NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering a 2022 gubernatorial run against his former lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, according to a report from CNBC.
The disgraced former governor was forced to resign in August of 2021 after a series of sexual harassment allegations, a COVID death cover-up scandal and widespread condemnation of dirty political tactics.
Cuomo continues to deny the sexual harassment allegations from 11 women.
“As the Governor has said since the beginning, this was the weaponization of politics to do what couldn’t get done at the ballot box and it’s important to him and his family that the record get set straight and efforts to rewrite history don’t succeed,” said Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi. “As he has said all along he has thoughts and opinions about the direction of this state and the Democratic Party as a whole, and he won’t hesitate to make them known.”
An Emerson College poll of New York voters carried out on March 9 and 10 found that Cuomo trails Hochul by just 4 points — 37% to 33%.
The poll also found that 63% of voters think Cuomo should not re-enter public office, with 24% saying he should and 14% undecided.
Anonymous sources told 1010 WINS that confidants have been urging Cuomo to run since the poll.
Cuomo has been waging a charm offensive over the course of the past few weeks that included a television advertisement aimed at undermining the sexual harassment allegations and a public speaking event in which he blamed his downfall on “cancel culture.”
On Wednesday, Cuomo shrugged off an audit of the Department of Health by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that accused the former governor of covering up at least 4,100 COVID-19 nursing home deaths in order to inflate “the perception of New York’s performance against other states.”
"As the number of out-of-facility deaths were reported last January, this is not news," Azzopardi told Gothamist. "However what is peculiar is the comptroller’s release of this audit now — but no one has ever accused him of being above politics."
Cuomo plans to speak again on Thursday.
If Cuomo does run against Hochul, who has described his behavior toward women as “repulsive,” it could set up a major clash during the Democratic primary in June.
Cuomo was in the middle of his third gubernatorial term when he resigned. Hochul has expressed a desire to establish a two-term limit for New York governors, which, if enacted, would bar Cuomo from running.
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