Andrew Cuomo scorns the voters who can save him: – Latest News
Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral bid has hope, however provided that he embraces 20% of New York City voters as a substitute of appearing like they don’t exist.
As a registered NYC Republican and three-time Trump voter watching from the sidelines, I see a Democratic machine that calls itself “moderate” however governs like a hostage negotiator afraid to go away the desk.
The outcome: A metropolis sliding towards socialism, with a floundering former governor too timid to hunt a lifeline from the very voters who might save him.
I spent days reaching out to Cuomo’s inside circle, his canvassers, his supporters, anybody who’d pay attention.
I requested them inform Republicans they’ll be seen, heard, and welcomed in a Cuomo administration.
The response?
Crickets — and a flyer warning, “A vote for Curtis Sliwa is a vote for Zohran Mamdani.”
No coverage distinction, no outreach, no acknowledgment that GOP voters may need a cause to vote for Cuomo past concern.
They simply don’t get it.
Why not endorse a non-mayoral Republican to show real outreach?
Maybe somebody like Maud Maron, the Manhattan DA candidate working in opposition to the unpopular Alvin Bragg.
She’s a former public defender, mom of 4, and lifelong Democrat till the celebration left her.
Now a Republican, Maron is exactly the bridge Cuomo wants: palatable to Democrats already voting for him, and to the GOP voters he can’t win with out.
Endorsing her would signal respect to the voters he’s ignoring.
Instead, he pretends they don’t exist.
Republican City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov went as far as to endorse Cuomo on Tuesday — but Cuomo hasn’t publicly acknowledged it.
Why not go to Brooklyn and shake her hand?
To many Republicans, there’s no daylight between Cuomo and Mamdani.
“I’m not the socialist” isn’t a platform; it’s a give up.
Worse, it’s insulting: the ex-governor’s supporters now scold Sliwa voters for “handing the city” to Mamdani, as if the June main, which Cuomo misplaced decisively, was another person’s fault different than their own.
You don’t get to disregard a chunk of the citizens for months, then demand they bail you out in November.
In a group chat of 200 Cuomo supporters, I floated coalition-building: endorse Maron, nod to Staten Island’s Frank Morano, courtroom Vernikov and GOP Councilwoman Vickie Paladino.
The replies had been revealing.
One scoffed: “80% of the city is Democrat; Republicans will never win.”
That’s lacking the level.
In this race, these 80% of Dems are basically cut up down the center.
The remaining 20% is the whole margin. Treat them like an afterthought, they usually’ll pull the lever for Sliwa.
Why reward disdain?
Cuomo has gained in the polls as early voting began and actuality set in.
But his camp appears obsessive about poaching Mamdani’s voters, as if the socialist’s inexperience isn’t his fundamental promoting level to the DSA base.
Meanwhile, they show open contempt for the GOP, yelling at Sliwa voters as a substitute of incomes their vote.
You can’t persuade voters you refuse to respect.
Cuomo’s report solely deepens the skepticism.
He signed disastrous bail reform into law effectively earlier than the 2020 riots that received NYC into the mess it’s in now.
He presided over nursing-home deaths, then wrote a self-congratulatory e-book utilizing state sources.
What ensures he gained’t drift left again?
And why ought to metropolis Republicans rush to save the man who handed New York to the DSA, anyway?
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New York City’s GOP could also be small, nevertheless it sure is mighty: Voters in Vernikov’s, Paladino’s and Morano’s districts, and all of Staten Island, reliably prove.
A easy gesture from Cuomo — endorsing Maron, praising the Republican councilmembers’ diligent work for his or her constituents — might flip 1000’s of votes.
Instead, he and Mamdani tweet out practically similar messages opposing ICE raids on Canal Street.
To many voters, they’re indistinguishable.
Cuomo is working a terrified marketing campaign, paralyzed by the identical hidebound Democratic instincts that misplaced him the main.
He has nothing to lose by embracing the 20%, by reaching throughout the aisle to construct a sturdy coalition.
But his crew fears alienating Mamdani voters more than lacking a once-in-a-generation probability to unify this metropolis.
It’s the Democratic Party playbook in motion: take moderates without any consideration, demonize the proper, then act shocked when the heart collapses.
Cuomo isn’t even his celebration’s nominee.
He is free to reinvent himself.
Yet he clings to the conceited, apathetic, out-of-touch mindset that received him right here.
New Yorkers deserve higher than a mayor who governs by subtraction.
If Cuomo desires to win, he should deal with all voters like they matter.
Ignore the metropolis’s Republicans, and he’ll lose by precisely that margin.
Live by the Dems, die by the Dems.
Jaclyn Dolinsky is a New York City lawyer. X: @JackieDolinsky
