Few political operatives have it simpler than opposition researchers in New York Metropolis this 12 months.
New York’s 2025 municipal races function a scandal-laden forged of characters whose alleged or confirmed misdeeds have made front-page headlines for years. They embody the front-runner heading into Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral major.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spent a lot of his bid to change into New York’s subsequent mayor cleansing skeletons out of his closet, whether or not he’s wished to or not. The scion of a storied political household, Cuomo resigned in shame from the governorship in 2021 after an investigation led by state Legal professional Normal Letitia James discovered that he had harassed 11 girls and subjected a few of them to undesirable touching and groping. A proper settlement between the state govt chamber and the U.S. Justice Division, launched in 2024, discovered Cuomo had subjected at the least 13 feminine staff to a “sexually hostile work surroundings.”
However Cuomo isn’t the one candidate in search of political redemption in New York Metropolis this month. Ought to he win Tuesday’s Democratic major, he’ll tackle incumbent Eric Adams, a Democrat working for re-election as an impartial. Adams was indicted in September on federal corruption fees, which had been dropped this 12 months when the Justice Division argued, amongst different issues, that the case distracted from Adams’ capacity to enact President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
After which there’s Anthony Weiner.
Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after by chance tweeting a sexually express photograph of himself. Extra sexually express messages got here out in 2013 when he ran for mayor in a primary political comeback try. In 2016, the FBI launched an investigation after Weiner he was accused of sending sexual messages to a 15-year-old woman. Upon seizing Weiner’s laptop, investigators found Weiner’s spouse, Huma Abedin, had used the identical laptop computer to ship emails to her boss: then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The ordeal sparked a brand new FBI overview of Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail server simply days earlier than the 2016 presidential election, which Clinton misplaced to Trump. The FBI’s investigation additionally led to Weiner’s pleading responsible in 2017 to transferring obscene materials to a minor, being sentenced to virtually two years in jail and registering as a intercourse offender.
Weiner is now out of jail, and his political animal can’t be caged. He’s vying for a spot on the New York Metropolis Council — a part of an unofficial slate testing what voters will forgive and what they received’t in 2025.
In an interview this month, Weiner argued that the way in which he’s dealt with his controversies can’t be in comparison with the methods Cuomo and Adams have dealt with theirs.
“I’m not denying. I’m not pointing fingers. I’m not asking for a pardon,” mentioned Weiner, working for a district encompassing the Decrease East Facet and East Village neighborhoods of Manhattan.
“I’ve served my time. I accepted accountability. Now I’m shifting ahead,” Weiner mentioned.
Within the first Democratic mayoral debate, when the moderators requested Cuomo to share a remorse from his years in politics, he didn’t share a private failing; as an alternative, he mentioned he regretted “that the Democratic Get together bought to a degree that we allowed Mr. Trump to be elected.”
Cuomo’s rivals aren’t letting him neglect the accusations he’s confronted.
Requested a seemingly innocuous query at that debate about enhancing public security on New York Metropolis’s subway system, underdog candidate Michael Blake jumped in: “The individuals who don’t really feel protected are younger girls, moms and grandmothers round Andrew Cuomo. That’s the best menace to public security in New York Metropolis.”
One week later, throughout the subsequent debate, Cuomo’s most important rival, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, unleashed a brand new slew of assaults. After Cuomo had lambasted Mamdani over his expertise, Mamdani pounced.
“I’ve by no means hounded the 13 girls who credibly accused me of sexual harassment. I’ve by no means sued for his or her gynecological data, and I’ve by no means accomplished these issues as a result of I’m not you, Mr. Cuomo,” Mamdani mentioned in a monologue that went viral.
The allegations that led to his resignation — which Cuomo has repeatedly denied, although he additionally mentioned upon resigning that there had been “generational and cultural shifts” that he “did not totally admire” — have come up within the marketing campaign alongside different controversies from his governorship. One other 2021 report from the state lawyer common accused him of undercounting nursing dwelling deaths throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. On Juneteenth, Metropolis Council member Chi Ossé, who endorsed Mamdani, posted on X to resurface a 2019 interview by which Cuomo mentioned the N-word whereas quoting a New York Occasions op-ed.
Nonetheless, Cuomo leads the pack in polling, although he may face a battle as a result of metropolis’s ranked selection voting system.
Adams, too, has denied wrongdoing and claimed vindication because the federal fees he confronted had been dropped.
Weiner says his expertise has formed the way in which he perceives Cuomo’s and Adams’ conditions.
“Going by means of the maelstrom of public outcry, outcry and scandal, I do learn the papers otherwise than I used to,” mentioned Weiner, 60. “I’ve what they are saying in Yiddish or Hebrew ‘rachmones.’ I’ve feeling for individuals in troublesome circumstances.”
Regardless of the empathy, he mentioned evaluating his checkered to Cuomo’s and Adams’ is “apples and oranges.”
“They’re denying they did something fallacious. They’re suing their detractors and their accusers. I’m accepting accountability. I paid my debt to society,” he mentioned.
“I’ve this notion that all the things I’ve accomplished thus far has led me to this actual spot.”
For New Yorkers heading to the poll this cycle, forgiveness just isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Carmen Perez, 55, from West Harlem, is keen to provide Cuomo one other probability however isn’t loopy in regards to the different embattled candidates.
“I’ve seen what Cuomo can do,” mentioned Perez, who runs a program for senior residents. “In the course of the pandemic, he actually simply took over and mentioned, ‘That is how we’re going to do that and that is how we’re going to get by means of this.’”
“That’s what you wish to hear from a frontrunner throughout a disaster.”
In relation to Adams, Perez is much less enthusiastic. “I’d hope that most individuals would take this chance and actually look at why individuals are working and what’s the actual objective behind their working,” she mentioned of Adams, implying the controversies round him are stickier than those round Cuomo.
Within the case of Esther Yang, a yoga trainer from the town, not one of the beleaguered candidates deserves her vote. “I believe their dad and mom didn’t increase them properly sufficient,” she mentioned.
“I’m a yoga trainer, so I consider that the way you do something is the way you do all the things,” Yang mentioned, earlier than turning particularly to Cuomo and Adams: “I consider that if you happen to can’t get your act collectively to your private life, then I don’t suppose you ought to be a mayor to your skilled life.”
Weiner’s candidacy can be a nonstarter for Yang.
“I prefer to see how any person’s going to be husband, father, and the way they conduct their private life,” Yang mentioned.
