Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reportedly weighing a political comeback, considering a campaign against Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat who replaced him in the governor’s mansion after he resigned amid a scandal in which a number of his former aides accused him of sexual harassment.
CNBC reported that Cuomo allies have been conducting internal voter polling on a hypothetical race against Hochul, as well as other steps signaling a possible campaign.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is running for governor of the Empire State as a Republican, told the Washington Examiner, “There’s no way that Andrew Cuomo can erase the pain, suffering and damage he wreaked on the State of New York.”
“Whether it was his fatally flawed nursing home policy and subsequent cover up that robbed us of lives and justice, his administration’s COVID-19 testing scandal, his $5.1 million self-congratulatory book deal written by taxpayer funded staff, or the rampant abuse and corruption that became the hallmark of his administration, New Yorkers will never forget,” Zeldin said. “We’ll make sure of it.”
A recent poll by the Hill and Emerson College found that should Cuomo enter the Democratic primary, he would trail Hochul by just 4 percentage points.
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Hochul is up for reelection in 2022 after coming into office just last year following Cuomo’s resignation. Democrats largely coalesced around Hochul after state Attorney General Letitia James decided to run for her current office again, though she still faces a primary challenge from Rep. Tom Suozzi. But the poll suggests Cuomo would be a formidable challenger for Hochul.
Yet the same survey found that 59% of New York voters trusted the findings of a report by James, which said Cuomo “violated federal and state law” in his treatment of aides — claims Cuomo has denied.
Cuomo also faces questions about how his administration handled nursing home deaths amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a state audit estimating that his administration failed to account for these deaths by as much as 50% during the height of the crisis. Cuomo issued a directive as governor prohibiting nursing homes from turning patients with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis away, which critics said increased outbreaks and deaths in some facilities.
Jay Jacobs, chairman of the New York Democratic Party, told CNBC in an email that “I think it would be a bad mistake” for Cuomo to attempt a comeback bid.
Richard Azzopardi, Cuomo’s spokesman, told CNBC it is important to the former governor and his family “that the record get set straight and efforts to rewrite history don’t succeed.”
“As he has said all along, he has thoughts and opinions about the direction of this state and the Democratic Party as a whole, and he won’t hesitate to make them known,” Azzopardi said.
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Should Cuomo attempt a comeback bid, he would have just weeks to gain the necessary signatures to seek the Democratic nomination before an April deadline. Running as an independent would grant him additional time, with a deadline at the end of May.
