Throughout his long political career, Eric Adams seemed to float effortlessly above a constant drumbeat of reports questioning his ethical conduct. Just before he won the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in 2021, an aide predicted the city would come to appreciate him as a “lovable rogue.”
Now Mr. Adams’s flirtation with trouble has sent his mayoralty into a tailspin and has opened the door to the mind-bending possibility of a comeback by another tarnished leader. There is a plausible scenario in which Andrew Cuomo runs and wins election as New York’s next mayor.
The former governor — who resigned in 2021 in the wake of sexual harassment allegations and intense criticism over his handling of the Covid pandemic — has reportedly been weighing a run for mayor for months, and he is very likely gaming out his chances of winning if Mr. Adams manages to remain in office and seeks re-election. If Mr. Cuomo chooses to run, one spectacle in New York politics will be followed by another.
A Cuomo candidacy would turn a municipal rite into a morality tale, with elements of disgrace, redemption and revenge. Mr. Cuomo would be running not just to restore his honor but also his family name. Ultimately, it would ask New Yorkers to decide what they are willing to look past to fix the city.
A Marist poll last week found that 48 percent of Democrats in New York City favor Mr. Cuomo running in next year’s election and 52 percent are opposed. Many voters would doubtlessly find his actions in office so repugnant that they would not even consider his candidacy. Others seem open to the argument.
I’m not a partisan of Mr. Cuomo’s, but I believe there’s a compelling reason he should run. Whether he deserves to win is another question altogether. (Full disclosure: I declined an offer by Mr. Cuomo to join his administration about a decade ago.)
In my years as a New York political reporter, I was fascinated with the city’s affinity for flawed but effective leaders. New Yorkers have a history, especially during troubled times, of overlooking a lot to elect a mayor promising to get the place under control.
A public desperate for order on the streets elected Rudy Giuliani twice in the 1990s despite his ruthless, sometimes vicious behavior. In 2021, many voters looked past warnings about Mr. Adams’s honesty because he pledged to bring down crime.
If Mr. Cuomo runs next year, he will surely position himself as a man who can bring control to a city facing disorder in the streets and other public spaces and an administration awash in investigations and resignations. Voters will be forced to explore their feelings about not only him but the #MeToo and Covid eras as well.
Mr. Cuomo resigned under pressure in August 2021 in the wake of a damning report by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, that alleged he sexually harassed multiple women. The accusations ranged from groping and inappropriate comments to fostering a toxic work environment.
Mr. Cuomo has denied that he had touched anyone inappropriately, and he pointed out that five district attorneys declined to prosecute him — though several found some allegations against him credible.
In the years since his resignation, Mr. Cuomo and his former aides have worked feverishly to restore his reputation, challenging the allegations against him and seeking to attack his accusers’ credibility in depositions. If he runs, his opponents and the news media will without question reprise the details of the case, effectively turning New Yorkers into a jury tasked with weighing Mr. Cuomo’s actions and decide whether their desire for a competent mayor transcends his sins.
Mr. Cuomo is an unusual #MeToo-era protagonist; unlike many other famous men canceled for their behavior, he rarely expresses contrition or asks forgiveness. He has apologized for acting “in a way that made people feel uncomfortable.” In his resignation speech, he portrayed himself as a victim of changing societal mores rather than as the predator his victims described. “There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have,” he said.
It has been seven years since The New York Times published its exposé of Harvey Weinstein and helped start a national reckoning over sexual harassment. Famous men from Matt Lauer to Charlie Rose experienced epic falls. But questions about the length and type of punishment for such figures have never been resolved. Louis C.K., who admitted in 2017 to sexual misconduct, is back selling out theaters. Others, such as Mr. Lauer, are far off the public radar.
The issue is even murkier in politics. Al Franken has expressed interest in running for office again but hasn’t taken steps toward it. If Mr. Cuomo runs for mayor, he will test the limits of an electorate’s forgiveness.
The sexual harassment uproar was not the only disaster marking his last months in office. At virtually the same time that women were coming forward with allegations of mistreatment, a stream of reports surfaced that he and his administration had grossly mishandled the Covid crisis and covered up their actions.
As nursing home deaths skyrocketed during the early days of the pandemic, questions mounted about a State Health Department advisory in March 2020 prohibiting nursing homes from turning away medically stable Covid patients returning from hospitals. Mr. Cuomo argued that the order followed federal guidelines.
Besieged with accusations that the administration caused thousands to die unnecessarily, the Health Department released a report four months later minimizing the impact of the order and attributing the spread to nursing home staffs. But it soon became clear that Mr. Cuomo and his staff manipulated the report, undercounting the death toll by over 4,000.
Last month, a Republican-led congressional inquiry into the matter produced emails that appeared to catch Mr. Cuomo in a lie: After he insisted that he had never seen the report before it was released, the emails indicated that he not only had read it, but had edited it.
Mr. Cuomo’s history of bullying was brought into stark relief by the two scandals. His administration’s intimidation tactics were legendary in Albany, and some people paid a high price for getting in his way. “We operate on two speeds here,” his then-top aide, Steve Cohen, reportedly once said. “Get along, and kill.” Many staffers complained that Mr. Cuomo regularly berated and belittled them.
In February 2021, a Queens assemblyman, Ron Kim, criticized another Cuomo aide, Melissa DeRosa, who had apologized privately to Democratic lawmakers in the state for withholding nursing home death toll data. Later, Mr. Kim told CNN that the governor called him at home and threatened to “destroy” him as a result of that criticism, according to Mr. Kim. (Mr. Cuomo’s spokesman denied he threatened him.)
For years, many voters didn’t show much concern over whether the governor employed brutal practices to achieve his goals as long as victories kept coming. But the furor surrounding Mr. Cuomo’s alleged treatment of women turned his behavior into a liability, and he found himself with few friends to defend him. He resigned rather than face likely impeachment.
While such a tumultuous history would derail most candidates seeking a comeback, Mr. Cuomo is in a league of his own. He was elected three times as governor, an effective leader with considerable accomplishments to his name. Because of his sudden fall from power, he has not been around to receive the accolades he deserved for the renaissance of some of our most important public spaces.
He is a major reason La Guardia Airport has been transformed from one of the longest-running punchlines in New York to a glistening, architecturally joyful transit hub; why Manhattan’s James A. Farley Building now houses the magnificent Moynihan Train Hall after years of bureaucratic and financial delays; why stretches of Penn Station are now airy and bright instead of gloomy and menacing; why the Second Avenue subway, another old punchline, is gradually becoming a reality.
Mr. Cuomo had a mastery over state government that eclipsed that of his modern predecessors; he won battles they couldn’t, most notably the passage of the landmark gay marriage law. His success raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, and winning the passage of some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, were milestone accomplishments. His record of success and aura of competence are formidable assets.
If he runs for mayor, he will no doubt focus on the future and try to avoid addressing his chaotic downfall. There will most likely be no narrative of a journey of introspection, remorse and personal growth to offer potential supporters seeking a rationale to forgive him.
History, however, has presented Mr. Cuomo with an opportunity. The city is in the midst of a shaky recovery from the pandemic. Crime is finally receding, but fear of disorder in the streets and subways remains widespread. Homelessness is at a two-decade high. Office towers still stand half-empty. Migrants are arriving in the city by the tens of thousands, and the city doesn’t seem to have a plan. Two-thirds of New York City’s likely voters believe that the city is going in the wrong direction. The man in charge of solving these problems is under indictment. It’s a good environment for a strong leader looking for a job.
Anyone questioning the potential for a Cuomo resurrection might consider Mr. Giuliani’s 1997 re-election campaign for mayor. In his first term in office he had bullied a legion of adversaries and ruined the reputations of many who had crossed him. He had thrown hundreds of thousands of people off welfare and disparaged virtually every Black leader in the city. Yet an overwhelmingly Democratic city gave this divisive Republican leader a landslide victory over Ruth Messinger, his liberal Democratic opponent, because he had brought a spiraling metropolis under control and restored order to the streets. Many voters cared far less about his authoritarian methods or even his character.
In the end, Mr. Cuomo’s accumulated problems, and the moral gymnastics needed to look beyond them, may prove too exhausting for voters and send them in search of a fresh face. The four prominent Democrats who are already challenging Mr. Adams are proudly left-leaning. But the city has serious problems that won’t be solved by ideology — a lot of New Yorkers just want to have a safe subway ride home. While the race may well become a referendum on Mr. Cuomo, part of that calculus would be what kind of leader the city actually needs. And that’s where I think his candidacy would have value.
If Mr. Cuomo enters the contest, it could transform the election into something more significant than a mere ideological battle. His extensive track record of accomplishment could force his opponents to move beyond tired left-right debates and focus on the issue of competence, ultimately producing a better mayor.
And should no one outmatch Mr. Cuomo, the former governor may become our future mayor, another in a long line of flawed men with the potential to get the city under control.
This may be the best, and possibly only, opportunity Mr. Cuomo will ever have to persuade the public to forgive his mistakes and restore him to high office. A twist of fate in the form of Eric Adams’s imploding mayoralty has created a moment for him to meet. The question is whether the public feels it needs him as much as he thinks it does.
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