The South Shore Press Newscast: Can Andrew Cuomo Become the “Comeback Kid?”


The South Shore Press spoke to Holtzman Vogel Attorney Joe Burns, a former legal counsel to the New York State Board of Elections.

The topic: can Andrew Cuomo become the “Comeback Kid” and win a race for NYC Mayor.  Burns also explained how the Democratic Primary for Big Apple Mayor uses a ranked choice voting system, and how that process can favor the former Governor.

SSP News Director Stefan Mychajliw: “Joe, you penned an Op-Ed recently that appeared in the South Shore Press about Andrew Cuomo being the ‘Comeback Kid’. Joe, is this real? Is this legit, him running for and potentially winning the mayor's race in New York City?

Holtzman Vogel Attorney Joe Burns: “He’s still got to make an announcement and he's really under the gun at this point since petitions for Mayor and for for all public offices begin on February 25th. It seems like he's serious about it when you see what's coming out of his allies and what you hear out there that's getting reported in the press. He's got a real shot to number one, win the Democratic primary and number two, be elected mayor of New York.

SSP: “Because polls show he is clearly the front runner for New York Mayor.”

Burns: “That's right.In terms of his competitors, at least in the Democratic Primary, he's the only one of them that's run statewide multiple times for Governor and for Attorney General. People are familiar with the name. People are certainly familiar with his father's name as well, a three term Governor of the state. 

But you look at some of the competitors, you have a couple of state senators, one state assemblyman, all very progressive. One is a self-described socialist. They've never run. They really don't have much. They really don't have much recognition outside of their individual legislative districts. 

And then of course you have Eric Adams, the incumbent Mayor, who is number one, unpopular, number two, under indictment. And putting aside whether we think those are legitimate charges or not, it's certainly not a good place to be politically when you're the incumbent mayor seeking reelection and you're under indictment.”

SM: “You're with Holtzman Vogel now, private law firm, but before you were with the State Board of Elections. Can you explain for folks, because correct me if wrong, Joe, Andrew Cuomo, can use his war chest for the race for mayor?”

Burns: “That's another great advantage I think the former Governor has in this race is that he has a substantial war chest from his time as Governor. And for the most part, there might be some exceptions, but for the most part, he can use that money in a race for New York City Mayor. And of course, he could certainly add to that as well.

He’s proved in his time as Governor to be a prodigious fundraiser. Now, maybe he won't have as easy of a time not being the incumbent to raise money, but he certainly has a lot of connections to people with deep pockets.

They're (his opponents) essentially starting from scratch, whereas Cuomo is starting from a very good spot. I should also point out that Eric Adams, who relied on the (matching funds) program four years ago to be elected, Eric Adams so far has been denied public funds. Now that could change. His Committee could come into compliance and then that would make him eligible, but when that decision was made back in December, that was a serious blow to his reelection prospects, on top of all of his other problems.”

SSP: “In your editorial for the South Shore Press, you talked about ranked choice voting and how that could impact the primary. For folks who are not familiar with that process or how you vote in that process, can you explain exactly what ranked choice voting is?”

Burns: “This will be the second Mayoral election where ranked choice voting was used in the party primaries for New York City Municipal Office. The voters in New York City passed a referendum, passed an amendment to the City Charter that required ranked choice voting for special elections and for party primaries for municipal office. So essentially what you'll have, you're a voter, the Democratic primary, for instance.

You'll have your selection of candidates that qualify for the ballot for Mayor. And you will rank them, your first choice, second choice, third choice, and on and on. What happens when those votes are tabulated by the New York City Board of Elections, you'll have different rounds of voting. And in each round, you will have through each round the candidate with the lowest number of votes dropped. 

Then that candidate's votes in the next round of voting will be reallocated based on how their voters rank the other candidates. That I think was really the key for Adams four years ago to being elected. It took a number of rounds for him to get to a majority of the vote. 

But he had an appeal. He ran four years ago as the more moderate, the more centrist candidate, tried to build a coalition of more blue collar Democrats, black Democratic voters. Certainly his appeal was in the outer boroughs and not so much in Manhattan.

In many respects, I think Cuomo is going to try to assemble that same coalition. There’s a number of candidates already in the race who are progressives, who are socialists. And his (Cuomo’s) appeal, like Adams four years ago, is going to be to more of those blue collar Democrats, moderate Democrats.

SSP:  “Joe, how do you think that ranked choice voting, that process of voting, does that help Andrew Cuomo in that primary?”

Burns: “He's probably going to be the best-funded candidate and continue to be the best known candidate. He’s going to be the most noteworthy, moderate centrist candidate in the race. 

(Adams voters) could write Cuomo as their second choice. Even for some of the progressive candidates. Well, their voters might have more of a familiarity with Andrew Cuomo. So maybe even they'd rank him as their second choice. I doubt that any candidate would be able to get a majority of the vote when we're talking seven, eight candidates in the race. 

It'd be very difficult for anybody to get a majority of the vote in the first round. But as you go down, as you continue on with these rounds of voting, I think that it's going to be Cuomo. Again, like Adams four years ago, it's going to be Cuomo who is a very good shot at prevailing when it's all said and done.”

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