Cuomo campaign attorney goes after union that criticized him

Politico

02-06-2025

NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo's campaign attorney recently threatened a union that endorsed one of his rivals, issuing a cease-and-desist letter over its criticisms of the frontrunning New York City mayoral candidate, according to a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO.
Longtime election lawyer Martin Connor admonished the Manhattan-based Communications Workers of America Local 1180, alleging its campaign literature made 'false and defamatory claims' against the former governor.
The union endorsed Cuomo opponent Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker who stands to draw some votes away from the former governor's base of Black Democrats. A super PAC backing Cuomo has handily outspent Adams — and every other candidate — with $8 million so far, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. Adams is expected to begin airing ads soon, following a $2 million cash infusion from the city's Campaign Finance Board Friday.
A filer posted to the union's website — dubbed the 'top 10 reasons' not to support Cuomo — matches the issues outlined in Connor's letter.
Among the lawyer's complaints laid out in the May 26 missive: The flier accused the ex-governor of never having been a New York City resident, claimed he settled a Department of Justice probe over sexual harassment allegations, charged his gubernatorial administration with covering up nursing home deaths during Covid and said he allowed a high tax rate on wealthy people to expire.
And Connor took issue with the group claiming Cuomo is not a 'friend' of workers.
Politically influential unions 32BJ SEIU and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council are among the labor groups backing Cuomo — despite calling for his 2021 resignation. Adams has the backing of the CWA local and District Council 37, the largest public-sector union in the city that boosted her for Council speaker and once employed her chief of staff.
Additional assertions in the union's flier — including Cuomo's push for a less generous pension tier, cost-saving labor contracts and the taxpayer money spent to defend him against sexual harassment allegations — were omitted from the letter.
Connor threatened to contact elections officials and state Attorney General Letitia James — a Cuomo foe and Adams backer — 'for your deceptive and misleading claims which may interfere with legitimate voters seeking to exercise their franchise free of this sort of misinformation.'
Union President Gloria Middleton declined to comment 'under the advice of my attorney.' Adams' campaign also declined to comment.
Cuomo's hardball tactics — honed over a half-century of working on campaigns — are well-known and oft-reviled in New York's political world.
'It's no surprise that Adreiene Adams and her supporters are willfully distorting and lying about the governor — they've been doing it the whole campaign,' Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said. 'New Yorkers should not be fed misinformation by people seeking to represent them — they deserve the truth and will be fighting Trumpian misinformation tactics every step of the way using every tool at our disposal.'
The letter is an aggressive effort by Cuomo to silence supporters of a rival candidate before the June 24 primary, which polls show he is expected to win. It also underscores how the former governor's campaign is taking a combative posture when countering the scandals that drove him from office four years ago.
Cuomo has insisted he did not purposefully hide Covid nursing home fatalities, but his administration was later found to have undercounted the number of people who died in the facilities during the initial months of the pandemic. Cuomo, who has touted his Covid leadership on the campaign trail, is reportedly under a Department of Justice investigation after a Republican-led House panel alleged he lied under oath that he personally edited a state report on the matter. Cuomo has denied lying to Congress, and on Sunday said he and his attorneys have yet to be contacted about the probe.
Some of Connor's complaints are valid; others focus on rhetoric that Cuomo's critics frequently hurl at him.
Cuomo is a New York City native. He grew up in Queens, though he spent the last two decades living in Westchester County and Albany before moving to Manhattan ahead of his mayoral run. Contrary to the union's flier, the former governor was not party to a DOJ settlement which was reached with his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and he's denied any wrongdoing.
The debate over the so-called millionaire's tax is more nuanced. In 2011, Cuomo faced pressure on his left flank to maintain a high tax surcharge set to expire at the end of that year. Cuomo negotiated a compromise that resulted in a lower tax for wealthy people, but at a higher rate if the surcharge had been allowed to expire. Cuomo's critics at the time derided the deal as a giveaway to millionaires. He embraced higher taxes on rich New Yorkers in 2021, citing the financial toll from Covid.
Cuomo battled with labor leaders early in his first term as governor. He pressed public-sector unions for cost-saving contracts amid a financial crunch and threatened mass layoffs if the savings weren't achieved. He eventually secured the deals he wanted.