NO CUO TO KICK AROUND
Andy nixes gov run
Don’t call it a comeback — the deadline for disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to mount a bid for his old job came and went on Tuesday.
After declining in April to file petition signatures to compete in the June 28 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Cuomo (inset) failed to submit the requisite signatures to run as an independent in the general election.
The deadline to challenge Gov. Hochul, his former second-in-command, was 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“Andrew is not running this election cycle. He would only run to win,” a longtime Cuomo confidant told
The Post Tuesday afternoon. “This is not the cycle for him to run in.”
If he wanted to be on the ballot when voters head to the polls for the Nov. 8 contest, Cuomo would have needed to file 45,000 petition signatures with the state Board of Elections. His campaign would have been required to provide 500 names of registered voters from at least half of the state’s 26 congressional districts.
But they can arrive any time before 5 p.m. on Thursday if the paperwork is delivered by mail and postmarked on Tuesday.
A rep for Cuomo, 64, did not respond to requests for comment.
Lid on $16M war chest
The cut-off passing comes as Cuomo — who had a $16.4 million campaign war chest as of January — had recently taken steps toward a resurgence.
In March, Cuomo spoke at a Brooklyn church — his first public appearance since resigning last August under threat of impeachment — where he moaned about “political sharks” in Albany and “cancel culture.”
Less than two weeks after he reemerged after months out of the limelight, Cuomo told reporters in The Bronx that he was “open to all options” when asked about vying for his old post — including challenging Hochul in a Democratic primary and campaigning without the ballot line of one of the two major political parties.
The former chief executive also released two separate campaignstyle TV advertisements, lunched with a former influential labor union leader as he mulled a comeback attempt, and twice dined in Midtown with Mayor Adams.
Since March, Cuomo had not revealed definitively if he planned on launching a comeback bid.
When asked Sunday if he would again seek an elective post, Cuomo sidestepped the question.
“Today is not about politics; today is about focusing on this issue,” he told a group of reporters after addressing a Brooklyn church congregation about gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and in Buffalo.
Sources in Cuomo’s circle have told The Post the ex-gov isn’t seeking his old job via an independent effort due to fear he would lose the race and play spoiler by taking support away from Hochul — increasing the chance of a Republican moving into Albany’s Executive Mansion in 2023.
A recent Emerson College/The Hill survey backs up that concern, showing Cuomo as an independent option in a hypothetical, threeway contest, in which 33% of voters would back the Democratic nominee, 33% would vote for the Republican, and 16% would support Cuomo.