Really, Andrew?

After years and years of getting as close to a Governor as you can get – as the right hand of your Dad and almost 12 years as Governor yourself – you think you have the energy, knowledge and street-wise experience to be the Mayor of New York?

Come on Andrew, there’s got to be an easier way to make a living at your age.

You might compare it to Mr. Bezos deciding to drive one of his trucks again but not being smart or experienced enough to know about a whole lot of things like how to fix the truck if it broke down and what to do about traffic at 5 o’clock on the Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge.

Did you hear former Governor David Patterson explain the simple reality that no one ever knows where a Governor is, or even where he lives, but a Mayor has got to be on the streets of New York seven days and nights a week – even in the good days. And NYC has very few good days left.

Good friend and former Liberal Party candidate for Governor, Betsy McCaughey used to tell us that by the middle of his first term, no one ever knew where Governor George Pataki was because he certainly wasn’t in Albany when she was Lt. Governor. She could never find him. And George was another three-term Governor best known for his development of the New York State waterfront.

When you introduced yourself as a candidate for Mayor recently you summarized your almost 12 years as Governor by saying you initiated the rebuilding of LaGuardia Airport and an updated version of the Tappen Zee Bridge you re-named after your Dad.

That was it. Not one word about improving New York’s failing public school system. Not even a mention of the $50 million dollar State gift to NYC’s Pre-K program steered by former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

You didn’t mention any major new housing developments anywhere in the State.

Nor about new business that you brought to the State.

Or your plans for a fourth term as Governor.

Nothing. A bridge and an airport update.

There have been about 3,000 different Governors in this country since its founding. Few if any have gone on to become Mayor of a city in that State. Of course, there was California’s Jerry Brown who served as Mayor of San Francisco twice between his two separate terms as Governor…but that’s California…always special in its own special way.

Time has shown us that once a politician becomes Mayor of New York, he never holds another political office again so one supposes you see this as your final step before retirement. Is that a good enough reason to become Mayor?

Given your significantly weakened status as a man forced to resign before completing your third term as Governor, accused of unbecoming behavior with women on your staff and a much more serious error of judgement and honesty regarding the death of thousands as a result of your decision to send older people to nursing homes during the earliest and worst days of Covid and then failing to take responsibility for the mistake but attempting to cover it up, why you believe running for Mayor will not reopen this sad situation and doom your last chance at being a public man who people might hold in some regard seems beyond the pale.

But with ranked voting and the large number of candidates people have never heard of running for the job current Mayor Eric Adams is trying to hold onto despite legal problems which caused his entire leadership team to walk – one might see you thinking this is your final chance to hold office with a good chance of winning.

But do you even know what you are walking into? Have you taken the time to consider the enormous differences in those jobs? Have you even thought about the difference in your relationship to State Legislators and City Council members?

When did you ever have to deal directly with citizens in revolt over the actions of local politicians? Go to Greenpoint and Williamsburg and deal with the upstart 30 year olds who are trying to drive out older citizens who resent new traffic rules and bikes for rent on every corner…and local politicians who can’t seem to figure anything out that makes sense.

That’s what good Mayors have to do…get into the streets with citizens. But Governors? Never.

In the most recent days since your announcement, you have stressed adding five thousand police to the department.

But do you think our failure to stop the endless and random crime in New York is being caused by a shortage of police?

Has no one told you about the reality that the State Legislature and New York City Council have removed a policeman’s personal immunity so that he or she can be sued by any citizen who has a complaint?

And that losing that immunity has caused police to literally disappear from the streets of New York so that the motto ‘protect and serve’ no longer has any meaning but has been quietly replaced by serve and catch after a crime has been committed.

TIME CAPSULE

Without the Liberal Party, there would have been no Mario Cuomo as Governor.

Without the Liberal Party there would have been no Carl McCall as the first black to serve as New York State Comptroller.

When Mario’s speech at the Democratic Presidential nomination made him a national hero, it was he who became the Number One choice to become the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee.

Bill Clinton wanted that job but Cuomo had the lead. Unfortunately for him a family relationship made his running for President impossible and so he made a deal with Clinton that gave his son Andrew the job as head of the Health and Housing Corporation in Washington, DC.

Andrew and his wife Kerry Kennedy lived in Washington for four years. Nobody does much as head of HHC because of its staggering size, so no one bothered to check.

Andrew came back to New York to run for Governor against Democratic State Comptroller Carl McCall for the nomination.

Despite years of trouble between old friends Mario Cuomo and the Liberal Party’s Vice Chairman, Raymond Harding…trouble that began with an argument about their sons and ended in Cuomo’s taking over the Liberal Party from Harding, all would be “forgotten” as the Liberal Party chose to support Andrew Cuomo over Carl McCall, after McCall publically refused Liberal Party support. The trigger for his action was NYC Mayor David Dinkins who resented the Liberal Party’s support of Rudy Giuliani for Mayor and told McCall to refuse any further relationship with the Liberal Party despite the reality that Liberal Party votes made McCall the Comptroller.

So now the high wire games in New York politics made Andrew Cuomo the Liberal Party’s nominee for Governor in the primary race.

And then this writer learned that Cuomo who was not doing well in the polls and was having marital problems as well, had met with a very important black leadership group in New York and promised to quit the race in return for black support for the rest of his career if he let McCall be the Democratic candidate for Governor against George Pataki.

Attending the Liberal Party’s nominating committee meeting and reporting on this as yet unknown event, this writer met Cuomo’s fierce denial and Ray Harding’s fury head on and insisted that his information was absolutely correct and totally accurate.

At stake was a New York State rule that a political party must get 50,000 votes for its candidate for Governor to retain a permanent place on the state ballot for the next four years. Without that result the party would have to petition for a place on the ballot for every election in the next four years.

Harding and Cuomo held tight to their reality and the Liberal Party’s nominating committee elected Cuomo as its candidate for Governor.

Three weeks later Cuomo quit the race for Governor.

While Harding had the time and the ability to name another candidate, he chose not to but instead took the first steps in closing down the work of the Liberal Party. He sent important papers and documents to the New York Public Library where there was a place for them and closed the office.

After a brief delay, other leaders in the Party reopened the office and maintained the life of the party.

During the election – which Pataki won with ease – the Liberal Party’s candidate for Comptroller and Attorney-General both received more than 50,000 votes.

Mr. Cuomo was gone but he received 17,000 votes. The Liberal Party would have to petition for a place on the ballot which it did successfully whenever it ran a statewide candidate.

Several years later, the promise to Cuomo was fulfilled when he was elected Attorney General with a great deal of black support. It was in that capacity that he arrested Raymond Harding on a charge of taking funds inappropriately from then State Comptroller Hevesi, a close Harding friend. The New York Times carried a picture of Harding in handcuffs.

Mr. Harding died shortly thereafter of a heart attack.

AN ELECTION TO COME

Governors don’t deal with citizens on a daily basis…they hardly deal with them directly at all.

Mayors who like Eric Adams, can tell stories after stories like a Minister, is unable to back up his stories with actions.

Governors rarely have the chance to do either.

Andrew Cuomo is not a warm and fuzzy guy. He made his reputation as a bully and it is well deserved.

Of course, a campaign with so many candidates will fill the air with sounds and Mr. Cuomo will get his opportunity to join the chorus. He will always sound like a Governor not like a Mayor…will always sound removed from an issue, rather than in the middle of it. He will work hard trying to convince us that he can be a Mayor… has the experience to be one.

But he does not.

Truth is in the eye and ear of the beholder.

Truth is not Cuomo’s forte.