Lindsey Boylan helped drive Andrew Cuomo from workplace in 2021 when the previous aide got here ahead as the primary lady to accuse the governor of sexual harassment.
On the time she had allies in excessive locations: Each New York Democrat in Congress, the state’s legislative leaders and then-President Joe Biden all condemned Cuomo’s conduct and mentioned he ought to resign.
However now that Cuomo is again as a severe contender within the race to be mayor of New York Metropolis, lots of these high Democrats have little to say about his candidacy.
To Boylan, that seems like a betrayal — one that may’t merely be defined away as an easing of #MeToo outrage.
“If something has modified, momentarily, it’s that throughout our nation, throughout points, individuals who needs to be talking up, aren’t,” Boylan, who served within the Cuomo administration for 3 years, mentioned in an interview with The Related Press.
“I don’t think anything has specifically changed with women being angry about how our rights are being taken away,” she said. “But the fact that most of our leaders are more interested in staying comfortable and staying in their jobs than actually protecting us and defending us. That’s gotten much worse.”
Cuomo resigned in 2021 after a report launched by the state lawyer basic concluded that he had sexually harassed 11 ladies, together with Boylan.
AP
AP
Demonstrators, together with Lindsey Boylan, second from proper, a former aide to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who accused him of an undesirable kiss, stand exterior a fundraiser in New York, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photograph/Richard Drew)
Now, Cuomo is a frontrunner within the mayoral race, whilst state and celebration leaders, whereas not heat to his candidacy, haven’t condemned it both.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who as Cuomo’s lieutenant governor had known as his alleged conduct with ladies “repulsive and unlawful,” mentioned Tuesday she stood by these feedback. However, she added, she needed to “deal within the actuality right this moment.”
“I have to go forward in light of where we are today and deal with whatever the voters decide to deal with,” she mentioned, including that she would work with Cuomo if he was elected.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand mentioned on the NY1 tv station that Cuomo made errors, however was additionally a proficient govt who did good issues as governor. It was as much as New York Metropolis voters whether or not he deserved a second probability, she mentioned, declining to provide her personal opinion on his candidacy.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Home minority chief, mentioned final week that he wouldn’t endorse a candidate till after town’s June main. The workplace of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority chief, declined to remark.
Cuomo comeback linked to dysfunction in New York Metropolis Corridor
That Cuomo is a reputable candidate is probably going resulting from a mixture of elements, consultants mentioned. These embrace the previous governor’s aggressive effort to discredit his accusers and his deep document of accomplishments as governor, in addition to a area of mayoral candidates with little identify recognition and an ongoing sense of dysfunction at Metropolis Corridor.
Mayor Eric Adams, the incumbent, was indicted in September on federal corruption expenses and is now coping with a tempest of criticism after President Donald Trump’s newly put in Justice Division leaders requested a court docket to drop the case so Adams might help with the federal authorities’s immigration crackdown.
In a press release, a Cuomo spokesperson, Wealthy Azzopardi, mentioned a number of prosecutors have dug into the allegations the previous governor sexually harassed ladies and none have sought to pursue the circumstances. He accused Boylan of constructing false accusations throughout a failed run for a neighborhood political workplace in 2020, and accused her of bullying conduct.
Over the weekend, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo formally entered the NYC mayoral race after months of hypothesis. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, together with a crowded area of different contenders, did not waste time taking photographs at him. NBC New York’s Andrew Cuomo stories.
“Three years, five district attorney reviews that resulted in zero cases and civil cases that were either dropped or are dying on the vine,” Azzopardi mentioned, calling that “a clarifying dose of due process.”
New York Metropolis “is in crisis and everybody knows that Andrew Cuomo has the experience, the record and the skill to help save it,” he added.
Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse College, mentioned the present mayor’s authorized and political troubles assist place Cuomo on the entrance of the pack of candidates.
“New York is in such a state of chaos and the federal government wants somebody to return in and take cost and run the present. He’s well-matched for that second,” he mentioned.
To not Boylan, although, who joined an indication exterior a Cuomo marketing campaign fundraising occasion on Tuesday.
“His path to victory is to destroy the women he abused,” she instructed the AP. “I’ll do everything within my power and my sense of ethics to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Boylan, who mentioned she was subjected to an undesirable kiss and inappropriate feedback from Cuomo, was disenchanted however not shocked that different Democrats in New York had not spoken out extra forcefully.
“Probably the most highly effective folks in New York politics are afraid of him,” she mentioned.
Different feminine ex-aides described fielding kisses — generally on the lips — and sexually charged questions and remarks from him about their private lives and look.
One aide, Brittany Commisso, filed a prison grievance accusing Cuomo of groping her breast whereas they had been alone in an workplace on the governor’s mansion, however a neighborhood district lawyer declined to prosecute, citing lack of adequate proof.
Cuomo apologized for having “offended” the ladies with remarks he mentioned had been meant to be collegial, and allowed that he generally had been “too familiar” with folks. However he denied touching anybody inappropriately and mentioned the investigation of his conduct was flawed and politically motivated.
Legal professional Normal Letitia James, the Democrat who commissioned the sexual harassment investigation, herself briefly ran for governor in 2021 after Cuomo resigned, however dropped out after two months.
Trump helps reshape concept of what’s acceptable
Cuomo’s legal professionals and representatives have since fought to vindicate him amid a number of lawsuits from his accusers. Cuomo even has indicated he plans to file a defamation go well with in opposition to one of many ladies, former aide Charlotte Bennett.
Regardless of the accusations, Cuomo has lined up some endorsements from ladies in politics. Metropolis Council Member Kamillah Hanks, a Staten Island Democrat, mentioned in her assertion endorsing Cuomo that the “unprecedented times” known as for a “strong, unapologetic” chief.
Trump, who has himself been accused of sexual misconduct and was discovered liable in 2023 by a New York Metropolis jury for sexual abuse, expenses he denied, has additionally reshaped the thought of what’s acceptable conduct for public officers, mentioned Leigh Gilmore, a professor emeritus at Ohio State College and writer of “The #MeToo Effect: What Happens When We Believe Women.”
“The political winds have shifted with Trump being in office, where it’s not agreed anymore that those are disqualifying allegations,” she mentioned.
“What Cuomo is betting on is that New York City will say, ‘We need a strong man,’” she mentioned.
