The talk in Democratic Party circles is that former governor Andrew Cuomo is anxious to stage a political comeback. And the office he is setting his sights on: Mayor of the City of New York.
In recent weeks, Cuomo has been testing the political waters as the incumbent, Mayor Eric Adams, is floundering.
First, he penned in early December an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, "Migrants and the Urban Death Spiral," in which he declared, "The federal government sets immigration policy. It’s outrageous to make cities shoulder the costs."
Later in the month, another Cuomo essay, "New York City, Sue Feds and State on Migrants," appeared in the New York Post.
Cuomo’s thesis: "New York City is already in a crisis dealing with a post-COVID economy, high vacancies, crime, homelessness, out migration and budget deficits.
"It cannot afford to pay the estimated $12 billion (by the fiscal year 2025’s end) in migrant care. Nor can it afford to cut essential services when quality of life is already suffering. That would only add to the 630,000 people who have left the City since COVID."
Then he came out against the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s congestion pricing for cars and trucks entering Manhattan, that he had championed in 2019. "The city," he said on Good Day New York, "doesn’t need to give people another reason—the toll—to stay away."
Frankly, Cuomo’s new pronouncements are pretty sound.
Perhaps he has "grown" since he resigned the governor’s office and has realized the sophism of the Progressive ideology he once embraced.
If Cuomo decides to enter the mayoral sweepstakes in 2025, expect him to be a formidable candidate.
Andrew knows the City like the back of his hand. He grew up in Queens County and managed his father’s 1977 campaign for mayor when he was nineteen.
Here’s the low down on that race in a nutshell:
After Gov. Hugh Carey saved the City from bankruptcy, he wanted a new mayor who had the stamina to carry out badly needed municipal reforms to restore fiscal, economic, and social sanity. Carey’s choice was his secretary of state, Mario Cuomo.
In the September 1977 Democratic Primary runoff, Mario lost to Congressman Ed Koch. However, Mario ran in the fall general election as the candidate of the Liberal Party and the Neighborhood Preservation Party (NPP). He and Andrew created the NPP to attract hardline Catholics and conservatives who would never vote on the Liberal Party line.
Although Koch beat Mario on Election Day, as a minor party candidate, he managed to get an impressive 41% of the total votes cast. The vast majority of the votes came from working-class folks — the so-called Nixon Democrats.
Longtime residents of the City’s old ethnic neighborhoods — Poles, Italians, and Irish —concerned about crime, dirty streets, and lousy schools, and feeling unwanted in a Democratic Party led by Manhattan elites who frowned upon them, came out in droves to vote for Mario.
Andrew Cuomo campaigning with his father, learned the ins and outs of those neighborhoods.
Fast forward 47 years, the new ethnics — Koreans, Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Colombians, Venezuelans, Ecuadorians — living in the outer borough neighborhoods, are facing problems similar to those in 1977.
They have had it with street violence, ever declining education standards, rampant shoplifting, rats, high taxes and essential service cutbacks.
And I am pretty certain these taxpaying, law abiding voters yearn for a champion who can effectively address their concerns and can tame the radical left-wing majority in the City council.
Andrew Cuomo could be that person.
To do so he will have to dust off the 1977 Neighborhood Preservation Party playbook, roll up his sleeves and go door to door to convince voters he will be a fight to protect their home turfs.
A Cuomo coalition of new ethnics and African Americans — with whom he has maintained good relations — could provide the 40% of the vote needed in the Democratic primary to avoid a runoff.
Farfetched?
Considering New York’s working-class voters are drowning in a tide of wasteful city spending, Andrew Cuomo might just pull it off if he has the guts to support common sense proposals that will radically restructure the way New York would govern itself.
Back in 1968, a "New Nixon" rose from the political graveyard and was elected president. Will there be a "New Cuomo" in 2025?
We’ll see.
(A related article may be found here.)
George J. Marlin, a former executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is the author of "The American Catholic Voter: Two Hundred Years of Political Impact," and "Christian Persecutions in the Middle East: A 21st Century Tragedy." Read George J. Marlin's Reports — More Here.
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