Andrew Cuomo retools campaign after Democratic primary loss

Politico

18 hours ago

Cuomo, however, failed to mount a vigorous effort for what his supporters hoped would be a vindication after four years in the political wilderness. He zoomed around the city in his Dodge Charger and largely avoided mass transit. He shunned reporters and avoided their questions. He skipped many public forums with his Democratic opponents.
A relaunch is meant to fix those problems. Cuomo — who declined in a televised debate to apologize for his controversial Covid policies — told supporters this week he was sorry he failed them in the primary.
'I am putting together a new team, communications plan, strategy, and field operation,' he wrote in an email to supporters Monday. 'And most important, I will be out there, every day in every corner of this city, meeting you where you are to talk about the struggles you face, and the solutions to address them. Learning the lessons from the past, relaunching toward the future.'
Longtime aides like Melissa DeRosa and Rich Azzopardi remain, but several advisers who worked on his campaign — Kevin Elkins, Shontell Smith and Neal Kwatra — are not staying on post primary, four people familiar with their plans said. Many paid advisers' contracts expired at the end of June. Chris Coffey, the CEO of Tusk Strategies who served in an unpaid advisory role for Cuomo, will also not be part of the general election campaign.
Cuomo will be competing in a five-candidate race that will include Mamdani, Mayor Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden. The composition of the field stands to see the moderate vote split and help Mamdani. Adams, who dropped his primary bid to run on an independent line after cozying up to President Donald Trump, shares a base of Black voters and Jewish New Yorkers with the ex-governor.
Cuomo has insisted to supporters he can defeat Mamdani head-on with a coalition of moderate voters, according to three people familiar with the conversations. That's a tall order in a deep blue city. And even as he plans a revamped strategy, Cuomo has not lost his intense interest in polling data.
The former governor wants to coalesce anti-Mamdani forces and persuade the other candidates to drop out by mid-September if they are not polling in second place — a position the former governor currently occupies in general election voter surveys . The pledge, first proposed by Walden, has been rejected by Adams and Sliwa.
Most primary voter surveys did not account for Mamdani broadening the electorate to include a significant number of younger voters and South Asian New Yorkers — many of whom were casting ballots for the first time. Pollsters plan to adjust their methodology for the general election to take Mamdani's coalition into account.
'We always look at our model in terms of the expected demographic profile,' said Lee Miringoff, the director of the well-regarded Marist College poll. 'The short answer is that's standard practice.'