by Randy Shaw on June 9, 2025 (BeyondChron.org)
If polls are correct, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is the favorite to become New York City’s next mayor. How is this possible? Cuomo resigned as New York Governor in 2021 after the Attorney General found that he sexually harassed 11 women. These scandals have cost New York taxpayers nearly $60 million.
Do New York City Democrats really not care about this? Are they not troubled that Cuomo is a man of “towering arrogance and egotism“? Cuomo’s failed tenure as governor should convince voters not to return him to power. But as with Trump in 2024, voters are ignoring Cuomo’s past record.
It did not speak well for American values that a serial sexual harasser and rapists could be elected President. Cuomo’s support in the June 24 primary shows that voters willingness to back candidates who physically mistreat women is not limited to red states.
Can Cuomo Be Stopped?
AOC and other progressives are rallying behind 33-year old Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani is now the favorite to potentially face Cuomo (running on the independent Fight and Deliver party) and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams (running as an Independent) in the general election.
I understand why progressives favor Mamdani. I also get the pragmatic argument that in a low-turnout race—turnout was only 25% for the heavily contested 2021 Democratic primary— a progressive candidate must ignite the grassroots to win.
But I don’t understand why progressives think Mamdani is that candidate. He does not believe Israel should be a Jewish state. This in a city with a 10% Jewish electorate and where Jews comprise 13% of Democratic Party membership.
In a recent debate Mamdani doubled down in denying Israel should be a Jewish state and also refused to say he would visit Israel if elected (Cuomo and his main rivals all pledged to visit). I’ve seen social media posts from Mamdani supporters incredulous that a candidate’s willingness to visit Israel is an issue in the mayor’s race. But in the real world of New York City politics, it is. It is a huge issue with the voters needed to beat Cuomo.
Jewish organizations are already attacking Mamdani as Antisemitic. These attacks likely led over 4000 registered Republican or Independent Jews to re-register as Democrats so they could vote in the mayoral primary.
These Jews did not re-register so they could vote for Mamdani.
Recent polls have Cuomo leading among Jewish Democrats. Mamdani is either slightly ahead or behind Brad Lander, depending on the poll. Jews in the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Working Families Party camps back Mamdani but Cuomo’s roughly 10% lead among Jewish Democrats is a troubling sign for progressives.
Mamdani vs Lander
I’ve known of Brad Lander since he was the executive director of the Fifth Avenue Committee (FAC), a Park Slope affordable housing developer (1993 to 2003). I have followed his political career and believe he would be a great mayor.
Lander has a far better chance than Zohran Mamdani to beat Andrew Cuomo in the general election. A potential Lander-Cuomo-Adams general election will focus on the day to day issues impacting voters. In contrast, Cuomo and his media allies will turn his general election race against Mamdani into a test of his position on Israel and the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement for Palestinian rights.
Mamdani is a past supporter of BDS. When asked about a position that will become a centerpiece of Cuomo’s runoff campaign against him, Mamdani punted, saying the election is about “lowering the cost of living for working and middle-class New Yorkers and delivering a safer city for everyone.”
He’s right. The mayor’s race should be about high housing costs, public safety, and similar bread and butter issues. But that’s not what Mamdani’s race against Cuomo will be about. It will be about Mamdani forced to defend himself against charges of Antisemitism. Cuomo will make it about which candidate can better protect Jews from violent attacks.
Andrew Cuomo knows how to run these type of campaigns. He’s already attacked Lander for being anti-Jewish despite Lander’s deep connection to his Jewish faith. Cuomo and his media and real estate allies will make sure the general election race against Mamdani is about everything other than the high cost of housing, the cost of living, and public safety.
I’ve seen this train coming many times in past elections locally and nationally. And I fear we will see it again in a Cuomo-Mamdani-Adams general election.
Brad Lander can beat Cuomo. But as the June 24 primary approaches, Mamdani has more momentum.
After the primary Cuomo will easily defeat current Mayor Eric Adams in the general election. New York City will then install a mayor with blatant personality defects along with serial mistreatment of women. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised: The city has elected only one progressive mayor over the past fifty years (Bill de Blasio) and voters gave Rudy Giuliani two terms and Michael Bloomberg three.
Brad Lander offers the best chance to elect a progressive mayor and stop Cuomo. New York City progressives should reexamine this race.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s new book is the revised and updated, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. His prior books include Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.
