By Dan Murphy
Former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo may have gotten the initial media response that he wanted from a 30-second commercial titled Politcs vs The Law, which the fact that criminal charges were not filed against him, and claims that NY Attorney General Letitia James ignored exculpatory evidence about Cuomo’s accusers. The TV ad includes the voices of Rachel Maddow and a Daily News editorial headline which read an innocent man. “Political attacks won, And New Yorkers lost a proven leader,” is how the ad ends.
The ad, paid for with some of the $16 Million that Cuomo has remaining in his campaign war chest, got the requisite buzz from the media, most of who speculated if, when and where Cuomo would return to politics and run for office.
But after the one day of media buzz, the responses from Women’s organizations and Female elected officials across the state realistically put an end to any notion that Andrew Cuomo will ever run for any office again.
NY Attorney General Letitia James, who continues to be the target of many of Cuomo’s attacks, from his spokesman, Rich Azzopardi and his attorney Rita Glavin, blasted the TV ad. “The only thing Andrew Cuomo has proven himself to be is a serial sexual harasser and a threat to women in the workplace, no TV ad can change that. It’s shameful that after multiple investigations found Cuomo’s victims to be credible, he continues to attack their accounts rather than take responsibility for his own actions.”
Nine women’s rights organizations also released a statment saying “Shame on Cuomo.”
“Instead of accepting responsibility, serial sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo continues to challenge the accounts of victims. Multiple investigations have found the accounts of these women to be credible. The media should stop giving a platform to abusers like Cuomo. As evidenced by recent public polling, New Yorkers believe the women who bravely came forward about Cuomo’s abuse; they think Cuomo was right to leave office in disgrace. This attempt to claim exoneration won’t work. Shame on serial sexual harasser Andrew Cuomo.”
The organizations signing the statement include:
–Jenna Bimbi, Executive Director, NY Birth Control Action Fund
–Liuba Grechen Shirley, Founder and CEO, Vote Mama
–Kathleen Landy, Executive Director, The Feminist Institute
–Catherine Lederer-Plaskett, President/Chair, WCLA – Choice Matters
–Sophie Nir, Executive Director, Eleanor’s Legacy
–Jamila Pringle-Fynes, President, NYC Black Women’s Political Club
–Heidi Sieck, Co-Founder and CEO, #VoteProChoice
–Marti Speranza Wong, Executive Director, Amplify Her
–The Executive Leadership Team, Women of Color for Progress
Upstate NY Congresswoman Elise Stefanik tweeted, “This is desperately deranged. New Yorkers don’t want an apology tour from a corrupt criminal. Andrew Cuomo should be behind bars, not on our TV screens.” Rep. Stefanik is a conservative, Trump republican, but her comments echo those of the democrats who wrote the letter.
Estimates have Cuomo spending $369,000 on the ad buy. Westchester District Attorney Mimi Rocah was one of four DA’s in New York State that declined to press charges against Cuomo. But what Cuomo, who resigned last year after 11 women accused him of sexual harrasment and AG James conducted an investigation in which she believed the accusers, is that just because criminal charges were not made against him, he is not exonerated, or forgiven, or will be welcomed back to the NY Democratic Party.
A recent Sienna poll found 60% of New Yorkers still view Cuomo unfavorably, and 56% of voters still believe that Cuomo was not vindicated. Sienna pollster Steve Greenburgh summed it all up the best when he said, “New Yorkers are not ready to forgive and forget when it comes to Cuomo.”
We also wonder if any of the donors to Cuomo’s campaign would want a refund, instead of watching the wasterful spending of political funds for a candidate with no party to run in and no office to run for.
