Are New Yorkers growing tired of radical progressivism? They seem to be having a moderate moment: voters say they prefer a centrist mayor who will lead competently and, above all, take their public-safety concerns seriously. Jumping into the race last weekend, former governor Andrew Cuomo says he’s the right candidate for the job.
Cuomo kicked off his campaign with a 17-minute video speech calibrated to hit all the centrist notes. He lamented “the graffiti, the grime, the migrant influx, the random violence” and the anxiety that “rises up in your chest as you’re walking down into the subway.” His pitch nailed it on at least two counts: that the “city just feels threatening, out of control,” and that “these conditions exist” because “politicians . . . set us back.”
This is the message many New Yorkers want to hear, but Cuomo may have a hard time selling himself as the messenger. All the legislative measures that did the most damage to public safety in New York City—bail reform, discovery reform, “Raise the Age”—bear Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's signature. It was Cuomo who oversaw the shuttering of 24 state prisons and juvenile detention facilities; who hastily signed into law a package of ten police reform bills in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody some 1,200 miles away; who attacked Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to close the Rikers Island jail complex—not because it was a bonkers idea but because it didn’t close the facility fast enough.
New York’s bail laws are perhaps the nation’s worst. We are the only state, for example, that categorically prohibits judges from considering public safety when deciding whether to release the accused before trial. The new discovery rules enacted alongside the bail reforms have been such a disaster that all five of the city’s prosecutors—including far-left Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg—have come out against them, begging Albany for a rollback. The state’s Raise The Age initiative has spared many juveniles from meaningful terms of incarceration, but it has left them worse off, facilitating sharp increases in both gun violence and recidivism. Cuomo decries how police in the city have been “devalued,” but many of the reforms he signed into law after Floyd’s death helped contribute to a massive decline in NYPD officer morale.
In short, Cuomo the governor had a hand in creating or worsening many of the urban problems that Cuomo the mayoral candidate now warns about. Mayor Eric Adams hasn’t wasted any time in pointing this out. In a recent interview with Politico, Adams addressed the former governor directly: “Who was there for the original bail reform? Who signed some of these procedures? You’re going to have to answer these questions.”
Adams is right. Cuomo will have to square his gubernatorial record with his current posture. While Cuomo’s video announcement vaguely acknowledged imperfections and mistakes, he did not mention the decarceration policies he signed into law. If the former governor really wants to put the public’s mind at ease, he should acknowledge his own missteps. He should disavow policies that he no longer supports and tell us exactly what he would change.
New York City voters can handle a politician owning up to mistakes, but they don’t have patience for gaslighting. Cuomo’s campaign message was well-tuned. The question is whether he can make voters believe it.
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