Nearly all the men and women running to be New York City’s next mayor came together on Sunday to urge voters not to support the candidates’ shared opponent, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
The group — which ranged in ideology from Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, to Curtis Sliwa, a Republican — gathered to mark the fifth anniversary of a New York State Department of Health order, issued while Mr. Cuomo was governor, that directed nursing homes to readmit hospital patients who had tested positive for the coronavirus. The order, patients’ families and lawmakers have said, contributed to thousands of Covid-related deaths among nursing home residents in the state.
For Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who resigned in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal, continued scrutiny of his pandemic response and his administration’s efforts to conceal the true death toll in nursing homes was a political millstone even before he entered the mayor’s race. He has sharply defended his handling of the crisis and has called the criticism politically motivated.
On Sunday, nine mayoral candidates stood on a street in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood in front of a memorial wall that displayed photos of nursing home residents who died during the Covid crisis. Each candidate said that they were not attending for political reasons, while taking the opportunity to criticize the former governor, who is leading in the polls. The event was organized by families who have long called for Mr. Cuomo to apologize and take responsibility for their relatives’ deaths.
“This is not about partisan politics, but it is about accountability,” said Brad Lander, the city comptroller who is running in the Democratic primary in June. “It is not too much to ask Andrew Cuomo to meet with families.”
Mr. Sliwa said: “Look at the extraordinary array of people behind me. Could any other issue bring us all together with the differences that we have? No — it’s the death, the unneeded death, of all these folks who were trusting the governor to do the right thing.”
Several of Mr. Cuomo’s opponents have made clear that they will try to stem his momentum by highlighting the sexual harassment allegations against him, which he denies, as well as his handling of nursing home deaths and ethical issues during his time as governor.
On Sunday, most of them took the opportunity. In addition to Mr. Lander, Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Sliwa, five Democrats attended: Adrienne Adams, Michael Blake, Zellnor Myrie, Jessica Ramos and Scott Stringer. Jim Walden, who is running as an independent, was also present. The only candidates who did not attend were Whitney Tilson, a Democrat, and the embattled incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, a Democrat who has said that Mr. Cuomo needs to explain his response to nursing home deaths.
Mr. Cuomo’s critics have focused on a July 2020 state Health Department report regarding nursing homes, which they have called inaccurate and have said deflected blame for the deaths away from the governor. In 2021, New York State’s attorney general, Letitia James, found that Mr. Cuomo’s administration had undercounted coronavirus-related deaths of nursing home patients by the thousands. Mr. Cuomo, who has said the March 2020 order and the state’s other public health policies adhered to federal guidelines, called the lack of transparency a mistake but denied that his decisions were politically motivated.
Last year, a Republican-led House subcommittee held hearings on New York’s early pandemic response, ultimately faulting Mr. Cuomo for his involvement in altering the Health Department report with edits that suggested other reasons Covid might have spread in the homes. The panel referred him to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, accusing him of lying to Congress.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, rejected the allegations on Sunday and said that there was no evidence that the March 2020 order caused additional deaths. He pointed to a report from the inspector general earlier this year, which found that Trump administration officials violated Justice Department rules in 2020 by sharing with reporters details of an investigation into coronavirus deaths at nursing homes in New York and other Democratic-run states. The report, Mr. Azzopardi said, showed that families’ pain had been “weaponized and politicized for purely electoral purposes for years.”
“We give New Yorkers more credit — they see right through these political games,” Mr. Azzopardi said.
The event on Sunday was held in front of the home of Norman Arbeeny, who, according to his family, died from Covid at a Cobble Hill nursing home. Mr. Arbeeny’s relatives have blamed the March 2020 order for his death and, along with another family, sued Mr. Cuomo. A federal judge dismissed their wrongful-death suit last year.
Mr. Azzopardi disputed the families’ claims, saying that the evidence shows “there could be no possible link between the D.O.H. guidance and the passing of their loved ones.”
On Sunday, Mr. Arbeeny’s son Peter Arbeeny implored Mr. Cuomo to speak with his family in person.
“You need to face us and apologize,” he said. “If you’re going to lead, you have to lead for all of us, and that means even if we are critics of you.”
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