News: POLITICO New York Playbook: About that Cuomo comeback

Monday, February 14, 2022

POLITICO New York Playbook: About that Cuomo comeback

Feb 14, 2022

By Erin Durkin, Anna Gronewold and Deanna Garcia

Presented by Equinor

In hindsight, it's probably not a coincidence that within one week two majornews outlets invigorated rumors of a resurgent Andrew Cuomo and the former governor publicly dined with the mayor of New York City.

Those appearances occurred just days before Democrats are set to nominate Cuomo's former lieutenant governor to succeed him for a full four years and his political ally-turned-adversary for another term as attorney general. Happenstance?

No, Andrew Cuomo's name is back in conversation on purpose, but our interviews with a dozenformer friends and allies don't offer a singular idea of the endgame.

The few who have conversed with Cuomo recently say he's always kept political plans close to his chest, and can only guess on what dipping his toes into the political sphere might mean just six months months after his resignation. Is it a sincere desire to run for office in the near future? A tentative gauge of public perception? Retaliatory meddling? Boredom?

Officially, the rumor about a run for attorney general is "blatantly false," according to Cuomo spokesperson and now crisis management consultant Rich Azzopardi. He emphasized in an email that Cuomo's focus is on "getting the truth out" about the sexual harassment allegations that Cuomo has mostly denied but ultimately led to his resignation.

For now, longtime observers of Cuomonian custom hypothesize that vague speculation about his future — which is now fresh enough to loom at the convention this week — plays into a strategy of media saturation aimed at beginning to associate him with more than hiding in the Hamptons.

"Chatter around Andrew Cuomo at the convention — which is inevitable given that his team is working to keep it alive — is different than appetite for a hasty, accelerated return," Mercury's Jon Reinish noted by text this weekend. "And at this point that return is based less on what the party and voters want — but by all estimation his and his team's desire to right their perception of a wrong and jump-start rehabilitation."

IT'S MONDAY. Got tips, suggestions or thoughts? Let us know ... By email: EDurkin@politico.com and agronewold@politico.com, or on Twitter: @erinmdurkin and @annagronewold

WHERE'S KATHY? Speaking at the New York Conference of Mayors winter meeting and announcing a new office of the chief disability officer.

WHERE'S ERIC? Heading to Albany where he will meet with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and the Assembly and Senate Democratic conferences, and answer questions from the press. Later, giving former Mayor Mike Bloomberg the key to the city.

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What City Hall's reading

Adams' unlikely alliance with the head of New York's teachers union, by POLITICO's Madina Touré: Last June, as a massive field of candidates battled for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York, the city's teachers union put out an election guide urging voters not to check Eric Adams' name on their ballots. Adams had supported charter schools, a non-starter for the union. The move was a bust. Following the Brooklyn borough president's Democratic primary win, the union endorsed him in the general election. Retired teacher Kenneth Achiron gave a tepid nod to the pick at a union meeting. "We may not agree on everything, but he has certainly proved he respects the position we have," Achiron said. It was safe to assume there would be tensions between Adams and Michael Mulgrew, who heads the United Federation of Teachers.

Adams won't rule out job for controversial pol, by POLITICO's Erin Durkin: Mayor Eric Adams did not rule out giving a job in his administration to Fernando Cabrera, a former City Council member criticized for anti-gay views. But Adams pledged that "anyone who's part of my administration is not going to spew anything that is derogatory towards any group," when asked about the appointment Sunday. Cabrera, a Bronx pastor, was initially in line to head the city's mental health office, formerly known as ThriveNYC. But after outrage from LGBTQ advocates when POLITICO first reported the potential appointment, the mayor's office ruled out naming him to that post. In recent days, however, Adams has been looking for another spot for him in the administration, according to people familiar with the situation. "I will determine who my team is going to be," Adams said Sunday after attending a fashion show in Manhattan.

"Federal judge green lights firing of unvaccinated NYC municipal workers," by New York Post's Ben Feuerherd, Priscilla DeGregory, Elizabeth Rosner, Carl Campanile and Bruce Golding: "A federal judge on Friday gave New York City the green light to fire as many as 4,000 municipal workers for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as Mayor Eric Adams said officials would be working over the weekend to determine who gets the ax. During an evening teleconference, Brooklyn federal Judge Diane Gujurati rejected a last-ditch, emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against enforcement of the vaccine mandate imposed last year by former Mayor Bill de Blasio."

— The city is bringing back a $100 incentive for first vaccine doses and boosters, but only through the end of February.

"Eric Adams Is Pushing a Plan to Speed Up Buses. Will It Work?," by The New York Times' Winnie Hu and Anna Schaverien: "The B41 bus rolls forward in fits and starts. Cars cut in front of it and dollar vans and delivery trucks block access to the curb to pick up passengers. On bad days, it takes Josh Hyman and his daughter, Penelope, half an hour to ride the bus less than a mile along Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to her elementary school... The tortoise-like pace is the result of a spaghetti tangle of gridlocked routes across the city that have made the nation's largest municipal bus system frustratingly unreliable for its 1.2 million daily riders."

" 'It will take care of our family' — NYC's for-hire vehicle drivers get 5.3% raise," by Gothamist's Jen Chung and Elizabeth Kim: "New York City's 90,000 for-hire vehicle drivers will see a 5.3% wage increase next month, to reflect the rise in costs of goods and services. The raise could lead to an average increase of $3,800 in annual earnings. ... The city first established a minimum wage for the for-hire drivers in 2018, with drivers receiving at least $17.22/hour after expenses. Now, drivers' pay rates, which are calculated on per-minute and per-mile formula, will increase to $1.161 per mile and $0.529 per minute."

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WHAT ALBANY'S READING

Assemblymember Cathy Nolan to retire after 38 years: 'Leave with your head held high,' by POLITICO's Bill Mahoney: Assemblymember Cathy Nolan will not seek a 20th term in Albany, the Queens Democrat said Friday. "I have a very serious rare cancer, it is what it is," Nolan said. She had surgery a year ago and is "doing really well." "But can I do what I used to do, which is to go to every community meeting" and travel to Albany dozens of times a year? "Probably not." "Why not leave with your head held high and as much health as I have [and] enjoy time with my wonderful family?" she said. When Nolan was elected in 1984 at the age of 26, she became the youngest woman to serve in the Legislature since 1920. She would go on to become the first woman to chair the Labor Committee and the second to chair the Education Committee.

"The evolution of Carl Heastie," by City & State's Rebecca C. Lewis: "To an outside observer, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie can seem somewhat reserved. Publicly, he's never been one for bouts of passion, generally opting to wait, listen and respond in due time, a calculated approach appropriate for a former accountant. His unassuming nature made his ultimate rise to power in the wake of former Speaker Sheldon Silver's expulsion seem unexpected to some observers, though savvy politicos hadn't forgotten Heastie's successful bid to take control of the Bronx Democratic Party years earlier. It's in this way that Heastie quietly made history as the first Black speaker of the Assembly, keeping his grasp on his conference for the past seven years during which Albany underwent monumental change."

" State investigators struggle to catch cheaters in horse racing," by Times Union's Emilie Munson: "While the reputations of many of those arrested made the case high-profile, what seemed to shock many racing insiders was the mere fact that law enforcement agencies were involved. Similar probes into the doping of racehorses have rarely been handled as criminal cases — more often triggering administrative and disciplinary proceedings for those accused. Trainers, investigators and other sources in the industry told the Times Union that lackluster state investigations in New York, combined with underfunded drug testing, have for decades contributed to a proliferation of doping in standardbred and thoroughbred racing."

" 'It could have been avoided': VA Cemetery planners' warnings went unheeded before crash killed two vets," by Buffalo News' Jerry Zremski: "VA officials said privately at the time that they didn't want any changes in the cemetery plan that could delay the cemetery's opening. State Department of Transportation officials, meanwhile, said safety improvements could be made at the intersection, but didn't mandate them. And so it was that 15 months later, Metcalfe found himself at the intersection he and Rizzo worried about, gazing in horror at the remains of a gray Chevrolet Cobalt crushed between a tractor-trailer and a snapped utility pole. Two Army veterans from Lockport, Christopher Rowell and Arnold Herdendorf, were killed moments earlier when Herdendorf pulled Rowell's Cobalt into the path of that oncoming truck without stopping at a stop sign. They were leaving a Sept. 22 memorial service for a friend and fellow vet, Martin Phelps, when they died."

"How Democrats' New Maps Could Shape N.Y. Politics for Years to Come," by The New York Times' Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Grace Ashford: "When Huge Ma, better known in New York as Vax Daddy, shut down the website he built last year to help city residents make appointments to get a coronavirus vaccine, he realized there were other more established types of public service to pursue. So Mr. Ma, a Democrat, decided to run for State Assembly, building off the folk hero status he achieved during the pandemic, with a campaign centered on policy issues he cared about, including transportation and the climate crisis. But an unexpected twist led Mr. Ma to end his nascent campaign this month just as it was getting underway: When the state's once-in-a-decade redistricting process was complete, his home was outside the Queens district he hoped to represent."

#UpstateAmerica: "Syracuse's gay penguin dads brought so much love to the zoo that now they're on a T-shirt"

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FROM THE DELEGATION

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH — Suraj Patel will kick off his campaign today for Congress, challenging Rep. Carolyn Maloney in New York's 12th Congressional District. Patel has run for the seat twice before, and in 2020 lost narrowly to Maloney in a race not called until weeks after the election . "Democrats need a new generation of leaders," said Patel, a lawyer and professor. "This is a new decade, a new district, and as we enter year three of a pandemic we've got new challenges, which means we need a government that proactively develops 21st century solutions to 21st-century problems." Maloney already faces a challenger from the left in the race, Rana Abdelhamid.

AROUND NEW YORK

— The city's five borough presidents are asking for a million more trees in the city by 2030.

— Adams said he spoke with the father of a slain teen who called him out for misstating facts of his son's life.

— A woman was stabbed to death inside her Chinatown apartment early Sunday after her alleged killer followed her home.

— Brooklyn's Poly Prep school reversed course on a plan to make masks optional because it would have violated the state's mandate.

— Hochul urged Con Ed to review its billing practices after many New Yorkers saw huge spikes.

— The City Council is pushing Eric Adams to fund the Fair Fares program with $106 million, restoring its pre-pandemic budget after it was cut in half.

— FDNY First Deputy Commissioner Laura Kavanagh will lead the department until Adams picks a permanent commissioner.

— An Upper West Side school crossing guard was removed from her post from her post for antisemitic remarks.

— Manhole fires have doubled in the last two years.

— Easy access to gambling sites in New York is raising concerns about compulsive gamblers, especially in the aftermath of the Super Bowl.

— Department of Environmental Conservation police are out in force on the state's snowmobile trails to enforce safety regulations.

— Green Island High School is going remote again, but it's not for Covid-19. They can't stop the kids from fighting.

— Officials are looking to expand the use of Kendra's Law after a subway shoving death.

STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.

SOCIAL DATA BY DANIEL LIPPMAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Mike Bloomberg … NYT's Alan Blinder … Carl Bernstein … Martha Raddatz … Stephen A. Schwarzman … Jeremy Robbins … Sir Martin Sorrell … Bobby Honold … Karen Anderson … Rebecca Rosen … Dominik Goj … (was Sunday): Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) … Chip Smith … Bloomberg's Stacie Sherman …

KPMG's Sven Erik Holmes … Fox News' Cailin Kearns ... Reuters' Mike Spector … Blackstone's Elizabeth Lewis … Samantha Slater … Nasdaq's Peter Lettre … Danielle Vaghi … Sunny Mehta … Yisroel Mayer Kirzner ... Howie Rose ... National Constitution Center president and CEO Jeffrey Rosen ... Mark Cohen ...

… (was Saturday): POLITICO's Eugene Daniels and Chris Suellentrop … Ben Sherwood … principal deputy national security adviser Jon Finer … WSJ's Rachel Feintzeig … Jim VandeHei … NBC's Marc Caputo … Maya King … Jeremy Iloulian ... Anna Miroff … Robert Zeliger … David Reid … Megan Apper … Matthew Nadherny

MAKING MOVES: Married couple Jennifer and Austin Shafran, two political operatives with ties to Mayor Eric Adams, are launching a joint consulting firm called Green Book Strategies — named for the municipal government guide. The new company counts among its initial clients the influential Hotel Trades Council, which Austin Shafran previously represented, as well as the tech firm Ubicquia and an international gaming company looking to launch a casino in the city.

Jennifer Shafran worked as Adams' director of external affairs and communications in his prior role as Brooklyn borough president, following stints as a policy adviser for state Sen. Liz Krueger and director of digital media and external relations for the Senate Democrats in Albany. She also worked for one of the city's leading lobbyists, Suri Kasirer. Austin Shafran, who ran for a City Council seat in Queens that turned Republican last year, has held jobs in the Council, state Senate and governor's office, as well as for the New York Working Families Party. He recently worked for Democratic consultant Neal Kwatra at Metropolitan Public Strategies, where he consulted for the hotel workers union on its successful campaign to obstruct Airbnb's expansion into the metropolitan market. — Sally Goldenberg

MEDIAWATCH — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1): "Professional news: Beginning [this] week, I'll be the new Executive Producer of @AymanMSNBC and @MehdiHasanShow. It's an honor to have worked on The Last Word with @Lawrence for the last 6 1/2 years. I'm so grateful. Please tune in: Saturdays and Sundays 8-10PM on MSNBC."

— Per Talking Biz News: "Harper's Bazaar has hired Rosa Sanchez as senior news editor. She recently was a news editor at ABC News, managing ABC News Digital."

ENGAGED — Mike Holtzman, managing partner of global research and strategic comms firm SEC Newgate, recently proposed to Abigail Rose Reedy, a coloratura soprano opera singer and model. The couple met in 2016 when she was performing in Virginia and he was an adviser to his former State Department boss, who was working in southern Virginia. The couple resides in NYC and in the Catskills. Pic ... Another pic

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Real Estate

"'Good Cause Eviction' remains outside Democrats' goals, despite progressive push," by Times Union's Joshua Solomon: "Many Democratic leaders in New York remain hesitant to attach themselves to 'good cause evictions,' an issue that has primarily been supported by progressive, New York City lawmakers, including gubernatorial candidate Jumaane Williams, the New York City public advocate. The statewide issue, though, was endorsed by Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan this week."

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