The Jewish Star endorses Andrew Cuomo for mayor in the Democratic Primary

Cuomo’s not a first choice, but the only choice. Vote to stop Mamdani.

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It’s understandable that some people find Andrew Cuomo unlikeable and irredeemably unsuited to be mayor of New York. It’s also understandable why many will nevertheless vote for Cuomo in the New York City Demoratic mayoral primary (ending next Tuesday, June 24, with early voting underway now through Sunday, June 22).

Count The Jewish Star among them.

Nearly four years ago, Cuomo resigned as governor, disgraced by credible allegations of sexual harassment. And while he was “America’s Governor” during COVID, speaking clearly and calmly to a frightened public, he also ordered hospitalized COVID-afflicted seniors back to their nursing homes, sentencing thousands — the returning seniors and those they would infect in their nursing homes — to likely death. He’s equovcated and outright lied about both scandals and refused to accept responsibility for the many deaths directly attributed to his actions.

Cuomo is an experienced manager who’s pushed through seemingly impossible projects with remarkable speed (including renovations at LaGuardia and JFK airports and Penn Station, and the construction of new Tappan Zee/Mario Cuomo and Kosciusko bridges). He’s also made some unforgivable mistakes.

But as the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance says so well in its statement in The Jewish Star print edition this week:

Cuomo is not a tzaddik. But this isn’t about liking him. We’re not choosing a rebbe — we’re choosing a shield.

Consider the alternative.

• • •

His leading challenger is Zohran Mamdani, an Asemblymember who repeatedly, unrepentantly champions antisemetic ideas and is opposed to the very existence of the Jewish state. And while a Mamdani administration’s inevitable refusal to prioritze the protection of Jewish New Yorkers would threaten Jewish lives, his extreme radical, socialist politics — toward housing and business and policing in general — poses a broader threat to the future of New York.

Even the New York Times’ editorial board — without referencing Jews or Israel — said on Monday that Mamdani “is running on an agenda uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges.”

On The Bulwark podcast on Tuesday, Mamdani equated the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with the Intifada.

“His moral laryngitis in the face of Iranian attacks on Israeli civilians further exposes his indifference to Jewish suffering and disqualifies him from any leadership role in this city,” said Rabbi Marc Schneir of the Hamptons Synagogue.

Right behind Mamdani on the anti-Israel left is Brad Lander. He also hates Israel, and as city comptroller cut back on a more than five-decades-long policy of including Israel Bonds in the investment portfolio of the city’s pension funds.

Lander has been clear about his distaste for Israel which, as with Mamdani, is not related to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Gaza war or the establishment of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, but rather to the Jewishness of Israel. Unlike Mamdani, Lander sometimes softpeddles his positions and hobnobs with rabbis and prominent Jews, and has generally good relations with Jewish communal leaders.

While Mamdani is clearly worse, neither is acceptable — especially since the two cross-endorsed each other, meaning that through ranked-choice voting, a vote for Lander will likely count for Mamdani. Lander’s stunt on Tuesday in which he provoked a confrontation with ICE agents will likely increase his (and thus Mamdani’s) tally, reminicent of candidate Bill de Blasio’s getting himself arrested in a demonstration of support for Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn (a cause de Blasio abandoned as mayor).

• • •

While the mayoral contest may continue through November, anyone who avoids voting for Cuomo in the primary because they’re banking on salvation in November (when the ballot may feature Republican Curtis Sliwa, Independents Eric Adams and Jim Walden, and Cuomo as an Independent, along with the Democratic nominee if that is not Cuomo) is playing Russian roulette.

In ranked voting — which allowed Eric Adams, who initially had only 30.7% of the vote, to win with 50.4% after eight rounds of ranking in 2021 — voters may vote for up to five candidates in a specified order of preference.

If no candidate immediately gets over 50% of the vote, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated. Votes for the eliminated candidate are then reallocated to the voters’ next-highest ranked choice who is still in the race. This process of elimination and reallocation of votes continues in rounds until only two candidates remain and the candidate with the most votes (over 50%) at that point is declared the winner.

Some Cuomo-haters who nonetheless understand that it’s essential for Cuomo to win see ranked voting as a device through which they can both protest and support the former governor. They’ll do this by ranking their preferred guaranteed-to-lose candidate as 1 and 2 before ranking Cuomo as 3.

If that’s what’s required for someone to add Cuomo to their ballot, so be it. (Just be sure not to rank either Mamdani or Lander — and remember, you do not have to rank anyone, you can simply vote Cuomo #1.)

We may find a Mayor Cuomo grating and our consciences may haunt us for voting for him, but we’ll have far more regrets if he loses.

Democratic voters worried about the future security of Jews in the Big Apple — as well as the future of the city itself — have no choice but to vote for Cuomo.

• • •

Jewish communal organizations have been slow to recognize the danger posed by this primary election and their messaging even at this late hour is often unhelpful.

Meanwhile, conservative Jewish voters in NYC who are registered as Republicans are, by default, supporting Mamdani’s rise.

Both Republicans and Democrats are free to vote Republican in November, but New York City remains a one-party town and you’ve got to be in it to win it — if you are not able to vote in the Democratic primary because you are a registered Republican you are ceding ground to those who would destroy us. Party affiliation should not trump the centrality of klal Yisrael.

NYC is not Long Island, where Republicans are competitive. City residents who want their votes to mean something must register as Democrats in order to participate in what are often election-deciding primaries.

We will hopefully dodge the bullet this time, but with the left ascending (as candidates like Mamdani, Lander and AOC expand their bases) we should anticipate more serious threats ahead.

Write: Eweintrob@TheJewishStar.com