In declaring his candidacy for mayor of New York, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo painted an image of a metropolis in bother, besieged by crime, homelessness and menace, above and under floor. For all these issues, he blamed a central wrongdoer: the failed management of the Democratic Occasion, of which he has been a fixture for many of his grownup life.
As he assailed the social gathering’s progressive wing for calling for the defunding of police departments, and Democrats usually for failing to curb homelessness, it was clear that Mr. Cuomo had a wider viewers in thoughts than voters within the metropolis’s mayoral main election in June.
In a 17-minute video posted on Saturday, Mr. Cuomo invoked an extended record of Democratic presidents — together with one well-known Democrat who by no means sought the White Home himself however provided a forceful protection of liberalism on the peak of Reagan Republicanism.
“F.D.R., John Kennedy, L.B.J., Mario Cuomo, Invoice Clinton, Barack Obama taught us what it meant to have a real progressive authorities: It wasn’t about rhetoric, however outcomes,” Mr. Cuomo mentioned. “They targeted on points that mattered to folks of their day-to-day lives, points that have been related to them, after which they really made life higher for folks. And that’s what Democrats should do as soon as once more.”
Providing himself up as the newest in a line of long-admired leaders of the social gathering, together with his father the three-term governor, is a part of Mr. Cuomo’s effort to redeem his personal popularity. His standing was battered by accusations of sexual harassment that pressured him from workplace and by questions on his administration of New York State through the coronavirus pandemic.
The non-public hurdles that Mr. Cuomo faces may show to be insurmountable: The state lawyer basic concluded that he sexually harassed practically a dozen ladies, allegations that he denies. New Yorkers may deny him a second likelihood.
However as he kicked off his bid, the digs towards the management of his social gathering amounted to an effort to insert himself right into a extra summary however nonetheless pressing debate over the way forward for the nationwide Democratic Occasion.
It’s a battle that has been effervescent beneath the floor since Donald J. Trump received the White Home final fall and Democrats discovered themselves powerless in Washington.
In his opening video, Mr. Cuomo addressed the unsure political local weather and steered that the nation look to its largest metropolis — and his management — for solutions.
“At the moment, when the nation is looking for its soul, divided as by no means earlier than, questioning our democratic values, questioning the very function of presidency and the stability of energy, New York should present the way in which ahead and remind the nation of who we’re,” Mr. Cuomo mentioned within the video.
“New York says that we will’t run from one another,” he added, “however fairly we should flip in direction of one another.”
Mr. Cuomo, 67, has by no means been wanting ego or ambition. Earlier than he was derailed by scandal, he deliberate on looking for a fourth time period as governor, an achievement that had eluded his father, and he confronted perennial questions on his oft-denied presidential ambitions.
Whereas his marketing campaign is new, Mr. Cuomo’s message about failed progressive management is just not. He spent a lot of his third time period as governor casting his social gathering’s energized left flank as a political foil — when he wasn’t making an attempt to say credit score for its good points. “I’m the left,” he mentioned in 2019, after attacking progressive lawmakers in his state.
Within the new video, Mr. Cuomo’s critique targeted on what he mentioned was the Democratic Occasion’s failure to resolve folks’s most urgent issues — affordability and public security chief amongst them.
“The founding premise of a progressive Democratic Occasion is all about serving working women and men,” he mentioned, “however the merciless irony is they’re those now paying the very best worth for New York’s failed Democratic management.”
A victory within the New York mayor’s race would most likely catapult Mr. Cuomo again to nationwide prominence. A few of his supporters say they may see him even utilizing it as a springboard to nationwide workplace.
Different Democrats discover that laughable. They spotlight Mr. Cuomo’s selective retelling of his personal political historical past, which omitted the investigations of his administration’s obvious efforts to hide Covid deaths at nursing properties and his elimination as governor of money bail for a lot of crimes, which some Democrats argue contributed to an increase in crime.
“The concept that he’s the competent grownup within the room who will run on center-left insurance policies — there’s rather a lot to be desired there,” mentioned Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for New Yorkers for Higher Management, a brilliant PAC set as much as oppose Mr. Cuomo. “He provides a template for politicians making an attempt to beat scandal, however I don’t assume a celebration seeking a message can look to Andrew Cuomo.”
Mr. Cuomo additionally provided himself up as an skilled govt who may present New Yorkers that authorities “can truly work and get issues executed — massive, arduous, vital issues — and get them executed properly.”
It’s an argument that echoes the ambition, if not the supply, of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who hoped to revive religion in authorities by enacting insurance policies that improved People’ lives.
In fact, throughout Mr. Biden’s tenure, Democrats have been in a position to keep a fragile peace between their centrist and left-wing factions for the sake of passing an formidable legislative agenda. Now that they’re locked out of federal energy, all the pieces from their coverage positions to their political technique is all of the sudden up for debate.
In addressing policing, housing costs and homelessness, Mr. Cuomo sided decisively with Democratic moderates who would really like the social gathering to emphasise regulation and order.
“To me, the founding premise of a progressive Democratic Occasion is all about serving working women and men, however the merciless irony is they’re those now paying the very best worth for New York’s failed Democratic management,” he mentioned. “This isn’t progressive coverage, however in reality regressive coverage.”
As the brand new Trump administration pushes a right-wing agenda at head-spinning velocity, Democrats have quarreled over how aggressively they need to struggle again. Whereas some have argued to select their pictures and even, because the strategist James Carville steered, to “roll over and play lifeless,” youthful, extra liberal lawmakers are pushing the social gathering to oppose the president’s complete agenda.
“Loads of Democrats assume possibly it is best to struggle each third day, it is best to reserve your energy and leap out of the bushes on the proper second,” Senator Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who has emerged as a number one exponent of fierce Democratic pushback, mentioned Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” mocking that cautious strategy. “We have now to be on the offensive 24-7.”
Mr. Cuomo, against this, has notably declined to criticize Mr. Trump — a “conspicuous silence,” in line with State Senator Zellnor Myrie, certainly one of his opponents, that’s notably totally different from the powerful tone he took towards the president through the pandemic. In his video, he struck a notice nearly of collegiality.
“I’ll cooperate and collaborate on any and each stage,” he mentioned in his announcement video. “I’ve labored with President Trump in many various conditions. And I hope President Trump remembers his hometown, and works with us to make it higher.”
In terms of New York Metropolis, Mr. Cuomo appeared to hope that the president would let bygones be bygones to kind a brand new relationship.
He’s clearly hoping that town’s voters will do the identical.
