Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - Andrew Cuomo continues to make headlines in a play to return to politics, possible as a candidate for his old job in Albany.
The former governor has been touting his record in office in recent ads, hinting at a possible comeback. But could this comeback happen sooner rather than later?
Cuomo's new commercial, "The Record," recaps his accomplishments while serving as New York's governor -- and acknowledges that he's made "mistakes."
Political analyst Ken Kruly of Politics and Stuff says Cuomo is talking like a candidate. "The speeches he's giving this past week and the commercials certainly are in the indications of a candidate," says Kruly. But whether he actually pulls the trigger and goes ahead and does that still remains to be seen.
Republican political strategist Carl Calabrese believes Cuomo's comeback is serious, but his question is when does Cuomo launch it. "Is this just a part of a long range campaign to rehabilitate his reputation and looking at some race down the road?" ponders Calabrese, who notes Cuomo is hinting at running this year.
Calabrese says a primary showdown vs. Governor Hochul is unlikely. "Just given the calendar, you have to have signatures filed to run in the Democratic primary by April 7, it's less than three weeks away," says Calabrese. He also notes the Hochul campaign could go through those with a fine tooth comb. "It's called scrubbing the petitions, and they're gonna make sure that those signatures are valid. And more importantly, they're going to make sure that the witness statements are, are valid, because if somebody gets a petition filled out with 25 signatures, and makes a mistake on the witness statement, the entire sheet of signatures is invalid," explains Calabrese.
The day to watch is April 19 according to Calabrese. "If he's planning on running as an independent on a new party that he would form, April 19, is the first day you can circulate petitions for an independent run in November. And you would have he would have until May 31," says Calabrese. To file petitions Calabrese says Cuomo would need 52,000 signatures, and they have to be valid.
Both Calabrese and Kruly believe it will be tough for Cuomo to get support from women. Calabrese says the allegations could come back to haunt Cuomo in any campaign. "Prosecutors' say the women were very credible in the charges they made. So you're going to see his opponents bringing that up. You could even see the women that accused him of harassment making commercials that would be extremely powerful and very negative for him," notes Calabrese. Kruly says Cuomo's record with the harassment charges will all be there for public display in all sorts of ways.
Kruly thinks Cuomo will develop his own party as he circulates petitions for an independent candidacy.
