There’s by no means been a greater time to be a disgraced politician in search of a second probability.
A pair of former governors who resigned in scandal are vying to guide main cities on each side of the Hudson River — tried comebacks that wager voters fed up with present choices will worth their govt expertise greater than their political flaws.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down in 2021 following sexual harassment allegations, simply launched his marketing campaign for mayor of New York Metropolis. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who exited workplace in 2004 after admitting to an extramarital affair with a person who he employed, is campaigning to guide New Jersey’s second largest metropolis, Jersey Metropolis.
Whereas each are Democrats, they’re more likely to profit from the Donald Trump impact, the place expectations round character have been obliterated.
For his or her half, neither marketing campaign is keen to acknowledge the opposite, however each former governors say they’re promoting govt expertise. McGreevey and Cuomo are each speaking about bread-and-butter points: public security, clear streets, reasonably priced housing and the menace of e-bikes.
“I think folks want a record of getting something done and working hard,” McGreevey mentioned in an interview.
Cuomo is sounding the same notice about expertise as a chief govt.
“I don’t think there’s been a governor in modern political history that has accomplished more things than I have accomplished,” Cuomo mentioned throughout an interview with Stephen A. Smith.
Cuomo additionally explicitly attacked others who “never ran anything before.” McGreevey has mentioned governors and mayors share “the need to get something done, to bring measurable change.”
It’s onerous to not see these as digs at current massive metropolis Democratic mayors who’ve fumbled their method into infamy with one factor in frequent: they have been legislators, not executives, earlier than changing into mayor. That listing consists of New York Mayor Eric Adams, his predecessor Invoice de Blasio, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and defeated San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
It goes with out saying, none of McGreevey or Cuomo’s opponents has the identical form of govt expertise they’ve, even when it didn’t finish properly.
“Their reputation certainly precedes them, right?” mentioned Micah Rasmussen, a former McGreevey aide who’s now the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider College.
It’s uncommon for governors to be compelled out of workplace. Of the few thousand individuals who have served as an American governor, Cuomo was solely the 56th to resign or be eliminated, based on the Pew Analysis Middle.
Some in that membership have tried to reboot their political careers, to combined success. Others — Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and Robert Bentley of Alabama — have been legally barred from working for elected workplace.
Whereas McGreevey resigned with a speech remembered for the road “I am a gay American,” and his fall is commonly tied solely to his sexual orientation in an period earlier than extra widespread acceptance, he was concerned in a mixture of scandals on the time, most notably placing his lover on the state payroll as a homeland safety adviser within the months after 9/11 with out correct credentials.
After he stepped down, McGreevey went on a religious journey and spent greater than a decade serving to prisoners reenter society. His marketing campaign launch video in 2023, titled “Second Chances,” opened with a scene of his resignation speech and a contrite McGreevey of immediately saying he’d realized his classes.
Cuomo, in contrast, spent the previous few years preventing in court docket to clear his title and launched his marketing campaign with a 17-minute video that solely briefly alluded to the scandal that prompted him to step down — a report launched by Lawyer Basic Letitia James discovered he sexually harassed 11 girls. His management throughout Covid-19 additionally got here beneath a cloud.
Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing on each counts and argued the scandals have been induced by his many political enemies in New York and Washington. District attorneys subsequently didn’t deliver felony costs.
Basil Smikle Jr., a former head of the New York Democratic Occasion beneath Cuomo, mentioned former politicians who go away workplace beneath a cloud make one other go at it by ready for the fitting time and doing a mea culpa tour to check the waters. Plus, Trump — who was impeached twice, discovered chargeable for sexual abuse and is a convicted felon — has proven sure conduct is extra palatable to voters.
McGreevey is working for an open seat in a nonpartisan normal election this fall with backing of a serious North Jersey energy dealer.
Cuomo is working in a crowded main discipline towards Adams, who’s beneath indictment, surrounded by scandal and with polling that reveals most voters need Adams to resign. One other opponent, Scott Stringer, was a front-runner within the crowded 2021 Democratic main earlier than his marketing campaign was derailed by accusations that he sexually harassed a marketing campaign volunteer 20 years earlier. Stringer denied wrongdoing and is suing the lady who accused him for defamation.
Smikle mentioned Cuomo may be relying on a few of the similar Black and Hispanic Democrats who moved towards Trump final fall.
“I think the Trump voter and the potential Cuomo voter want the same thing — there is an interest in political disruption, they are OK with overlooking the past if they can get the disruption that helps them today,” he mentioned.
The governor-to-mayor pipeline shouldn’t be unprecedented for individuals who didn’t go away in scandal: Time period-limited Delaware Gov. John Carney is now mayor of Wilmington.
If, as former New York Gov. David Paterson has mentioned, Cuomo would somewhat be governor once more, there may be some precedent in former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who like Cuomo was a governor’s son. After Brown led his state for eight years as a younger man, his political future appeared bleak following a trio of failed presidential bids. However then Brown ran for mayor of Oakland, received, and climbed again up the ladder to finish his profession as governor once more.
When Cuomo and McGreevey reemerged, each Democrats had main institution allies.
Town’s carpenter’s union and Rep. Ritchie Torres, a high-profile Democrat, are in Cuomo’s nook. Torres has mentioned the town wants a “Mr. Tough Guy.”
McGreevey was inspired to run by Hudson County energy dealer Brian Stack, who can also be a state senator and mayor of neighboring Union Metropolis.
Whereas each McGreevey and Cuomo have roots within the cities they’re working to guide, each males spent years elsewhere, and each have been criticized for carpetbagging and me-centric campaigns.
When McGreevey launched his marketing campaign in 2023, marketing campaign rival Invoice O’Dea mentioned his marketing campaign can be “about the people,” not “anything related to my own ego,” a jab at McGreevey.
Stringer, a former metropolis comptroller and mayoral candidate, in contrast Cuomo to disgraced former state Lawyer Basic Eliot Spitzer, who tried to resurrect his profession with a run for metropolis comptroller however misplaced to Stringer.
Rasmussen, who was McGreevey’s spokesperson by the resignation, wonders if the collapse of native media has one thing to do with governors taking part in in native races as a result of it’s “harder and harder for candidates to break through” and governors already include title recognition — even when the names are a double-edged sword.
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