Andrew Cuomo is currently fighting for his political life after becoming engulfed in a sexual harassment scandal.
But this is not the first time the three-term Democratic governor has faced similar obstacles.
Since taking office in 2011, Cuomo has frequently been mired in scandal in a state with a history of corruption. His administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and the snowballing sexual harassment allegations are only the latest in a long line.
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Here are five other scandals that have threatened Cuomo’s grip on New York.
1. The Mario Cuomo Bridge
When the rickety Tappan Zee Bridge needed replacement in 2015, Cuomo spearheaded efforts for the new structure. Much to the chagrin of some New Yorkers, he named it after his father, former Gov. Mario Cuomo. The new structure opened in 2017 and cost nearly $4 billion.
A report in the Albany Times Union this week found that the bridge has “structural safety” issues and could be in danger of collapse. The company contracted to build the bridge, the report found, had covered up the fact that some of the bolts holding the bridge together were poorly made. New York Republicans this week called for an investigation into the matter after the state came under fire for not keeping closer watch over the project.
2. The Buffalo Billion
Cuomo, in his first term, pledged more than $1 billion to revitalize infrastructure in post-industrial western New York cities. The governor named Alain Kaloyeros, founder of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, to be the state’s “secret weapon” in implementing the project. Kaloyeros soon came under federal scrutiny for his flashy lifestyle and boasts of connections to the governor.
In 2018, Kaloyeros was sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in a complicated bid-rigging scandal in which he had steered more than $850 million in building contracts to Cuomo’s political allies. The two top firms implicated, LPCiminelli and COR Development, were major Cuomo campaign donors.
After Kaloyeros’s sentencing, Cuomo distanced himself from his former ally.
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3. The Joe Percoco fiasco
When Cuomo took office in 2011, he brought with him an aide his father had described as a “third son.” Percoco was Cuomo’s enforcer and, in 2018, was found guilty of bribery and fraud, as well as threatening senior members of government. Cuomo, who had lavished praise on Percoco in the past, called his conviction “a profoundly sad situation for me personally.”
Percoco, like Kaloyeros, was deeply involved in the “Buffalo Billion” scandal.
4. The New York City subway system
Cuomo throughout his tenure has frequently bickered with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio about control over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state-run entity that manages the New York City subway system. Cuomo, in 2017, claimed he had no responsibility for the subway, after a series of breakdowns that same year.
But Cuomo frequently used the subway issue to assert control over de Blasio. Andy Byford, the man whom the governor hired to oversee the trains, described Cuomo’s micromanaging style after quitting: “I just would not accept the fact that my people were being yelled at, they were being given direction, and I was deliberately excluded from those meetings,” he said of Cuomo.
5. Coronavirus deaths in nursing homes
Although it has been overshadowed by Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal, Cuomo’s mishandling of the coronavirus in nursing homes last March was what kicked off this fresh round of government scrutiny. Throughout 2020, reports dribbled out of Albany that Cuomo’s office had covered up the death count in nursing homes to bolster his public image.
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These uncounted deaths, which were the result of a short-lived policy forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19-positive patients, became the subject of a scandal that blew up early this year. A January report from New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo may have undercounted nursing home deaths by up to 50%.
Both the FBI and the Biden Justice Department in February revealed that they were investigating Cuomo after an aide admitted that the governor’s office had intentionally fudged the numbers to prevent the high death count from being “used against us.” The Wall Street Journal later found that Cuomo’s office had not “froze” nursing home death counting but that it had actually kept the accurate data on record, altering the numbers in its official reports.
