Starting today, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to vote in-person for their next Democratic candidate for mayor. I live here, so I’m biased, but electing the mayor of the most populous U.S. city carries political ramifications outside the five boroughs.

Case in point, the current guy was indicted in a now-dismissed federal corruption case for taking bribes from Turkish businessmen (which he denies). Mayor Eric Adams is running again as an independent, while the crowded Democratic primary field is being led by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

I’m now going to make Spitfire News’ first-ever political endorsement, which is actually an anti-endorsement: If you or someone you love is eligible to vote in the NYC primary, they should rank five people who ARE NOT Cuomo. There are ten other people to rank instead of Cuomo. I recommend Marisa Kabas’ voter guide and suggested rankings.

Cuomo already had the opportunity to represent New Yorkers in office, and that ended with him resigning in disgrace after the Department of Justice found he had sexually harassed 13 women over the course of eight years. These were women who worked in some capacity for the state of New York, including women who worked in Cuomo’s office. Cuomo has issued blanket denials, after previously apologizing for some of his comments and interactions.

“Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected,” wrote Cuomo’s former aide Lindsey Boylan in a nauseating account of years of sexual harassment and retaliation. Boylan recounted Cuomo’s top female staffers enabling his efforts to prey on and then silence her. “We are accustomed to powerful men behaving badly when no one is watching. But what does it say about us when everyone is watching and no one says a thing?”

Boylan was the first woman to come forward in late 2020, and a dozen others followed. The DOJ report was released the following August. Even then-President Joe Biden called on Cuomo to step down. But he has been able to worm his way back into New York politics by using the same abusive playbook I talk about a lot in this newsletter.

It includes DARVO and litigation abuse, spending more than $60 million of taxpayer money to defend himself and pursue the people who tried to hold him accountable in court. New Yorkers footed the bill for Cuomo to solicit the gynecological records of a woman who said Cuomo asked her if she was interested in dating older men while she was working for him. She was about 25 at the time. He was about 63. She has since dropped her own lawsuit against Cuomo because she said he was using it to harass and humiliate her and her family.

This pattern is completely and utterly disqualifying. It shows that Cuomo used his time as governor and after to hoard New Yorkers’ precious resources to further his own predatory exploits. That’s someone thinly disguising their abuse as a public service.

Nothing has changed. Cuomo keeps fighting to use the state’s money for his own revenge. And on May 18, while campaigning, Cuomo asked a female radio host in public if she wanted to go on a date with him. His campaign representative said it was a joke. The radio show’s producer said it was a “little awkward.”

This should all be career-ending on its own, and I haven’t even gotten into Cuomo’s terrible record on transportation, his dismantling of a government corruption commission, or how he “severely undercounted” Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes. But despite everything, he’s the current frontrunner in the primary.

A lot of people apparently think it isn’t disqualifying to be credibly accused of serial sexual harassment on the job. I’ve seen people point to district attorneys dropping cases and declining to file charges against Cuomo as evidence that his accusers were lying. The reality is that very few perpetrators are held accountable in the court system, and the system’s failures to do so have no bearing on whether the allegations are true. And there are also two government investigations that found Cuomo and his staff discriminated against female employees based on their sex.

There are also some people who believe Cuomo is a predator who are still voting for him. They think the behavior translates into an aggressive public leader, which they see as a good thing. But like Donald Trump, Cuomo’s aggression is in his self-interest, not the people he purports to serve. And while many Democrats believe that Trump being held liable for sexual abuse should have been disqualifying, Cuomo’s successful rehabilitation on the campaign trail shows that tolerating abuse is a bipartisan practice.

If we want predatory and abusive behavior to be a reason someone can’t be elected, then we have to stop electing predators and abusers. If we continue to reward this behavior with higher positions of authority, we actually incentivize it. The message is that women don’t belong in government, but men who oppress them do.

So please, if you’re an eligible New Yorker, go cast your vote. And don’t rank Cuomo.

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