You can criticize Andrew Cuomo for many things. Carpetbagging isn’t one of them.
Over the course of his long political career, Cuomo has been accused of being stubborn, a bully, a womanizer and a narcissist.
The list is longer than that.
But here’s one label that you can’t hang around the former governor’s neck — that he’s not a real New Yorker.
“When you’re governor, you’re still a New Yorker. New York City is in New York State, and I was obviously very, very involved with New York City,” Cuomo, who is running for mayor, said after a recent campaign rally in Manhattan.
“So I’m a New Yorker 100% through and through.”
When Cuomo was governor, and he was criticized for calling out right-to-life, pro-assault weapon, anti-gay conservatives, do you think they were identifying him with Peekskill, Uniondale or New York City?
Yet, other candidates in the mayor’s race are trying to portray Cuomo, a Queens native, as an out-of-touch suburbanite who doesn’t know the difference between Washington Square and Washington Heights.
The carpetbagging charges have picked up steam amid reports last week that Cuomo, who jumped into the mayor’s race on March 1, only moved into the city in September, after decades in Albany and Westchester.
“Andrew Cuomo hasn’t been here, hasn’t thought about us,” said former city comptroller Scott Stringer, one of the many candidates for mayor.
“He doesn’t get us, he doesn’t understand us, he doesn’t think about us in the way people who live here every day. He’s back in town, and that’s OK. But I have to tell you, this notion that he is a New York City person goes out the window with the reporting of today’s stories.”
Cuomo said he had rented a Midtown Manhattan apartment for a couple of years but only lived there full-time since last fall.
Current City Comptroller Brad Lander, another candidate, criticized Cuomo over the rent he’s reportedly paying.
“Most New Yorkers can’t afford the average unit of $3,500-a-month. I don’t know anyone who can afford to pay $8,800-a-month,” Lander said. “That is not the housing struggle that New Yorkers are facing.”
Cuomo had previously been registered to vote at the Westchester home of his sister, Maria, and her husband, fashion designer Kenneth Cole. Before that, Cuomo, a Democrat, was registered to vote at the Executive Mansion in Albany, which has been home to New York governors and their families since 1875.
Now, Cuomo has his sights set on Gracie Mansion, the Upper East Side residence of the mayor of New York City.
It’s a smaller residence, and, frankly, so is the job.
But try telling that to anyone who has ever been mayor of New York City, including the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, who is fighting an uphill battle to stay in City Hall in the face of his own scandal.
Adams, to his credit, did not join the chorus of candidates accusing Cuomo of carpetbagging.
Adams faced his own residency questions when he first ran for mayor in 2021 amid concerns that he was living in Fort Lee, N.J., of all places, instead of a Brooklyn apartment.
Last week, he made a residency reference when he clashed with a Nassau County congresswoman, Democrat Laura Gillen, who told him she has “no confidence” in his ability to lead the city.
The occasion was a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. on sanctuary cities.
“Mayor Adams, what you said today has given me no confidence in your ability to continue to serve and lead our city,” Gillen said.
“Our city,” Gillen emphasized.
“But you don’t live in New York City. You live on Long Island. You don’t vote for mayor,” Adams said. “Thank God you don’t live in New York City.”
Only a real New Yorker could clap back like that.
