Like father, like son.
One of New York’s most famous political dynasties bit the dust Tuesday as Andrew Cuomo’s power grab came to a humiliating end in a gilded Midtown ballroom.
New York City voters firmly rejected Cuomo’s unwanted electoral advance — just like they rebuffed his dad, Mario Cuomo, 48 years ago as the patriarch suffered a stinging defeat to Ed Koch.
The never-take-no-for-an-answer Cuomo, 67, has said he wouldn’t rule out another political run if his mayoral bid faltered, but his second defeat against socialist Zohran Mamdani left the once-formidable former governor weakened to the point of irrelevance.
His concession speech — perhaps his last major political address — was a warning about Mamdani’s policies, and more broadly an appeal for the soul of his party.
“This campaign was to contest the philosophies that are shaping the Democratic Party, the future of this city and the future of this country,” Cuomo said.
He added specifically that meant backing law and order. “We will not make the NYPD the enemy.”
Without naming Mamdani specifically, Cuomo took aim at antisemitism, adding, “We cherish our diversity, and we have no tolerance for discrimination of any kind by race, religion, sexual orientation or creed, and we will not tolerate any behavior that fans the flames of anti semitism.”
He added, “It’s . . . important to note that almost half of New Yorkers did not vote to support a government agenda that makes promises that we know cannot be met.”
The glowering Andrew rose up the ranks of New York and Democratic politics until he was elected into the Executive Mansion in 2010.
He ruled Albany with an iron fist until 2021, when he resigned in disgrace amid impeachment threats after a sordid sexual-harassment scandal — though he has continued to maintain he did nothing wrong.
Four years later, Cuomo smelled blood in the political water as he watched Mayor Adams’ re-election implode.
He inserted himself into the Democratic mayoral primary, but watched as his presumptive victory was snatched away by the upstart Mamdani in June.
Cuomo, not taking a hint, mounted an independent run that drew more cringe than actual enthusiasm.
His stilted COVID-era PowerPoint presentations at the Sheraton, his awkward AI videos and social media videos trying to depict him acting like an actual human ended up inspiring laughs and derision from across the political spectrum.
Shockingly, not even Cuomo’s weekend escapades to the Hamptons could assuage Big Apple voters that he wasn’t the same man who cost taxpayers upwards of $60 million to pick up the tab for his sexual-harassment suits, sent the elderly to their death with his COVID nursing-home order, or closed a corruption probe that he launched after it got too close to his own office.
Only a uniquely hated politician with his connections and campaign coffers could bungle an election versus a political unknown this badly.
Whether it was his bare-bones daily schedules that spent more time with donors than voters or his desperate flip-flopping on issues like closing Rikers Island during the campaign, Cuomo proved one thing to be true: the only thing he has ever believed in is his own ambition.
He spent the last hours of his political life in Manhattan’s Ziegfeld Ballroom, where his campaign made a piss-poor decision of emblazoning the tarnished Cuomo name over the urinals.
Despite his political career being six feet underground, Cuomo will more than likely bother New York City voters with some vanity run for office in the future.
Because as everyone knows, Cuomo has trouble taking “no” for an answer.
His career is survived by other pervy politicians who deal in backrooms at the expense of 8 million New Yorkers.
