Staten Island Advance Endorses Cuomo for Mayor in Democratic Primary Election
Andrew Cuomo stands above any other candidate on the Democratic slate in terms of management experience, political savvy and his ability to get things done.
- Staten Island Advance
Governor Cuomo, candidate for mayor of New York City, today received the endorsement of the Staten Island Advance for the upcoming Democratic primary for mayor. In its editorial, the Advance praised Governor Cuomo’s leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, building a new Goethals Bridge in record time, significant investments to transform the North Shore, and engineering more toll relief on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
The Advance also said Assembly Member and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani should not be ranked on any voters’ ballots and sharply criticized the democratic socialist for suggesting that Bill de Blasio was the best New York City mayor of his lifetime.
A transcript of the editorial is below and here.
The Democratic mayoral primary in New York City is really not a primary at all. It’s tantamount to the general election in November.
The Democrat who wins the party’s June primary will be the 111th mayor of New York.
True, a Republican won in 1993, and a Republican followed in 2001. But if New York Republicans cannot find another Mike Bloomberg, New York won’t see a mayor from the Grand Old Party again. And really, was Mike Bloomberg really a Republican?
There’s little debate among Staten Islanders about Bill de Blasio’s time leading the city. Staten Island branded him a disaster. Although his administration was chaotic, he did do some good things: Universal Pre-K, fast ferries, and he came to the aid of a variety of struggling Staten Island cultural institutions.
Eric Adams? We hardly know him. Adams is more interested in the glitz, the glamour, the swagger that being mayor of New York brings with it. He leads an administration marked by scandal.
And let us not forget the perception of the pardon arranged by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice that appears to many as a quid pro quo for Adams’ assistance in the removal undocumented immigrants from New York.
So after a decade of weak leadership, we welcome the chance to elect a candidate who has the management experience and the competence to fix what’s broken.
One candidate stands out: The former governor of New York, Democrat Andrew Cuomo.
Although many news organizations no longer offer endorsements, and the Advance rarely endorses in primaries, we feel it important to endorse in this primary – an election that will undoubtedly give us the next mayor of New York.
Staten Island needs to foster a much stronger relationship with the mayor and the commissioners in the next mayoral administration. We can do that with Andrew Cuomo, a politician who has a long history with the borough. Remember, he was governor for 10 years, and his father, Mario, governor for 11 years.
Andrew Cuomo stands above any other candidate on the Democratic slate in terms of management experience, political savvy and his ability to get things done.
A lawyer, he served as assistant secretary for Community Planning and Development at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for five years, and then secretary of HUD for four years.
It would be disingenuous not to acknowledge that Cuomo brings baggage with him into this campaign. He resigned as governor in 2021 amid accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior and growing calls for his impeachment, accusations that are troubling, although some difficult to believe happened the way they have been portrayed.
Cuomo has explained some, vigorously denied others, while also apologizing for making any woman uncomfortable.
It is safe to say errors in judgement were made. But is it fair to define a person’s future from past mistakes, ones he has addressed and ones we believe won’t be repeated?
District attorney’s offices in Oswego, Albany, Nassau, Westchester, and Manhattan investigated the allegations and found some credible, but declined to bring criminal charges based on New York laws as they now stand.
We cannot be judge and jury on what is true, but if any part is true, Cuomo must never behave in that manner again. It is not acceptable for our elected leaders.
Another issue is the governor’s decision to place Covid patients in nursing homes, and accusations that his administration hid the number of deaths in those nursing homes.
The devastation and upheaval created by a worldwide pandemic is nothing any of us have seen in this lifetime. Americans were dying by the thousands. Hospitals were totally overwhelmed.
It is easy to place blame with the crisis behind us, but in the height of the deadly pandemic when New York became the Covid epicenter, Andrew Cuomo stepped up as a leader every day.
He maintains his nursing home decision was based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), although does admit a lack of transparency about the deaths that had occurred.
We can only hope that lessons have been learned and we are never faced with such a horrific health crisis again.
Cuomo pledges to make the city safe again, but it cannot be ignored that he signed Raise the Age and bail reform laws that caused controversy, many saying that has contributed to spikes in crime.
In addition, he signed the unpopular-on-Staten-Island congestion pricing bill. Although it appears to be having its desired effect in Manhattan, preliminary data shows the Goethals bridge saw a 3% increase in car traffic, and an almost 15% increase in truck traffic in January.
The numbers were mixed in February with a roughly 4% reduction in car traffic when comparing the two years of February numbers—52,017 less. At the same time, truck traffic increased but this time by only 4% and not 15%.
All that said, there is no one in the field of 11 Democratic candidates who can tout the accomplishments we saw during Cuomo’s time as New York governor.
Citywide, he jump-started the long-stalled LaGuardia Airport renovation project as well as the Second Avenue Subway, seeing them to completion.
On Staten Island, he stepped up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. As thousands of Staten Islanders struggled devastating loss of home and property, the city struggled to get its Build It Back program under way.
The state, under Cuomo’s leadership, established its own program to purchase damaged homes at pre-Sandy market value, allowing homeowners to get out from under the pressure of trying to rebuild a home with little or no insurance money -- many of them bungalows that needed a lot more money to reach code than whatever insurance money available would provide.
The state purchased 500 homes in flood-prone Staten Island neighborhoods, demolished them, and the land returned to nature.
A new Goethals Bridge was built in record time under Cuomo’s watch.
He supported the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, which provided Staten Island with $10 million for projects aimed at transforming the North Shore and attracting investment. The funding allows the connection of the Bay Street Corridor from the Staten Island ferry terminal to Stapleton.
More than $2.3 million was allocated for the College of Staten Island to fund equipment to create a Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Lab. The college also received a share of $55 million allocated through Cuomo’s CUNY 2020 program, designed to connect academics with economic development.
Another $1 million was appropriated for the historic St. George Theatre to restore the lobby, repair interior plaster and paint work, and the install a new mosaic at the entrance.
And although it is a stretch to say anything good about traffic on Staten Island, especially on the Staten Island Expressway, his state Department of Transportation created a half-mile auxiliary lane, connecting the entrance and exit ramps between the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway entrance ramp and the South Avenue exit ramp, giving beleaguered motorists more time to enter and exit and allowing access to Richmond Avenue (Exit 7) or South Avenue (Exit 6) without merging on to the expressway.
It’s also a stretch to say anything good about tolls, but Cuomo was widely hailed in 2014 for engineering more toll relief on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Under an agreement reached by Cuomo and the Legislature, Staten Island residents enrolled in the E-ZPass resident discount program pay $5.50 for each tolled crossing, a discount from $6.36 per toll for one or two crossings in a month and $6 per trip for three or more crossings per month.
The Democratic primary election is June 24. Early voting is already under way, concluding on Sunday, June 22. As of this past Sunday, 2,166 Staten Islanders already voted.
There is no Republican primary.
This is a ranked-choice primary. You can vote for three preferred candidates -- your most-preferred as No. 1 and then your choice for second and third.
You can also vote for public advocate, city comptroller, Democratic district leader, and council member of both the 49th and 51st Council districts.
The race for mayor appears to be coming down to Cuomo and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.
For mayor, Democratic voters should rank Andrew Cuomo first.
Mamdani should not be ranked at all.
The state assemblyman would be a repeat of Bill de Blasio – or worse. A democratic socialist, Mamdani says de Blasio was the best New York City mayor in his lifetime, while being endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Cuomo says Mike Bloomberg was the best mayor, while being endorsed by Bloomberg, the Staten Island Democratic Party, former Gov. David Patterson, dozens of politicians and a host of faith leaders across New York.
That should tell you all you need to know.
This is a critical election for the future of New York City. Ranking anyone beside Andrew Cuomo as your first choice will help keep our city on the path we now find ourselves after a decade of Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio.
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