Are you tired of tariff talk? Are you dozing over DOGE? Does a 25 hour Senate filibuster have you flummoxed?
Then how about delving into some New York City mayoral primary election minutiae? After all, in less than three months, New York City, the nation’s largest and most important city, will hold its Democratic primary for mayor. Usually, because NYC is still so heavily blue, the outcome of that primary wins in November.
But could that change this year? More on that a bit later.
Here’s what the field of announced Dems looks like:
- NYC Council President Adrienne Adams
- NYC Comptroller Brad Lander
- NYS Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani
- NYS Senator Zelnor Myrie
- NYS Senator Jessica Ramos
- Former NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer
- Former NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo
Basically it’s New York’s version of the squad on one side, and a former, control-freak, some say bully, disgraced governor on the other.
You can certainly tell a lot about a candidate by the company they keep.
- The New York Working Families Party endorsed Adrienne Adams, Lander, Mamdani and Myrie.
- Mamdani also got the endorsement of Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who said she and Mamdani would be united against the “facist regime” in Washington.
- Scott Stringer was endorsed by Congressman Jerry Nadler.
- Zelnor Myrie was endorsed by the New York City Democratic Socialists of America.
- Jessica Ramos got an endorsement from the New York Progressive Action Network.
- Andrew Cuomo was endorsed by Congressmen Ritchie Torres and Gregory Meeks.
Are you getting the picture?
Does all this make you yearn for the days of Bill de Blasio? No? How about Mike Bloomberg, at least his first two terms? Can you say Rudy Giuliani? Okay, I won’t push it.
When you look at each candidate individually, in isolation, the choices are sub optimal. Okay, they suck.
Most of them are too progressive, and we’ve seen how badly progressive Democrats govern major American cities. Have you been to Chicago and Los Angeles lately?
Some are outright socialists or on the cusp of becoming one.
Coupled with the know-nothings and socialists in the New York State legislature, they could ruin New York for years to come.
And then, there’s Andrew Mark Cuomo.
As governor, he was accused of sending thousands of elderly people to their deaths when he forced nursing homes to take in COVID patients straight from the hospital. Cuomo says the feds made him do it. Uh-huh.
He was forced to quit the governorship amidst sexual misconduct allegations. Numerous allegations. At least 11 women, according to the New York State attorney general.
He denied all of it. The investigations were closed. No criminal charges were ever brought against him.
But…He certainly doesn’t lack big government experience. After all, he was governor of the State of New York for a decade.
He certainly got big construction projects done as governor. The rebuilding of LaGuardia Airport, the Second Avenue subway, the Moynihan Train Hall and let’s not forget the new Tappan Zee, er, Mario Cuomo bridge.
After being dethroned in 2021, Andrew Cuomo took some time and started to plot his return, slowly, meticulously, cunningly.
He found sympathetic audiences in Black churches, delivering speeches at Sunday services.
He knew he needed the support of New York City’s Black voters but was very careful to avoid undermining New York’s second Black mayor, Eric Adams. So, he waited for the city’s Black power brokers to pull the plug on Adams themselves, and then got their endorsements.
He knows he needed the support of the city’s Jewish voters, some of whom are still pissed at him for imperiously closing down schools and synagogues during COVID.
But Cuomo knows many Jewish voters, especially in Brooklyn and Queens, see the other candidates as either tepid or outright hostile on Israel, antisemitism and other issues that concern them.
To reinforce his Jewish cred, this past week, Cuomo spoke at an Upper West Side synagogue. In a carefully crafted speech, his basic message was, he’s absolutely, positively against antisemitism, and his opponents are either outright antisemites, or at least indifferent to the concerns of Jewish New Yorkers.
So far the polls have Cuomo leading the pack. He sits at around 40% but remember, if he doesn’t get 50% of the vote right off the bat, there is no runoff election like there used to be.
Instead, New York’s rank choice voting mishegas kicks in. Here’s how that works.
- On primary day, voters rank the candidates as their first choice, second choice, third choice, etc.
- If, after the votes are counted, no candidate is at 50% or above, the last place candidate is eliminated and those ballots go over to the voters’ second choices.
- At that point, if a candidate gets to 50% or more, the election is over.
- If no candidate still isn’t at 50%, then we do the same thing again. The lowest candidate is eliminated and those ballots go to the voters’ next choices.
Capeesh?
Cuomo would be in the driver’s seat with a big leg up in the first round, but there’s one big caveat.
Since most of the candidates challenging Cuomo are philosophically aligned and desperately want to keep him out of city hall, their endorsers will put a lot of pressure on voters not to rank Cuomo as their secondary or tertiary choice, in an effort to push one of their faves up to the 50% mark.
That strategy could push Zohran Mamdani, who’s currently polling in second place, into the top spot. Can you imagine four, possibly eight years of him as mayor?
NYC is already a hot mess. Need I describe all the city’s problems? None of the non-Cuomo’s have a clue how to run NYC with its $112 billion budget, with Republicans in control in Washington, with a weak governor, progressive D.A.’s and with a state legislature that has its head up its ass.
Yeah, Andrew Cuomo is a flawed candidate and a flawed person. Bigly. But the alternatives? Oy!
But wait, what about the guy who’s living in Gracie Mansion right now? I think. What about Eric Adams?
This past week, as a judge dismissed all the corruption charges against him, hizzoner declared he would not run in the Democratic primary but would take a shot at another four years of chaotic (and some say corrupt) city government, and run in the general election as an independent.
It’s not like Adams has done a bang-up job as mayor and the city’s Democrats consider him a turncoat and a Trump toady.
Another four years of Eric Adams as mayor? Unlikely.
Here’s how NYC politics works. After June 24th, if Cuomo becomes the probable next mayor, even though there are lots of people that hate his guts, they will line up in a New York minute to kiss the ring of Andrew Cuomo, the incredible comeback kid from Holliswood, Queens.