To win NYC, the former governor is up against his own reputation

Photos: Jeff Zorabedian, AP Images

Former governor Andrew Cuomo is making his move to return to power, having tossed his hat into the ring for the New York City mayor’s race and now leading in major polls. Where does his relationship with the Jewish community stand? How do you pull off one of the most unlikely comebacks in American political history?

The wheel of fortune spun several dizzying, complete revolutions for Andrew Cuomo before it steamrolled right over him four years ago, when he resigned New York State governorship in ignominy and disgrace. Even Donald Trump has never come back from a setback like that; no one expected to hear much from Cuomo on the public stage again.

But Cuomo hung on, the wheel kept rolling, and now he is poised to ride it back to power. However, the track it is charting runs right through the Orthodox Jewish community of New York City. That’s the part of town in which, on his last gallop through during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cuomo left a lot of people feeling bruised and mud-splattered. Now, looking to clean up and patch up, he has packed a big box of humble pie and set out on a tour to make amends.

As the race comes down to the wire, Mr. Cuomo sat down with Mishpacha for an exclusive appeal directly to voters. What did he have to say, and will it be enough?

You decide.

The Comeback Kid            

Andrew Cuomo is no stranger to comebacks. In fact, he wrote the book on it — All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life was published in 2014. His political career began in 1982 at the tender age of 25, as campaign manager and later staffer for his father, New York governor Mario Cuomo. He was appointed secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by President Bill Clinton, and was later very seriously considered for appointment to the US Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton mid-term.

Cuomo’s elected roles have included New York state attorney general and ultimately three terms as governor, but between these jobs, he disappeared from politics, working as a lawyer or consultant for private firms. In 2002, he ran a bumpy campaign in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and had to bow out. But by the time of the 2010 race, he was older and wiser, and he staged his comeback.

The ebb and flow of power pushed Cuomo to high tide in 2020 during the Covid pandemic, when he was given broad emergency powers and achieved national prominence for his handling of the crisis and popular daily press briefings.

The wheel turned inexorably yet again, and in August 2021, facing a wide array of accusations of corruption, possibly criminal conduct, and almost certain removal by the New York state legislature, Cuomo resigned, all the while insisting he was innocent of wrongdoing.

“It was ugly,” he tells Mishpacha. “It was probably the toughest time of my life.”

None of the charges against him ever went to trial; all were dropped by prosecutors or went away quietly in the night. Today, with the political and legal horizon cleared, he is the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City, the winner of which is nearly a shoo-in for the job in November.

Campaign strategists plotting the path to victory for the former governor have concluded that it must lead through the heart of the Orthodox Jewish voting bloc. In the past, the Orthodox Jewish vote has strongly supported Cuomo, and his father, Mario. In Andrew’s 2014 campaign for governor, he did better in Brooklyn’s Jewish enclaves than in the rest of the city.

But much water has gone under the Mario Cuomo Bridge since the last time his name appeared on the ballot, and Camp Cuomo knows the community is still smarting from some of his past policies —notably, the draconian lockdowns, closures, and red zones imposed by executive order during the pandemic. With this in mind, Mr. Cuomo is embarking on an intensive series of meetings with community representatives.