ritzy rental complex along with his daughter Cara Kennedy-Cuomo, 30.
The former governor — who split his time living in a Westchester home — started living in the apartment full-time during the fall, about when he registered as a New York City voter in September, his reps said.
“Anyone who doubts Andrew Cuomo’s authority as a true New Yorker has never met or heard him speak,” said his spokesman Rich Azzopardi.
“New Yorkers know the city is in crisis and Andrew Cuomo is the only one with the experience and the record to help save it.”
The carpetbagger slam against Cuomo picked up steam after a Gothamist report this week detailed that Kennedy-Cuomo recently moved from the Midtown East apartment ahead of his long-rumored mayoral run.
The timing of her move and Cuomo’s voter registration struck many New Yorkers — not least his mayoral rivals — as suspicious and oddly reminiscent of the accusations during the 2021 mayoral race that Eric Adams actually lived New Jersey.
Adams still won the race, despite the lingering doubts — which were exacerbated by a bizarre tour of his Bed-Stuy property.
This go-round, Cuomo’s rivals have seized on his arguably tenuous ties to the Big Apple.
“The last time Andrew Cuomo actually lived in New York City, there were still payphones every few blocks,” said Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens), who is running for mayor. “He lies about his record all the time, why wouldn’t he lie about where he lives?”
Cuomo was born and raised in Queens, but decamped from the city as his political career took off and eventually took him into New York’s Executive Mansion.
His 2021 resignation in the face of sexual accusations — which he denies — raised questions about where he’d actually live after leaving the Mansion, given he didn’t have any property in his name.
Other Democratic candidates in the crowded mayoral primary piled on to mock Cuomo’s rootlessness in New York City.
“Legally, he may be able to scam his way onto the ballot by living at a relative’s apartment, that’s OK,” said former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, before twisting the knife and accusing the former governor of abandoning the city for “suburbia.”
“Andrew Cuomo hasn’t been here, hasn’t thought about us. He doesn’t get us. He doesn’t understand us, he doesn’t think about us in the way people who live here every day do.”
Current City Comptroller Brad Lander accused Cuomo of forsaking the city as governor.
“Andrew Cuomo screwed the city for years — cutting our funding and running our subways into the ground — because he didn’t need us for his political ambitions,” Lander said. “His move here is a sad, desperate attempt to regain relevance that won’t work, because everyone knows Andrew Cuomo is in it for himself, not us.”
Residents at the luxury building where Cuomo claims his residence and where his daughter had lived had little to say to The Post.
One resident said she had seen Cuomo but hadn’t seen his daughter.
“I sit out here all the time and I’ve been seeing (Cuomo) for ages,” she said.
The carpetbagger accusation ultimately might not matter for New York voters, said political operative Ken Frydman.
“Bobby Kennedy and Hillary Clinton moved to New York to successfully run for US Senate,” he said.
“We’re still not sure if Eric Adams lives in Brooklyn or Jersey, and he’s mayor. For now.”
Additional reporting by Haley Brown