Ego & Ambition in Play: Cuomo is in the Running. Mayor Adams’s Response, ‘Come One, Come All.’

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor -at-large
A political lightning rod, once called a “disrupter,” with an affected swagger and bombastic verbals intact, former Governor Andrew Cuomo is back. Current embattled Mayor Eric Adams pretty much said, “And what? ”
Slamming mayoral candidates who demanded that funds for the NYPD get reconfigured for other agencies, Cuomo, on the first day of Women’s History Month, announced that he was indeed running for the top job at City Hall.
“Come one, come all,” quipped Adams.

This is about to be an interesting spring-to-summer political season in NYC.
People can take polls with a pinch of salt, but for a while now, and certainly as of this week, Cuomo is polling at 33%, 10% for Adams, 8% for former Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Let the battle of the church-hopping begin. Laying hands on politicos like it’s the season, pastors and politicians are swaying in awkward unison in city pulpits. For four months the pre-June primary rhetoric will be diabolical media fodder.

Cuomo noted, “[President] Donald Trump is from NYC, and he knows our problems here. He knows we need federal help. I dealt with him as governor, remember, so there was a lot of back and forth. He’s another one from Queens; three of us Queens boys.”
In choosing Cuomo, political strategist and policy advisor Professor Basil Smikle told Our Time Press, “Democrats lose a very important talking point which is you can’t go after Trump to talk about his sexual harassment charges, when they’ve just elected someone whose been accused of similar things.”

As for electing Adams, the former Executive Director of the New York Democratic Party–Smikle assessed, “You also have a sitting mayor who is under indictment and could potentially have charges reinstated if Trump decides to.”
Charging that the “city is out of control,” Cuomo offered, “I know we can turn the city around, and I believe I can help.”

The 3-term governor was light on references to controversies in those terms, and legal woes that led to his spectacular resignation citing that he made some “mistakes” Claiming that he is a new and improved version of his former self, Cuomo, 67, said, “Did I make mistakes, some painfully? Definitely, and I believe I learned from them and that I am a better person for it, and I hope to show that every day.”

“I have a great record to run on,” said Adams, an indicted mayor, widely seen to have a quid pro quo deal with Trump to make his five federal charges go away so long as he adheres to his controversial immigration policy. “We look forward to the campaign.”
Somebody get the salty sweet popcorn for the up-coming verbal fisticuffs.
Prison reform and city law enforcement observers swear off Cuomo and his increase in the police narrative. Adams’ critics note that under his curious cooperation deal, he testified before Congress this past Wednesday, March 5, 2025, about the City’s response to Trump’s immigration policy and NYC’s Sanctuary City status.

But, wait… another surprise from the Queens side of town perhaps?
At press time, with an exploratory committee working the angles, City Council Speaker Adrenne Adams was ruminating over the idea that she might enter the already crowded field of wannabe mayoral candidates.

She used her Tuesday, March 4th, 2025 State of the City address to talk about the powerful female-strong 51 member City Council.
Delivering her fourth such speech at the Jazz at Lincoln Center she focused on “producing solutions to our city’s biggest challenges – from maternal mortality to child poverty,” the mother of four, and grandmother of 12 proclaimed, “I learned quickly that what often seems too big to change is possible when we work together.”
Our Time Press asked former assemblyman Professor Roger Green what he thought of her chances?

“If she demonstrates that she has a steady hand and shows that she can balance the budget, she can be formidable. People have seen her ability to manage the city. Like Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in Albany, who has a steady and deliberative approach.”
Amongst the announced mayoral candidates are State Senators Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, current Comptroller Brad Lander, and former city Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Predicting a reemergence of what would be “the Andrew Cuomo show,” Myrie said of the former governor’s weekend announcement video, “17 minutes & no criticism of the fascist President attacking NYC on the daily. Smdh.”
As their ego and ambition may be in play, Crown Heights Myrie said, “We deserve better than selfish leaders who spent decades in office putting their desire for power above New Yorkers’ needs.”

Professor Green, a Senior fellow at CUNY, said that a NYC mayor would need to challenge the “malignant narcissist who has watched over the severe crisis since the election.”
With a Black attorney general, majority leader, Democratic control of both houses in Albany, and a public advocate, there is an “extraordinary aggregation of power, but the optics are now centered around the mayor.”
Conditions are dire, but challengeable Green said.

A mayor of New York needs to be able to stand for the city unequivocally.
An Assembly member when Cuomo was Governor Rev. Michael Blake told Our Time Press, “COVID Cuomo cared more about protecting his book deal than protecting the most vulnerable New Yorkers. He allegedly cared more about his romantic impulses than respecting women in the workplace. COVID Cuomo [sent] grandparents to die in Nursing Homes…
“Cuomo cares more about his ego than the price of eggs. He did us all a favor when he resigned from elected office. Now it’s our job to make sure he stays out.”

Up to a dozen women accused the then-governor of sexual harassment, partly leading to his resignation in 2021. Cuomo was steeped in controversy when the city and state were still grappling with COVID, and he was publicly accused of sending previously hospitalized seniors back to nursing homes, and then released inaccurate death rate numbers, and then he accepted a $5 million deal to write a book on his management of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

“They are two flawed candidates,” Columbia Professor Smikle told Our Time Press, “Cuomo comes in with high name recognition and the ability to raise a lot more money than Eric Adams’s current opponents. The Mayor has had some difficulty raising money, but he still has a lot of support from the electorate. So despite good campaigns run by a number of his challengers, all of the focus will now turn to Andrew Cuomo and how he performs and responds to any criticism about the sexual claims against him.”

Rev. Herbert Daughtry defended Adams, his “spiritual son” and longtime friend.
“Welcome, Mr. Cuomo, Adrienne Adams, and whoever else. Welcome all participants,” he told Our Time Press. “I am going with Mayor Eric Adams – sink or swim. My loyalty and friendship doesn’t rise and fall with which way the political or legal winds are blowing.”