Click here to read the full article from The New Republic
Once Andrew Cuomo, the ex-governor of New York, announced that he was running for mayor of New York City, the race was his to lose. Despite having resigned in disgrace in 2021 amid a cascade of scandals, he was, and is, leading in the polls.
The counts against him are legion: Cuomo’s policies reportedly exacerbated New York’s Covid-19 death toll; he acknowledged that he withheld data on Covid-19 nursing home deaths from state lawmakers, the public, and the press; and he allegedly threatened a colleague. The state attorney general issued a report that found he had violated federal and state law in sexually harassing 11 women and retaliating against a former employee (Biden’s DOJ later found he had harassed 13). His vaccine czar reportedly linked access to the vaccine to support for the governor. The state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics corroborated allegations that he’d used state resources to produce and promote a memoir he was paid $5.1 million to write. Though he apologized for making people “feel uncomfortable,” he fought the women who said he’d harassed them tooth and nail, and his lawyers sought records from the gynecologist and therapist of at least one.
The fallout from Cuomo’s misconduct continues—in April, House Oversight Chair James Comer asked the DOJ to prosecute him for lying to Congress about his involvement in a report that undercounted Covid-19 nursing home deaths—but the headlines have subsided. Campaign finance errors cost him more than $2 million in public matching funds in April, and, after finding that he had probably unlawfully coordinated with a super PAC, the NYC Campaign Finance Board denied him an additional $622,000 in May—a figure that could rise to $1.3 million by the end of the month. None of this has dented his lead in the polls. Like his father, Mario, Cuomo was a sometimes popular three-term governor of New York, and New Yorkers know his name.
After a lifetime in politics and over a decade in the governor’s mansion, he is also a formidable fundraiser. Fix the City, the super PAC city officials believe he illegally coordinated with, has now raised more than $8.7 million—the largest amount ever raised in city elections now that outside entities can receive unlimited donations. Fix the City has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from current and former Trump backers: $250,000 from billionaire Trump fan Bill Ackman, $100,000 from an investment firm run by Trump’s onetime communications director Anthony Scaramucci, and $50,000 from GOP megadonor Ken Langone.
These sums dwarf what anti-Cuomo super PACs have been able to raise. New Yorkers for a Better New York Today, the super PAC associated with a campaign launched in February to blunt the momentum of the expected front-runner in the mayor’s race—first, New York’s current scandal-plagued Mayor Eric Adams, and now, the state’s disgraced ex-governor—has so far raised around $52,000 (most donations under $1,000 won’t be filed with the state until the end of May). That’s around 0.6 percent of what Fix the City has raised, which explains why New Yorkers for a Better New York Today’s founders jokingly call it the “world’s smallest super PAC.” Its top donor is Jews for Racial & Economic Justice’s electoral arm, The Jewish Vote, which contributed $5,000.
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Joining Rivera in his mission are the New York Working Families Party, or NYWFP, the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (of which I’m a member), and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, or JFREJ, among others. Ana Maria Archila, co-director of the NYWFP, said in a phone conversation that her organization has focused on “encouraging collaboration” among like-minded candidates “aligned with the Working Families Party agenda.” The NYWFP can’t engage in independent expenditure activity and isn’t involved with any DREAM-adjacent super PAC, but it hopes to cultivate a united anti-Cuomo front by supporting the broader effort to persuade New Yorkers not to rank him.
Alicia Singham Goodwin, JFREJ’s political director, said DREAM helps clarify how ranked-choice voting works and “makes it really clear that this election is between the left and Andrew Cuomo.” A recent NYWFP ad outlines its strategy of endorsing a slate of candidates in the mayor’s race, and ends with NYWFP co-director Jasmine Gripper exclaiming, “Rank the slate, and remember to dream!” (Even with ranked-choice voting, many are pushing for progressives to unite behind a single candidate closer to the primary. Archila said the NYWFP will announce its number one pick at the end of May.)