A Union That Pushed Cuomo to Resign Spends $1 Million to Elect Him

This is The Sprint for City Hall, a limited-run series on the critical Democratic primary race for mayor.

Andrew M. Cuomo, the Democratic mayoral primary’s front-runner and no stranger to million-dollar gifts, is getting another one, this time from a union. He and his rivals kicked their campaigns into a higher gear over Memorial Day weekend, with just four weeks to go until the primary and less than three before the start of early voting.

Hi, I’m Dean Chang, the editor running The New York Times’s coverage of the mayoral primary. This week’s personal observation involves Cuomo, the former governor, who said Sunday that he disliked the term “outer borough” because it implied that Manhattan was superior to the other four boroughs. Our style guide concurs. If this mayor thing doesn’t work out, might there be an editing job in his future?

In this edition of the newsletter, we’ll look at Cuomo’s leftward shift in messaging, break news about the union’s spending on his behalf and reveal who some of the other candidates say was the best mayor in their lifetimes.

The News

Cuomo’s tale of two cities

Many of the Democratic candidates have emphasized the need to address inequality in the city, and argued that the next mayor should focus on helping New Yorkers keep up with the rising costs of rent, food and transportation.

Not Cuomo. He is running on competence, citing his experience as governor and reputation as a pugnacious fighter.

His rivals have noticed. They attack him as a friend of the business class who is out of touch with the concerns of real New Yorkers. Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker and a mayoral candidate, said on Saturday that those concerns include affordability, safety and health care.

“I know that Andrew Cuomo cannot relate to my everyday situation,” she said, adding that “we are being shortchanged in communities like yours and mine.”

The very next day in the Bronx, Cuomo, in one of his regular campaign appearances at a Black church, flipped the script. He mentioned his father, Mario M. Cuomo, and his famous speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, in which he invoked “A Tale of Two Cities” to illustrate the nation’s inequality under President Reagan.

“There are two cities right here,” the younger Cuomo said Sunday, speaking at the Church of God of Prophecy. “We have the greatest wealth, and we have the greatest poverty. And we have the greatest opportunity, and we have the greatest places of despair, right here in this city.”

His comments seemed to suggest a new phase in his campaign strategy, a demonstration that he, too, can talk about inequality.

His mention of his father’s speech and its catchphrase — “a lot of people have stolen it since,” he said, perhaps in reference to Bill de Blasio — reminded me of my mother, and how she loves to talk about how the Chinese invented everything. Just don’t tell the Cuomos or, for that matter, Charles Dickens.

More news:

The current mayor, Eric Adams, is not running in the primary; he will run as an independent in November. But he is still a presence in the race, with various Democratic candidates suggesting that a Mayor Cuomo would essentially replicate Adams’s first term. Brad Lander, the city comptroller, said Cuomo would continue Adams’s “repeated assaults on working families.” Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman, said Cuomo and the mayor had “the same donors. It’s the same agenda, it’s the same corruption.” Emma Fitzsimmons, our City Hall bureau chief, has more.
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, will start rolling out his endorsements on Tuesday, naming Lander and Adrienne Adams as his top two choices. He will appear outside City Hall with them in the afternoon, and be with Mamdani, his third choice, this evening. His last two choices — the city’s ranked-choice ballot allows up to five selections — are Zellnor Myrie and Scott Stringer.
The Working Families Party staged a weekend rally on behalf of its four endorsed candidates, Adrienne Adams, Mamdani, Lander and Myrie. There were speeches, anti-Cuomo chants, and even a disruption during Mamdani’s speech by a pro-Israel demonstrator. There was also a made-for-social media moment when Chi Ossé, a progressive city councilman, orchestrated a brief “No Cuomo” bit with Mamdani, Myrie and Lander. Three of the men made a cutthroat gesture with their hands. Lander had a lower trajectory, more like a karate block.
Cuomo rode the subway. That’s a big deal for the muscle-car enthusiast.

A major push by a big union

Cuomo is already the best-funded candidate in the race. Now, his comeback attempt is getting yet another financial boost — this time from a major hotel and casino union.

The Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, which endorsed Cuomo back in April, told The Times that it plans to spend $1 million on paid advertising and canvassing for him before Primary Day.

The spending plans, which have not been previously reported, come as the hotel union rebuilds its relationship with Cuomo four years after urging him to resign as governor in the face of sexual harassment allegations. (Cuomo denied wrongdoing.)

The stakes are high. The union, which represents about 40,000 hotel and casino workers, is preparing for a major, citywide contract negotiation next year, and Cuomo would likely have considerable sway if elected mayor.

“When we endorsed him, we said Andrew Cuomo is a leader who will be in the foxhole fighting alongside our members,” said Rich Maroko, the group’s president. “Now, we’ve got his back and we’re bringing some heavy ammunition to the fight.”

The hotel workers’ union has not yet finalized the advertisements, but they are expected to include TV, digital and mail components from the union’s campaign arm, Hotel Workers for Stronger Communities. The total is similar to what the group spent supporting Eric Adams in 2021.

Cuomo is certainly not wanting for resources. Fix the City, a super PAC supporting his candidacy, has raised more than $9 million. A second outside group, Restore Sanity NYC, which does not have to disclose its donors before the election, began sending mail this month that promotes Cuomo’s platform. And Cuomo announced on Friday that his campaign had raised $3.9 million.

So far, only one other candidate in the race has benefited from a super PAC, and it is far smaller. The group, New Yorkers for Lower Costs, has raised $210,000 to help Mamdani.

— Nicholas Fandos

For a more detailed look at the candidates, go over to our Who’s Running tracker. If you want to brush up on where the nine most prominent Democrats stand on various issues, we’ve got you covered. And if you want to find stories you may have missed, our mayor’s race landing page is right here.

Wishing for a mayor like LaGuardia

We invited the leading Democratic candidates to our newsroom last week to discuss the race and their vision for the city. We’ll roll out their responses over the coming days. (Cuomo has not, as of yet, committed to an interview.) Emma Fitzsimmons has a sneak preview: she’ll tell us who each candidate picked as the best mayor in their lifetime.

Mamdani got the ball rolling by praising de Blasio, who left office with a gutter-scraping approval rating. Why? Mamdani cited universal prekindergarten, de Blasio’s signature policy.

“He created a template for what it could look like for city government to deliver on the affordability crisis in a manner that would make it easier to raise families in the city,” Mamdani said.

Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker, picked John V. Lindsay, a charismatic leader who was elected mayor as a Republican in 1965 and whose tenure had mixed reviews. She said that her parents liked him when she was growing up.

“I would hearken back to their discretion and their wisdom,” she said.

Myrie, a state senator, praised Michael R. Bloomberg as a strong manager and said that people felt safer when he was mayor.

“It’s not that I agree with every outcome, but the city was managed,” Myrie said. “There was a clear sense that whatever the vision he had in the moment, it would be executed.”

Lander and Stringer, the current and former comptroller, both dodged the question a bit, initially naming Fiorello La Guardia, who was elected in 1933 before they were born.

Lander then said that Bloomberg had managed the city best, but faulted him for growing income inequality and a rise in stop-and-frisk policing; he said de Blasio had the “best single accomplishment” with universal prekindergarten.

Stringer said the last few mayors had been “minimalists” and he liked the “moxie of Ed Koch.”

Jessica Ramos, a state senator, praised de Blasio’s creation of universal prekindergarten and Bloomberg’s defense of immigrants. Michael Blake, a former state assemblyman, named David N. Dinkins. Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund executive, picked Bloomberg and pointed out that he shared Bloomberg’s status as an outsider and a businessman.

“I think you need someone who is outside the political machine,” he said.

What’s Your Ranked-Choice Ballot Look Like?

Kathleen Chalfant, Broadway actress

Kathleen Chalfant, an award-winning stage actress, is probably best known for her roles in the original productions of “Angels in America” and “Wit.” She shared her ranked-choice ballot plans with Nick Fandos.

Chalfant stars this spring in a new film, “Familiar Touch,” about a woman confronting dementia. It will make its New York City premiere in June, just a few days before Chalfant, 80, plans to cast her ballot in the mayoral primary, with Mamdani, the youngest candidate in the race, ranked first.

She said her support for Mamdani and Lander, her No. 2, had been shaped by participating in vigils with Israelis for Peace, a group calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and release of hostages taken by Hamas. (Chalfant is not herself Israeli or Jewish.)

“A recognition of the slaughter in Gaza and the necessity for finding a cease-fire and justice and peace for all the people who live between the river and the sea is very important to me,” she said. “My first two candidates share that view.”

Chalfant, who lives in Brooklyn Heights, said the rest of her ballot showed her “strong progressive bias” and a desire to make the city more affordable.

“One of the wonders of living in New York is that we all live here together,” she said “All of these people are trying to make the city a livable place, not only for those of us who are privileged, but for all the people who do the work, who keep the city going.”

She does not plan to rank Cuomo not because of any ranked-choice strategy but because she said he does not share her values.

Photo of the week

Reliving a painful chapter

Adams marked the fifth anniversary of her father’s death from Covid-19 with an affecting campaign speech last week at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, a city-run hospital that was overburdened during the pandemic and turned her father away. Her 10-minute address was part a recounting of her father’s legacy and part a personal rebuke of Cuomo’s, as someone who led the state during the pandemic.

Her remarks mark one way she is trying to cut into Cuomo’s share of support among Black voters, a key Democratic bloc that has largely flocked to the former governor but is showing openness to her campaign, according to recent polls.

“Is Andrew Cuomo the only one at fault? Not really. He didn’t create this kind of politics,” she said later. “He just mastered it.”

— Maya King

DATES TO WATCH

June 4: The first Democratic primary debate. (7 p.m., WNBC-TV.)
June 12: The second debate, restricted to leading contenders. (7 p.m., NY1.)
June 14: The last day to register to vote in the primary election.
June 14-22: Early voting.
June 24: Primary Day. Polls are open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.