NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo launched a comeback bid Saturday by portray a dismal portrait of a New York Metropolis in decline and pledging to show issues round if elected mayor.
By Monday, practically all of his rivals had the identical response: Cuomo is accountable for a lot of what ails the nation’s most populous metropolis. They stated he broken mass transit and housing applications as governor in his want to exert authority over former Mayor Invoice de Blasio.
With that line of assault, Cuomo’s Democratic opponents are trying to undermine the previous governor’s ties to town in addition to one in all his largest property: his self-styling as a reliable supervisor prepared to wash up Gotham.
These rivals, who had been ready for this weekend’s late entry into the race, are hoping to attraction to voters who worth real New York bona fides — like driving the subway to work — and consider they reveal authenticity.
His critics are additionally noting that his decadelong tenure in Albany coincided with a surging homeless inhabitants throughout town and an more and more ramshackle mass transit system — questioning whether or not he’s dedicated to enhancing town or simply looking for vindication from the scandals that led to his resignation in 2021.
“Being mayor might assist Andrew Cuomo, however it gained’t do a rattling factor for New Yorkers,” stated Scott Stringer, a former metropolis comptroller and mayoral candidate, in a video released by his marketing campaign.
Cuomo’s yearslong feud with de Blasio, cuts to public help applications and dealing with of mass transit coverage turned fast fodder for opponents, who argued his pursuit of energy was to the detriment of metropolis residents. They’ll all face off within the Democratic major June 24.
An excellent PAC led by a former de Blasio staffer intensified these barbs and, in a pointed rebuke of Cuomo’s affordability platform unveiled Monday, blasted his penchant for “showy initiatives” like a bridge gentle present — as an alternative of merely fixing the dilapidated subway automobiles.
Fueling the skepticism is the Queens native’s comparatively new re-conversion as a metropolis resident: After residing for years in suburban Westchester County and the governor’s mansion in Albany, he registered to vote final summer season at a Manhattan address.
“Altering your voter registration doesn’t imply you perceive what it’s wish to be an actual New Yorker,” stated Jasmine Gripper, co-director of the Working Households Celebration, which has lengthy battled the previous governor and might be screening mayoral candidates Sunday.
The assaults are an implicit recognition that it’s Cuomo — not the scandal-scarred Mayor Eric Adams operating for reelection — who is taken into account the front-runner within the race.
Cuomo spokesperson Wealthy Azzopardi scoffed on the criticism.
“New York Metropolis is in disaster, and we want a severe, confirmed chief who can get the job completed,” he stated. “As a substitute of assembly the second these anonymous, faceless politicians — a few of whom have been in workplace for the reason that 90s — are flailing round making an attempt to rewrite historical past as a result of they haven’t any actual data of their very own aside from bear hugging excessive DSA rhetoric and chopping $1 billion from the NYPD price range.”
Cuomo has additionally been in public life for many years as effectively.
Azzopardi credited Cuomo with main infrastructure initiatives just like the Moynihan Practice Corridor and Kosciuszko Bridge whereas “delivering progress the place Washington failed” on gun management, paid household depart, abortion rights and tax cuts.
The previous governor’s fights with de Blasio, disputes over who controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (the governor does) and choices round reasonably priced housing applications have created a costlier metropolis, his opponents alleged. A lot of the criticism stems from Cuomo’s personal self-acknowledged micromanaging and the inherent energy a governor wields over metropolis insurance policies.
Cuomo was blamed by critics for the deterioration of mass transit infrastructure and his administration faulted for what critics thought of frivolous bills, like greater than $200 million on a multicolored gentle present that was meant to be a vacationer attraction. It was in line with the governor’s affection for glitzy initiatives, like the favored overhaul of LaGuardia Airport.
“It was Cuomo’s grave mismanagement and carelessness that introduced us the ‘summer season of hell’ the place the subway system was so abominable, there have been 70,000 delays a month, inflicting misplaced wages from tardiness and missed medical appointments,” stated mayoral candidate Brad Lander, town comptroller.
Cuomo’s marketing campaign asserted the previous governor’s administration “made an historic state dedication to the capital plan” of $8.3 billion in 2015 whereas he was governor and credited Cuomo with making certain metropolis and MTA funding commitments for the plan.
The criticisms of Cuomo’s oversight of town date additional again.
Because the state was going through important price range gaps, Cuomo reduce $65 million in 2011 in annual funding for a rental help program generally known as Benefit, for folks exiting metropolis homeless shelters. Then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg ended the initiative because of this, one thing consultants cite as a number one cause homelessness spiked within the metropolis within the following years.
“You may blame Bloomberg for not doing extra having been cheated out of all this cash, however the particular person doing all of the dishonest was Andrew Cuomo,” stated Joshua Goldfein, an lawyer centered on homelessness on the Authorized Assist Society.
The homeless census instantly surged: Between March 2011, when this system was suspended, and the tip of 2013, town’s shelter inhabitants elevated by 35 %. There are presently 84,843 folks sleeping in municipal shelters, in line with the Division of Homeless Providers’ each day census.
Azzopardi known as the declare “false and lazy” and pointed to alternative applications that had extra funding than the preliminary $59 million. These had been focused to older New Yorkers and other people with disabilities and HIV/AIDS.
Cuomo — federal housing secretary for former President Invoice Clinton — acknowledged town’s homelessness disaster in his launch video. Throughout his 17-minute handle, he described a troubling feeling “whenever you stroll down the road and check out to not make eye contact with a mentally ailing homeless particular person, or when the anxiousness rises up in your likelihood as you’re strolling down into the subway.”
As town struggled to curtail road homelessness, Cuomo additionally oversaw a discount in psychiatric beds, which dropped by 11 % between 2014 and 2022 — one yr after he resigned from workplace.
“Now we hear him speaking about how New York Metropolis is in disaster and we have to involuntarily take away folks from the streets — effectively, there’s no beds to place folks in as a result of Cuomo defunded them,” Goldfein stated.
Azzopardi argued the state diminished solely “non-forensic beds” — leaving these reserved for folks with extreme psychological diseases in place. And Cuomo’s administration pushed to develop 20,000 supportive housing models — flats with social providers included — to deal with the issue, spending $2.6 billion for the hassle over 5 years, Azzopardi stated.
Rivals moreover slammed Cuomo’s efforts to scale back the variety of federal housing bonds obtainable to town and alter how the bonds might be used — a transfer that may have hindered town’s reasonably priced housing efforts. This system was a coverage precedence for de Blasio, Cuomo’s political nemesis.
He didn’t undergo with the risk, however Lander, town’s comptroller, cited it for instance of “pissing matches, self-aggrandizement and fear-mongering” that he stated outlined Cuomo’s time in workplace.
“That is somebody who’s in it for his ego, not the issue of New Yorkers,” Lander, who’s operating for mayor, stated Sunday in what he dubbed an “emergency press convention” concerning Cuomo’s entry into the race.
