Independent mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo launched a new line of attack against Democratic front-runner Zohran Mamdani on Friday, denigrating him as “a shorter” version of ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, citing the two men’s shared policy prescriptions on housing, education and taxation.
“[De Blasio] talked a lot, played politics, accomplished nothing. You know, my opponent is just a shorter de Blasio,” Cuomo told reporters in Manhattan’s Chinatown after a rally where he was endorsed by the Asian Wave Alliance, a politically moderate advocacy group.
Cuomo said the 6-foot-5 de Blasio and 5-foot-11 Mamdani are like peas in a pod because the former oversaw rent freezes on the city’s stabilized tenants, proposed tax increases on millionaires and scaled back the Department of Education’s controversial Gifted & Talented program — policies the latter has vowed to replicate if elected in November.
“So we know his policies are going to fail because they already failed,” said Cuomo, who had a very fractious relationship with de Blasio as governor before resigning from the state’s top job in 2021 amid sexual and professional misconduct accusations he now denies.
De Blasio, who has endorsed Mamdani for mayor, didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Barry Williams / New York Daily News
Bill de Blasio and Zohran Mamdani. (Barry Williams / New York Daily News)
One policy point Cuomo referenced in particular that he believes de Blasio failed on was housing, contending the former mayor’s rent freezes didn’t address a crisis that has led to a severe dearth of affordable apartments in the city. Cuomo did not mention he served as New York’s governor for almost the entire time de Blasio was in City Hall.
In a press conference later in the day in Midtown, Mamdani, who as the Democratic nominee polling as the favorite to win the Nov. 4 contest, said the ex-governor’s focus on his height is the sort of personal rhetoric he associates with President Trump.
“The remarks from Andrew Cuomo sound more like remarks from Donald Trump,” said Mamdani, who defeated Cuomo in June’s Democratic mayoral primary after running a campaign centered on making the city more affordable.
“To focus on the appearance of a politician is to do disservice to the people of this city who would prefer to actually have a substantive debate as to the policies that we are putting forward. What our campaign has been grounded in is matching the scale of crisis in the lives of working New Yorkers.”
On policy, Cuomo, who’s running for mayor on an independent ballot line, vowed in remarks to members of the Asian Wave he would “double” the number of seats in Gifted & Talented, a DOE program that provides more challenging education for kids in kindergarten through Grade 4.
Citing concerns about racial disparities in the program, with most students skewing white and Asian, Mamdani announced earlier this week he would eliminate the program for kindergarten and potentially Grades 1 and 2 as well, a proposal mirroring an initiative de Blasio pursued as mayor.
Also on education, Cuomo said he would as mayor strive to build eight new specialized public high schools in the city on top of the eight that already exist.
Though he has previously raised concern about the fairness of the admissions test for the elite schools, Mamdani, an alum of Bronx High School of Science, said this week he would as mayor keep it in place.
With Mayor Adams suspending his bid for reelection earlier this week, Cuomo is seen as having a better shot at beating Mamdani in November than he did before. Still, most polls have shown Mamdani edging Cuomo out by double digits.
In another proposal sure to please the Chinatown community, Cuomo told the Asian Wave crowd he would as mayor “reevaluate” the plan to build one of the replacement jails for Rikers Island in the neighborhood. The plan has drawn intense outrage from Chinatown residents, who argue the residential neighborhood isn’t fit for a lockup.
Still, while he called the siting of the Chinatown jail “extremely problematic,” Cuomo wouldn’t absolutely rule out the possibility of building it there as he affirmed he does support the overall concept of shuttering Rikers and replacing it with smaller borough-based penitentiaries.
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