In a move that raised eyebrows and heart rates across the political spectrum, Andrew Cuomo has announced that he’s back in the race for mayor. The former governor, once a mainstay of pandemic briefings and New York politics more broadly, is re-entering the fray with a notable twist: if he’s not the leading alternative to Zohran Mamdani by sometime in September, he’ll graciously bow out. The pledge is a little like promising to leave a party early—if nobody’s talking to you by midnight. It’s a strategic promise; clearly, he expects to continue running ahead of Eric Adams and Jim Walden, the other two independent candidates. A reentry on these terms seeks to convey a kind of reluctant nobility, as if Cuomo were being dragged from retirement by the ghost of LaGuardia himself. As I’ve written here before, I’m not a fan of this belated continuation of his campaign. He should have carried on from primary night with unbowed determination. It betrays a jarring - and unnecessary - level of calculation. That said, if he’s the best chance to beat Mamdani come mid to late September, anti-Mamdani voters should want to coalesce behind him. By setting this September threshold date, it also, in essence, says to Eric Adams: “You better show you can win by then, or get out. You’ve had your chance.”
As is ever the case, we shall see….