Cuomo’s Chances for Mayor Depend on Voters’ Memories of Why the Ex-Governor Was Forced From Office

How good are voters’ memories? The outcome of the New York City mayoral election may hinge on how much they remember of the corruption-filled past of the former governor, Andrew Cuomo, who is hoping to rewrite his own history and run for mayor.Mr. Cuomo got a boost Monday when a key Democrat, Congressman Ritchie Torres, called on Mr. Cuomo to join the race. “The city is in crisis,” he said.” Mr. Torres said he isn’t interested in “relitigating” what forced Cuomo to resign in disgrace in 2021, though Mr. Torres was among those who demanded he step down.Mr. Torres may not want to relitigate, but Mr. Cuomo’s still in hot water; he got a setback last week, when New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that the state’s ethics commission is constitutional and can proceed with its investigation of a $5.1 million book deal Mr. Cuomo made in 2020. He may be forced to relinquish the money.Mr. Cuomo is accused of personally profiting from disaster by having his staff write a book touting his leadership skills during the crisis months of March, April, and May 2020, when nearly a thousand New Yorkers a day, on average, were dying from Covid-19.The book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” was released in October 2020. It soared onto the New York Times bestseller list. Then an avalanche of scandals the following spring tarnished Mr. Cuomo, killing the book’s market value.By then, the state Assembly, controlled by Mr. Cuomo’s own party, had initiated an impeachment inquiry. Mr. Cuomo’s misuse of state resources to cash in on the book was sufficient grounds for impeachment. That’s a drastic step taken only once before in the state’s history, when a former governor, William “Plain Bill” Sulzer, was impeached and removed in 1913.There were more grounds. The impeachment inquiry, conducted by the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, found “overwhelming evidence” that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed a female state trooper and several female staff. The inquiry also found that Mr. Cuomo had mandated returning Covid-19 hospital patients to nursing homes while they still tested positive, as well as fudging the soaring death toll that resulted.On August 3, 2021, Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, issued findings supporting sexual harassment charges from 11 women. A few days later, Mr. Cuomo resigned as governor.Fast-forward to this year’s mayoral race. New York City voters, desperate to halt the crime and chaos destroying their quality of life, are seeking an alternative to the far-left candidates vying for the job. To explain endorsing Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Torres pointed to a Queens assemblyman, Zohran Mamdani, a member of the Jewish-bashing Democratic Socialists of America, who is also seeking the mayoralty, and said, “We’re confronting a level of extremism unprecedented in the history of New York.”On February 14, the Staten Island Democratic Party also preemptively endorsed Mr. Cuomo. “Andrew Cuomo gets Staten Island,” said party chairwoman, Laura LoBianco Sword. “He knows the needs of the outer boroughs.”Two days later, the Asian Wave Alliance, tired of leftists’ extreme positions, told the New York Post that it’s encouraging Mr. Cuomo to run, calling him “the most common-sense candidate.”“Common-sense” or corrupt? As Cuomo’s candidacy becomes a certainty, New Yorkers will need to take a hard look at why Mr. Cuomo was deemed unfit for public service by his own party in 2021, and what, if anything, has changed about the man.Ms. Sword said that Mr. Cuomo “is the only proven leader with the track record of results and resolve to both navigate attacks from Washington and properly address the issues of corruption and deteriorating quality of life our city faces today.” Corruption, Mr. Cuomo knows. But Ms. Sword’s conclusion suggests how thin the moderate side of the bench is in the Democratic Party.On February 15, a former state comptroller, Carl McCall, issued a formal letter urging Mr. Cuomo to run. That, though, is hardly a sign Black Democrats are united for Mr. Cuomo. Mr. McCall is 89 years old and far from the party’s standard-bearer.The nonprofit group United for a Better Tomorrow already is running radio ads claiming that Mr. Cuomo is nothing but a fair-weather friend to Blacks, citing the times he deprecated President Obama and Mr. McCall.Last September, Representative Elise Stefanik grilled Mr. Cuomo during a congressional hearing over the “multimillion-dollar” advance on his self-glorifying book. She asked him to stand up and apologize to the families in the room whose loved ones died from Covid-19 in the nursing homes. Mr. Cuomo refused.“There is a reason you are the former governor of New York State,” Ms. Stefanik seethed. “You will never hold elected office again.”That depends on how much New York voters choose to remember.Creators.com

Cuomo’s Chances for Mayor Depend on Voters’ Memories of Why the Ex-Governor Was Forced From Office

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