By Dan Murphy
Governor Andrew Cuomo came to the City of Mt. Vernon in Westchester on March 22 to announce the launch of the “Roll Up Your Sleeve” Campaign to promote houses of worship of all faiths across the state to sign up as vaccination sites for their communities. Cuomo was welcomed at the Grace Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon by Rev. Franklyn Richardson. This is the largest church in Westchester with a capacity for 2,500 worshipers.
Cuomo’s visit and appearance comes in the middle of a pushback of sorts by the Governor and his supporters against calls for his resignation stemming from 7 allegations of sexual harrassment made against him. The Governor’s support remains strong in the black community, and a recent statement by members of the NY Black clergy, and another by almost two dozen Assembly women, asking for time to allow NY Attorney General Letitia James to complete her investigation into the allegations before any actions against Cuomo are taken, have given Cuomo a political life preserver of sorts.
Former Congressman Charlie Rangel said, ““When people start piling up on you … you go to your family, and you go to your friends, because you know that they are going to be with you. Back off, until you’ve got some facts,”
The statement by 21 Democratic women Assembly Members, led by Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, reads, “We believe that the Attorney General will exercise due process and expediency in her deliberations. We continue to support our Attorney General, the first woman, and the first African American woman to be elected to this position, as she launches this investigation. We request that she be allowed the appropriate time to complete her investigation rather than undermine her role and responsibility as the chief law enforcement officer of the state of New York. Our democracy demands that we be diligent and expeditious in our search for truth and justice. This matter deserves no less degree of care. We collectively request that all complaints involving sexual misconduct or otherwise be made with the Attorney General of the state of New York. We respectfully want to honor all situations simultaneously and believe the Attorney General is best equipped to do just that.” end of statement.
The statement by over two dozen members of the black clergy in New York State, including Rev. Richardson, reads, “As clergy in the African American and Latino communities, we stand with those Assemblywomen who believe that Attorney General Leticia James, the first African American and woman ever elected to be the people’s lawyer, be empowered to conduct a thorough probe of the governor. We agree with their position that the Attorney General should not be undermined as the chief law enforcement officer in the State of New York by preventing the investigation or, as we would put it, rendering such an investigation moot.”
Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and President of the National Action Network, joined the event in Mt. Vernon about vaccinations. “Houses of Worship are also places of refuge and trust and there is no better place to have people confidently roll up their sleeves. We need Faith Leaders to rise up to the moment and help save people’s lives that we are committed to serve.”
“Faith leaders are the most trusted voices in their respective communities, and with their help, we will be able to reach those New Yorkers who have suffered the most from this pandemic and bring the vaccine to the communities that got hit the hardest by COVID,” Governor Cuomo said. “Through this collaborative initiative, we will make sure that no neighborhood gets left behind in the vaccination phase of this ongoing fight. We have a duty to make sure the vaccine distribution is fair and equitable so that our communities that suffered the most in the peak of the pandemic do not get hit with yet another injustice.”
All houses of worship can begin to serve as points of distribution for the COVID vaccine starting in April, significantly increasing the number of doses they can administer. As part of this new campaign, medical providers are being asked to volunteer to partner with houses of worship to conduct vaccination clinics, furthering the state’s commitment to ensure fairness and equity in the vaccine distribution process.
This campaign builds on the state’s efforts to bring the vaccine to underserved communities and combat vaccine hesitancy through houses of worship. The Governor previously encouraged religious leaders of all faiths to partner with the state to establish pop-up vaccination sites at their facilities, and since March 8, over 200 new houses of worship have signed up to serve their communities. Houses of worship of all faiths are eligible to serve as points of distribution for the COVID vaccine. Interested medical providers and houses of worship can sign up here.https://www.youtube.com/embed/APohdvyqSIQ SHARE
Recent polling among New Yorkers finds 69% of black voters believe Cuomo should not resign (Sienna Poll), and a majority of all New Yokers think that Cuomo should stay in office. Cuomo also has the support of 59% of black voters if he decides to run for a fourth term in 2022, with 52% of all New Yorkers polling that he should not run again.
The Governor’s efforts at a political comeback and rehab, come from a strategy that “most black voters are older, femail and not on social media. They voted for his father Mario Cuomo and will vote for Andrew again,” as one Cuomo insider told the NY Times and Politico.
The only flaw in this strategy is that the two most powerful black elected officials in New York, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, have both called on Cuomo to reign. So have Congressmembers from Westchester Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman.
