The main super PAC boosting Andrew Cuomo’s mayoral campaign is launching a field operation in the final days of the mayor’s race to the tune of nearly $380,000 — including more than $100,000 spent just on T-shirts for volunteers, new filings show.
The expenditure from Fix the City, which has raised nearly $20 million to suppor Cuomo, comes after the ex-governor’s main rival in the Democratic mayoral primary, Zohran Mamdani, has mounted a significant field game, deploying tens of thousands of mostly unpaid canvassers to knock doors for him and hand out campaign literature.
Cuomo’s campaign hasn’t launched its own paid field operation, so Fix the City’s effort fills a void just as the June 24 primary campaign enters the final few days.
The PAC, which is largely being funded by billionaire business titans like ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and cosmetics tycoon William Lauder, first plunked down $173,875 on June 12 to hire Bartholomew Communications and Strategies, a Manhattan consulting firm, to manage the field operation, disclosures show. The PAC then paid the firm another $109,044 on June 16 for the field operation work.
In addition, Fix the City paid Mainland Media, a Bronx-based design company, $104,105 to manufacture hundreds of T-shirts emblazoned with Fix the City’s logo and the phrase: “Vote for Cuomo: The mayor for this moment.”
Liz Benjamin, a spokeswoman for Fix the City, confirmed Wednesday the T-shirts are for the field workers hitting the streets for get-out-the-vote efforts. She also confirmed the field operation is underway, but declined to divulge how many volunteers the super PAC is dispatching or which neighborhoods they are targeting.
Reached over the phone, Barry Caro, president of Bartholomew Communications and Strategies, declined to comment.
Besides Fix the City, some of the labor unions backing Cuomo, like the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the District Council of Carpenters, have launched field efforts for him, too. Unlike Fix the City, those labor unions are also focusing on driving turnout for various other candidates they are backing in down-ballot races.
Cuomo, a moderate Democrat who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual misconduct and pandemic mismanagement accusations he denies, continues to poll as the favorite to win Tuesday’s primary. Mamdani, a democratic socialist running on a platform that includes a promise to freeze rent for stabilized tenants, has recently closed in on Cuomo in some polls, though.
Field operation is perhaps the one campaigning area in which Cuomo has lagged behind Mamdani.
Mamdani’s army of some 42,000 unpaid volunteers are managed by 14 full-time campaign staffers who have for months been getting paid tens of thousands of dollars for that work. Mamdani’s campaign does also employ 54 paid canvassers and expects to spend about $185,000 in total on them, according to a rep.
When Fix the City is factored in, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on television ads and campaign mailers advertising Cuomo’s bid to become the next mayor.
Early voting in the mayoral race started last weekend. New Yorkers can continue voting early through Sunday and will then have a final chance to cast their ballots on Primary Day.
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