It’s less than eight weeks until the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, and front-runner Andrew Cuomo is nowhere to be found.
Only two months ago, the disgraced former governor of New York declared his candidacy for New York City mayor amid a crowded field. The primary race was already full of drama, as incumbent mayor Eric Adams announced that he would not seek renomination under the Democratic party line following a public capitulation to the Donald Trump administration on immigration enforcement to get his federal corruption charges dropped. And while Cuomo’s high name recognition has gained him a steady lead in polls, he remains suspiciously absent from the public eye, including in public mayoral candidate forums.
Instead, Cuomo has recently released statements declaring his intention to run third party in the general election even if he wins the Democratic nomination — perhaps as a counter to both Eric Adams and the Working Families Party, who will both be on the ballot in the general election in November.
Despite his current status as a front-runner, Cuomo remains largely out of the public eye, running a “Rose Garden” campaign strategy and taking very few questions. He refuses to commit to a public debate with his opponents. This reflects the strategy that Cuomo took in his election and reelection bids as governor, in which he often ignored his opponents and refused to engage with them, claiming he was “campaigning without campaigning.” This is in stark contrast to how other front-runner mayoral candidates have behaved, with former mayor Bill de Blasio and current mayor Eric Adams both frequently making appearances in public, connecting with future constituents, and fielding direct questions from voters.
Considering that he’s also running a mayoral campaign premised on New York City being a dangerous, chaotic, broken place, Cuomo is taking a Trumpian approach to winning the primary, leaning on distrust and fear…
Auteur: Susan Kang
