Would “Mayor” Cuomo Protect New York City, Our Schools and Teachers from Trump?

A few days before Christmas in 1991, two months before the “first in the nation” New Hampshire presidential primary Mario Cuomo stepped up to microphone in Albany, the plane to New Hampshire was revving its engines, and announced he would not be a candidate for the presidency. The speciation over his decision has been parsed for decades, from undisclosed Mafia ties to his wife’s opposition, we’ll never know.

Thirty- two years later, Cuomo fils, after months of rumors and quiet campaigning, I listened to him at political club months ago, released a video announcement declaring his mayoral candidacy.

Cuomo’s announcement was a 17 minute campaign speech, ‘Graffiti, Grime, The Migrant Influx’: Andrew Cuomo Launches NYC Mayoral Run in 17-Minute Vid Calling City ‘Out of Control and in Crisis,’ and Ross Barkan replied with a scathing rebuttal entitled “Andrew Cuomo is not Inevitable,”

In preannouncement polling Cuomo was well ahead of the candidate pack; however, in a Ranked Choice Voting election the winning candidate must either win an outright majority or vote transfers from exhausted candidate ballots. In 2021 the rank order was García, Adams and Wylie, Wylie’s exhausted ballots pushed Adams to victory. His opponents will paint him as an unrepentant multiple sexual abuser and the “murderer” of nursing home residents, its Cuomo against the field of opponents.

On March 14th I’m attending a candidate forum sponsored by CUNYRising, a coalition of groups advocating free CUNY tuition. I presubmitted a question: will you support mayoral control or a publicly selected board?

One of the opposition caucus leaders immediately attacked Cuomo. A decision that should be the result of widespread member input and pissing off the leading candidate is not a good strategy. Let the membership debate and decide, it’s their vote!

Cuomo was reviled by the legislature, as the accusations of inappropriate conduct escalated the legislature began the impeachment process, an overwhelmingly democratic legislature impeaching a democratic governor, unheard of.

A year earlier his daily COVD briefings glued us to the screen, he was called the nation’s governor, he took on Trump and came out ahead.

Would Cuomo as mayor stand up to Trump? Could he protect New York from Trump?
Remember the adage, my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

On the plus side the Cuomo Education Commission, see full report, made a number of highly positive recommendations, more than a decade later, unfortunately a few are still pending. (Transparency: I did some staff work for Randi Weingarten, a commission member)

As governor Cuomo was referred to as the “steamroller,” both an asset (“He got things done”) and a liability (“Without any consensus”).

My advice: Listen and learn, involve our members as much as possible, June 24th is almost four months away, and events in Washington and Albany are happening almost daily, and maybe, just maybe, we need a steamroller