With Dire Picture of a Mamdani Mayoralty, Cuomo Plays to Voters' Fears
When former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo returned to the political arena in March as a candidate for mayor of New York City, he commemorated the moment with a 17-minute video describing the city as a place whose denizens nervously avoid eye contact with mentally ill homeless people as they walk past empty storefronts into foreboding subway stations.
Now, with less than two weeks until New Yorkers elect their next mayor, Mr. Cuomo has darkened the narrative further. Fashioning himself a 21st-century Cassandra, Mr. Cuomo has unspooled a grim prophecy for a city that seems poised to elect as its mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist half his age.
“Besides the practical impact of crime, plunging real estate prices, imagine the publicity nationwide, internationally, New York City goes socialist!” Mr. Cuomo, 67, told a crowd of businesspeople on Tuesday. “You’ll see revenue generators leave, you’ll see government spending increase, you’ll see plunging real estate values, and at worst, you see a redux of the 1970 fiscal crisis.”
He predicted certain “mayhem” if President Trump tried to “take over” New York City in response to a Mamdani victory.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/nyregion/cuomo-debate-mamdani.html