By Michael V. Cusenza
Queens native and disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo made it official this week: he’s running for mayor.
Cuomo released an 18-minute video on social media detailing why he wants to lead what he has characterized as a wayward Gotham.
“[W]e know that the first step toward solving a problem is having the strength, having the courage to recognize it,” he said. “And we know today our New York City is in trouble. You feel it when you walk down the street and try not to make eye contact with a mentally ill homeless person; or when the anxiety rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway; you see it in the empty storefronts, the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence. The city just feels threatening, out of control, and in crisis. These conditions exist not as an act of God, but rather as an act of our political leaders, or more precisely, the lack of intelligent action by many of our political leaders.”
Many pundits have already pinned frontrunner on Cuomo’s chest. Still, he faces an uphill battle.
Governor Cuomo resigned in August 2021, announcing in a long, defiant speech that he would be stepping down after a report released by the State Attorney General’s Office concluded that Cuomo did sexually harass multiple women — including former and current State employees — by engaging in unwanted groping, kissing, and hugging, and making inappropriate comments.
“Now, you know me—I’m a New Yorker, born and bred,” Cuomo, who raised in Hollis, said at the time. “I am a fighter, and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because I truly believe it is politically motivated. I believe it is unfair and it is untruthful, and I believe that it demonizes behavior that is unsustainable for society. If I could communicate the facts through the frenzy, New Yorkers would understand. I believe that, but when I took my oath as governor, then it changed. I became a fighter, but I became a fighter for you, and it is your best interests that I must serve. This situation by its current trajectory will generate months of political and legal controversy. That is what is going to happen. That is how the political wind is blowing. It will consume government. It will cost taxpayers millions of dollars. It will brutalize people.
State Attorney General Tish James also said in 2021 that the Executive Chamber fostered a “toxic” workplace that enabled “harassment to occur and created a hostile work environment.” The investigators found that Cuomo’s actions and those of the Executive Chamber violated multiple state and federal laws, as well as the Executive Chamber’s own written policies.
“This is a sad day for New York because independent investigators have concluded that Governor Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and, in doing so, broke the law,” James added. “I am grateful to all the women who came forward to tell their stories in painstaking detail, enabling investigators to get to the truth. No man — no matter how powerful — can be allowed to harass women or violate our human rights laws, period.”
