Cuomo looks ready to fight for political life
Aggressive governing ‘Queens Boy’ facing calls for resignation amid pair of scandals
ALBANY, N.Y. – Gov. Andrew Cuomo, facing growing calls for him to resign, has made it clear: He won’t be forced out by his political opponents.
“I’m not going to resign. I work for the people of the state of New York,” he said Wednesday. “They elected me, and I’m going to serve the people of the state of New York.”
With twin scandals of allegations of sexual harassment by two former aides and accusations that his administration underrepresented nursing home deaths from COVID-19, Cuomo is under extraordinary pressure from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and political groups to step down. And if he doesn’t, some lawmakers want to impeach him.
But so far legislative leaders have said they would let an investigation by Attorney General Letitia James proceed but weigh their options if more accusers come forward.
And Cuomo, who prides himself on being a New York political brawler, appears set to dig in and fight for his political life, suggesting he is not going step away in the middle of his third term, which runs through 2022.
“Most people under similar attack would fold, but if there is anybody who can survive (it’s Cuomo), even if more is going to come because you pretty much bet that more people are coming – this is open season on a guy that people don’t like,” said Democratic political strategist Hank Sheinkopf, who has worked with and known Cuomo for decades.
Cuomo has privately surrounded himself with a cadre of close advisers, including secretary Melissa DeRosa and counsel Beth Garvey, and brought in some longtime confidants, such as former top aide Steven Cohen, to advise him.
The general consensus, according to interviews with a dozen former and current aides: Apologize, stick it out and await James’ investigation. That buys him time and hope that the heat will cool off so he can focus on the state budget and New York’s COVID-19 response.
“We have full plate: We have COVID, we have recovery, we have rebuilding, we have a teetering New York City,” Cuomo said Wednesday.
“We have a terrible financial picture. We have to do vaccines. So no, I’m going to do the job the people of the state elected me to do.”
Meanwhile, he is fending off possible defections in his administration as at least seven younger aides – contemporaries of one of Cuomo’s accusers, Charlotte Bennett – have threatened to resign or have requested a transfer to another state agency.
One top aide, Gareth Rhodes, announced Wednesday that he was leaving Cuomo’s COVID-19 response team and returning to his role at the state Department of Financial Services. Rhodes, who said he made his decision last week, has been considered a rising star in the Democratic Party after running for Congress in the Hudson Valley in 2018.
Cuomo is facing calls for his resignation that have been growing each day, both within his own party and among influential groups. The Working Families Party, which has long sparred with Cuomo, said he should resign, as have progressive Democrats, most Republicans and a small group of moderate Democrats in swing districts in the suburbs.
Another problem for Cuomo: He has little goodwill in the Legislature. Cuomo has long been accused of bullying lawmakers, steamrolling their priorities and using all the levers of governments – which he has mastered through his decades in public life – to impose his will on the co-equal branch of government. So with Cuomo on the ropes, lawmakers are looking to reassert their power.
Cuomo has built a career on being a tough-talking, self-proclaimed “Queens Boy” with an aggressive governing approach. Even before the scandals, his aides have described a walk-on-eggshells atmosphere within his office and a governor prone to outbursts, with many directed at his “advance” staff that set up events and craft talking points for him.
Critics say the sexual harassment allegations, which include accusations that he kissed a former aide and asked inappropriate questions of another, are part of a sense of entitlement. And Debra Katz, a lawyer representing Bennett, said Cuomo’s contention that he never inappropriately touched anyone flies in the face of a third woman, Anna Ruch, who accused him this week of touching her in a way that made her feel uncomfortable at a wedding in 2019.
Cuomo has stressed that he never knew his comments or actions made anyone uncomfortable, saying his way of greeting people is to hug them or give them a kiss.
Those who know Cuomo expect he’s girding to fight it out.
Cuomo is the toughest governor in the “toughest state in the country when it comes to politics,” Sheinkopf said.
So “if anybody thinks that Andrew Cuomo is going to disappear and somehow going to hide under a rock, (they are) dead wrong.”