On the last Saturday before Democratic voters pick their standard-bearer in the New York City mayor’s race, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo stood with the mother of a teenager murdered with knives and machetes in a 2018 act of violence that shocked the city.
“One of the top priorities has to be public safety,” said Mr. Cuomo, who has promised to add 5,000 more officers to the police force. “If people don’t feel safe in the city, nothing else really matters.”
He spoke in front of signs displaying years-old social media posts from his chief rival, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, that called for the defunding of the police, a stance he no longer holds.
Earlier that day, Mr. Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, rebounded from a Saturday night, seven-and-a-half-hour, top-to-bottom hike of Manhattan with a rally in Sunnyside, Queens.
And, in Manhattan, was Comptroller Brad Lander, whose mayoral campaign gained national attention after federal agents arrested him while he was accompanying a migrant at immigration court last week. At his “closing argument” for the mayoralty in the voter-rich precincts of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Mr. Lander sought further attention by inviting the first two women to accuse Mr. Cuomo of sexual harassment.
Their accusations, which Mr. Cuomo denies, set the stage for other women to come forward, ultimately prompting his 2021 resignation from office. A supporter held up a sign that read “Don’t Rank Creepy Cuomo.”
“No one would let their daughter work for him,” Mr. Lander said, contrasting his own reputation for wonkishness with a former governor he described as “morally bankrupt.”
“That was a political ploy four years ago,” Mr. Cuomo said on Saturday. “And that has been reported, litigated, dissected 270 times since then. And there’s no there, there. So if that’s all he has to say, he has a problem.”
Then Mr. Cuomo attacked Mr. Lander for once supporting the diversion of funding from the Police Department, a position Mr. Lander has since disavowed.
Mr. Cuomo initially grappled with the sexual harassment allegations against him by expressing some contrition and apologizing “deeply” for the women he had “truly offended.” But in the ensuing years, he has mounted a multimillion-dollar, state-funded, scorched-earth campaign to defend himself and undermine the credibility of the women who accused him, including the two who joined Mr. Lander Saturday, Charlotte Bennett and Lindsey Boylan.
In December, Mr. Cuomo began legal action against Ms. Bennett, accusing her of defamation, a move that victims’ rights lawyers argued seemed designed to muzzle her during Mr. Cuomo’s mayoral campaign.
Until Saturday, Ms. Bennett had remained conspicuously quiet about Mr. Cuomo’s mayoral bid.
“I haven’t felt safe to comment,” she said. “And it’s felt like even showing up today was a risk. He’s a very powerful, well-connected, well-funded person who has made it clear that he’s fine to destroy my life if I get in the way of what he’s looking for.”
The once seismic-seeming political saga, which spawned three reports finding the allegations credible — by the state attorney general’s office, the Department of Justice and the New York State Assembly — has been little more than background noise in the chaotic campaign for mayor.
In fact, Mr. Cuomo polls better among women than any other candidate, according to an early June Marist poll of likely Democratic primary voters, which found that 41 percent of women would rank him first (followed by 22 percent for Mr. Mamdani and 7 percent for both Mr. Lander and Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker also running for mayor).
“I could understand how women of a different generation don’t necessarily feel like that’s the priority at the moment,” Ms. Bennett said, referring to sexual harassment allegations. “I’m not surprised that women don’t always support women.”
New York City is anticipating a heat wave next week, and Primary Day on Tuesday is expected to see the worst of it, with forecasts projecting 100-degree temperatures. The campaigns have been urging their voters to vote early (the last day of early voting is Sunday), and have been pressuring the city’s Board of Elections and the administration of Mayor Eric Adams to ensure as much air-conditioning as possible at polling sites.
Mr. Adams, a registered Democrat, opted out of the Democratic primary and will run on an independent ballot line in November. Mr. Cuomo has promised that, should he lose the primary, he, too, will run on an independent ballot line. Mr. Mamdani may also run on the Working Families Party line if he were to lose the primary.
The coming heat wave is of particular salience to Mr. Cuomo, whose support skews older.
During a media availability on Saturday, Zach Iscol, the city’s emergency management commissioner, said his team had been working with the Board of Elections to ensure polling sites had ample bottled water and fans.
“This is to make sure that voters are safe, as well as poll workers, and that they’re able to execute their civic duty,” he said. He urged voters to avoid turning out to the polls earlier in the day, and to come in the evening when it’s cooler.
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times.
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