Andrew Cuomo is nearly finished setting up a comeback try for NYC mayor

At the end of September, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly switched his voter registration address to an apartment on East 54th Street in Manhattan. It marked the first time he’d lived in New York City – officially – in decades.

At the end of September, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly switched his voter registration address to an apartment on East 54th Street in Manhattan. It marked the first time he’d lived in New York City – officially – in decades. By December, he was ramping up conversations with local political officials and a select group of influential community leaders, hinting at plans to run for mayor in the June primary. What if, Cuomo mused, Eric Adams – who currently holds the job but is now facing an April trial date on federal corruption charges – resigned or opted out of running for reelection? He’s been telling donors and other influential political figures that if he gets in, he’s going to win, and they’ve got to get behind him. Elected governor three times before resigning in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations and fierce criticism over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuomo is now privately describing his long-rumored and labored-over run for mayor as a near certainty, according to conversations with more than a dozen people in his orbit, with whom he has spoken recently but are not authorized to publicly discuss the deliberations. He is also lining up campaign aides and pollsters, in part with the help of a former top adviser who beat him out the door of the governor’s mansion more than three years ago after deciding she could no longer defend him against the flood of sexual misconduct accusations that ultimately forced him out of office. But he wouldn’t be the first Cuomo who put together an expected candidacy that never actually took off.