Adams and Cuomo’s Independent Line Choice: Shrewd Move or Panic Decision?

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
Independence is a great thing. But switching lanes in a two-party system can have either positive rewards or drastic consequences.
Mayoral candidates, incumbent Eric Adams and high-polling former Governor Andrew Cuomo, are about to find out. Perhaps.

Cuomo created a new buzz in the race when he announced that, like Adams, he would now run on the Independent line. Was this political savvy, desperation, or a certified chess move?
Will November be a Brooklyn–Queens showdown? Or will it be a Queens versus Queens mayoral candidate face-off with Adam, Cuomo, Speaker Adrienne Adams, or Assemblyman Zohan Mamdani?

“Whoever wins the Democratic Primary will win the General Election,” predicted former Assemblyman and City Councilman Charles Barron. The primary occurs on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025.
A leading Brooklyn clergy member told Our Time Press, “Cuomo knew he was in trouble on the Democratic line. Zohan Mamdami is high in the polls, and he could not guarantee the win, so he thought he would increase his chances by running on a second line.”

In declaring that he was also running as an Independent on his “Fight and Deliver Party” line, Cuomo said, “Over the last several months, as I’ve been out talking to New Yorkers, one thing has become clear: there is a disillusionment with the Democratic Party by some—a feeling that the party has been hijacked, that it doesn’t produce real results, and that it doesn’t fight for working people anymore”

As “proof” of his electioneering theorizing career-long Democrat Cuomo statement continued, “in the election in 2024, when, right here in New York City, 500,000 Democrats stayed home rather than vote for Kamala Harris; and in 2022, when we had the closest gubernatorial election in nearly 30 years.”
“This November, in addition to securing the Democratic nomination, my campaign will work to build the largest possible coalition and secure the biggest possible mandate…by starting the Fight and Deliver Party to appeal to disillusioned Democrats, as well as to independents and Republicans.”

Mamdani retorted, “I guess ‘Close Hospitals, Neglect Transit and Cut Taxes for Billionaires’ line was too many words for the ballot?”
Mayor Adams has repeatedly said that Cuomo is simply copying his ideas and playbook.
As he runs on his “Safe & Affordable” and “EndAntiSemitism” line, Adams shrugged off the move. “I mean, it just seems like he’s just going through the motions. Isn’t it strange to you that he now wants an independent line like Eric?”
Criticizing Cuomo’s similar housing strategy and questioning his similar patronizing of Black churches, Adams quipped, “I thought the word was ‘I’m going to be like Mike, not I’m going to be like Eric.’”

Operation POWER co-founder Charles Barron is not impressed with any of the candidates: “New Yorkers don’t have any good choices. It seems that with Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo, and Trump, crime pays. These are corrupt individuals who shouldn’t even be in politics.”
Investigated by Attorney General Tish James during his third term, then-Governor Cuomo resigned after 11 women accused him of sexual harassment. Then there was the question of the actual number of fatalities during the COVID-era scandal of seniors sent back to nursing homes from hospitals.

As for Adams, he saw his five-count federal corruption and bribery charges dropped, after an alleged quid pro quo deal with President Trump’s administration and his immigration deportation policy.

This past Monday, while Cuomo received $1.5 million in matching funds, the Campaign Finance Board threatened to withhold $622,056 from his campaign, as they investigated the charge Gothamist reported “for breaking campaign finance rules by improperly coordinating with a super PAC dubbed Fix the City.”

At the same time, the campaign finance board determined that Mayor Adams once again did not qualify for matching funds. He faces several Independent candidates on November 4th, 2025, including Cuomo, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and lawyer Jim Walden.
Fusion voting will add to two-line candidate totals, Barron pointed out, so “Anything can happen, but it seems like Cuomo is ahead in the Democratic race. They have fusion voting in New York. So whatever Cuomo gets on the Democratic line, plus the Independent line, will be added up to his overall vote.”

As for Cuomo extending his political range, Barron said, “It doesn’t make a big difference at all. He is selling out his own party by going on another line to take away from what Eric Adams may take away from him on his Independent line.”

Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa told Our Time Press, “They may be running as an Independent because more people than ever before in NYC consider themselves to be Independent,” plugging his own campaign, and saying that his numbers were running at “30% on the Independent line.”

“Cuomo deciding to run as an Independent was a shrewd move. He is making sure that he can play in the General Election,” said political strategist Basil Smikle.

However, the Professor of Practice and Director of Columbia’s M.S. in Nonprofit Management Program, told Our Time Press, “Rank choice voting makes figuring out a definite winner at this point complicated, but, I think Cuomo has a lot of number one votes, but, I don’t know if Cuomo has a number two, and I don’t know anyone who has Cuomo as number one – who they have as a number two. I don’t know ideologically who that would be. It would have been Eric Adams, but he is no longer running in the Democratic Party. Adrienne…Mandami…Landers are a lot of people’s number one. There are a lot of twos in play, so it is really hard to say. The rank choice voting makes for a very uncertain environment.”

Roger Toussaint, the former President of Transport Workers Union, told Our Time Press, “It is hard not to get excited about and behind Mamdani’s campaign. His ultra progressive program – free buses, rent freezing, free childcare, $30 minimum wage–would be considered farfetched, but his success speaks volumes, especially in this political climate, and to me indicates the populace is saying no more pussyfooting, go hard or go home. He should be supported.”

The one-time head of Local 100 New York, who helped coordinate the December 2005 MTA strike, which shut down public transport for 3 days, added, “Cuomo is the father of Tier 6. Tier 6 was the first rollback of pension progress in some 35 years, since the 1970s. He did more damage to labor than any governor in the past several decades, imposing layoffs to extract historic concessions across the public sector.

Those were his commitments to real estate and business interests in New York to whom he was completely beholden. And now he is willing to say anything to get back in the business.”