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Andrew Cuomo, for reasons I cannot comprehend, still has a double-digit lead in the New York City mayoral race. He sexually harassed 11 or 13 women, depending on the source! (The DOJ said 13 in 2024.) He had to step down as governor! He says bizarre things like “People hate Christopher Columbus because he’s Italian” — which is ridiculous because we are a beautiful and charming people, we make the best food and everyone loves us. Well, some of us, anyway.
This frontrunner status was clear in last night’s mayoral debate, in which Cuomo was up against Zohran Mamdani, who is currently coming in second and is my personal favorite, and approximately 57 other hopefuls, most of whom seemed quite nice. These included Comptroller Brad Lander; state Sen. Zellnor Myrie’ former Comptroller Scott Stringer; Council Speaker Adrienne Adams; former DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake; state Sen. Jessica Ramos; and businessperson Whitney Tilson (who seems to me like a secret Republican).
There have already been a few rundowns of this going around, so I’m going to focus on a few takeaways that seemed pretty important.
A question about subway safety led to most of the candidates saying that a large part of that was getting more cops on the street, which is what many people want to hear, whether that actually makes people more safe or not. Cuomo, for his part, said he was going to get rid of all the unhoused people there and “get them help” (not that we trust him to) and then complained that “every single person” up there besides him said they wanted to defund the police. Doubt that the smol Republican-ish man said that, but okay.
I just want to be clear when I say that “defund the police” is about making communities more safe, not less. I get that Democrats are now saying “Yeah, let’s hire more police!” because that’s what most people want to hear. They’re saying it quite desperately, because they’re scared. It’s going to be a while, unfortunately, until people evolve or calm to the point where they are more willing to hear about ways to keep our communities safe other than “at gunpoint.”
Still, I applaud Mondani for his response and his suggestion, which was to send teams of mental health outreach workers down there in the subway to get at the root of the problem and help the unhoused people and others down there with mental health problems.
He explained that he talked to actual police officers about the fact that they feel they are handling too many mental health crises they are not qualified to deal with, that some are even leaving because they don’t want to do that. In fact, I think the only people who think cops should be doing that are people who think they’re defending cops from bad cop-haters like me, who also think mental health crises would be better handled by mental health professionals than by police.
One of the moderators asked “Do you see any need for change to the state’s bail laws and how do you plan to tackle retail theft as mayor?” It was very clear what she wanted in an answer. She wanted someone to say, “Bail reform was bad, we should go back to cash bail and that will stop all of the shoplifting.” To their credit, no one wanted to say that, and every time they tried to say something else, she just moved right on to the next person. It was kind of weird.
Here is what I like about Zohran Mamdani, though. Rather than come up with his own theories about how to improve these situations, he actually asked those involved with it what would work best for them. That tracks with him being a socialist. After all, a large part of “the workers should own the means of production” was that, in most cases, the workers knew what they were doing far better than the owners did. A factory could run without an owner, but not without workers.
Mamdani also noted that what retail workers keep saying they need is more staffing (which, you will note, I have been screaming at the top of my lungs for years).
People who have never worked retail (or, frankly, shoplifted) really want the answer to “how to stop shoplifting” to be something lik armed guards or harsher sentencing, or even arming retail workers. That feels good and right to them. Workers, however, will tell you that what they actually need is more people on the floor.
I will tell you right now that someone who has never thought of shoplifting in their life will start to consider it when the store is empty and they’ve been waiting ten minutes for a cashier (as one of the candidates did, in fact, describe doing).
It’s not satisfying in the least, but the best deterrent for crime in general is certainty of getting caught. That’s not me, Robyn Pennacchia, saying that — that’s the DOJ. That’s every study on earth. In retail-ese, that translates to “the best loss prevention measure is good customer service.” If people see workers, if they talk to a worker (especially if the worker is pleasant), they are less likely to try and steal something. That’s why stores used to have greeters. I’m sorry, but there just is not any other way to do this. I worked in retail for a million years, I know what I’m talking about here. And I thank Mamdani for listening on this one.
I will also give Blake credit for pointing out that it’s always best to deal with the root cause of issues like this, which is income inequality. If people can’t afford to live, not only are they more likely to commit crimes of necessity, they’re more likely to be pissed off at the world enough to not really give a shit about something like stealing.
Hey! Remember when Kamala Harris was on “The View” and they asked what she would do differently from Joe Biden, and she said “nothing,” and people were outraged because how dare she not say she’d be more terrible to immigrants and lower all of the grocery store prices (which, I guess, only Democratic presidents have the ability to do)?
Well, Andrew Cuomo has no regrets about anything. Not anything personal anyway. His only “regret” is the fact that the Democratic Party let Donald Trump win.
One of the candidates, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, was not having this. So she interjected and asked if he regretted cutting Medicaid and healthcare or childcare or not getting vaccines and PPE out efficiently during the pandemic. Good for her!
So, each of the candidates was asked where their first foreign visit would be, one guy said Canada, one lady said Colombia, another guy said the Caribbean, and then Andrew Cuomo said he would to to Israel, as did the guy standing next to him. They continued until they got to Mamdani, who said he is here for New Yorkers and will be staying in New York. But then he got a follow-up on whether or not he will go to Israel, and he said he’ll be meeting with Jewish people in New York City and addressing their needs there. And then another follow-up on whether or not he believes Israel has a right to exist. You know, because he’s Muslim.
It seems kind of weird asking people right now, mayoral candidates, whoever, if they believe “Israel has a right to exist.” NOT TRYING TO START A FIGHT, but I don’t think the issue is about them “existing” so much as the way they’re completely decimating Palestine at the moment. But again, for the New York mayoral race? And directed at the only Muslim person on the stage?
Just saying!
Why are these two men I do not know getting my thanks? Because they both brought up Cuomo’s little sexual harassment problem. I realize I keep saying this but I truly don’t know how this does not disqualify him entirely. It did not come up in the questions in the debate, but two brave candidates brought it up themselves.
Lander directly said that the fact that he “sexually harassed 13 women” disqualified Cuomo from office, while Blake quipped that “The people who don’t feel safe are the young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo.” Fair!
Despite Cuomo’s reticence to admit any regrets during the debate, he did recently state that he regrets he stepped down as governor after being accused of sexual harassment by 11 or 13 women. That he would have done differently. He didn’t say he wouldn’t have, you know, groped women in the first place.
According to the Democratic Party “insiders” that Politico spoke to, Cuomo won the debate. I didn’t see that. I saw a man sputtering and stammering through, while also not actually answering every single question. I admit I came into this preferring Mamdani, and I left preferring Mamdani, but I also thought he had the clearest and most precise answers to everything he was asked, even when the moderators were trying their hardest to throw him off.
I don’t live in NYC, so my opinion doesn’t really matter, but I’d say he won, and that Michael Blake came in second (and not just because I love a baritone).
And also that we should really, really stop listening to “Democratic Party insiders.”
OPEN THREAD.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
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