CONTENTS

Editor-in-chief HERE AT CITY & STATE, our editorial team picked up on how Attorney General Letitia James is in the same position Andrew Cuomo was 13 years ago when he held the office and investigated then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s fall from grace. Now that Cuomo’s the one being investigated for alleged sexual misconduct in an independent probe overseen by James, we wondered if history will repeat itself.

Will James follow the same path to the governor’s office? Some political experts say it’s a likely possibility, even though she hasn’t officially indicated any interest in running to be New York state’s top executive, writes Amanda Luz Henning Santiago in this week’s cover story.

Meanwhile, others who have worked with James have insisted that she’s not trying to parlay the AG’s office into a run for governor, but just trying to do her job. Being attorney general does put James in charge of the biggest investigations in the state.

Oftentimes, women of color, especially Black women, are seen as being criticized by the media for being ambitious, and that’s a major concern within the diverse communities City & State covers. Henning Santiago’s story illustrates that ambition is a core aspect of New York politics, and the ambition of white male politicians is sometimes viewed in a more positive light. We recognize that James has her work cut out for her at the moment with this investigation.

The future will tell if City & State’s wonderings were right.

New York used federal aid to supplant school budgets, rather than supplement them.

The week that was

Letitia James takes on the Cuomo allegations

Will Cuomo’s scandals lead to progressive wins?

The most politically influential legal professionals

The pandemic made teaching so much more difficult

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie gave the go-ahead for an impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

After weeks of building pressure, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie authorized an impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to be conducted by the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, over recent sexual misconduct accusations and his alleged cover-up of COVID-19 nursing home deaths. Heastie’s announcement doesn’t mean the Assembly is actually moving to impeach the governor yet, or even that an impeachment vote is guaranteed to happen, but the historic move brings lawmakers one step closer to the prospect. And it indicates that whatever remaining support Cuomo has in Albany seems to be dwindling. A growing number of state lawmakers have called on Cuomo to resign. Every Republican state senator wants him out, and 59 Democratic legislators released a joint statement reiterating their individual calls for him to step down. And at least 10 Democratic members of New York’s congressional delegation, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman and Carolyn Maloney, joined in the chorus of calls for Cuomo’s resignation. However, nearly two dozen female Assembly members released a statement asking people to wait for the conclusion of Attorney General Letitia James’ independent investigation. Their announcement came after details about a sixth accuser came to

SPORTS FINAL

Tuesday, March 9, 2021

NEW YORK’S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER HARLEM HORROR BEAU’S MONSTER PASTPAGE 5

High school students in the city will be able to resume in-person learning on March 22.

ANSWERING THE BELL PAGE 4 City high schools to reopen

For the first time since November, cooped up New York City teenagers will walk the vinyl-coated floors of their schools, as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that high schools will reopen for in-person instruction again. In-person classes will start for some students later this month, just about the time of spring that kids start yearning to be let out of school for summer.

– Assembly Member Ron Kim, on baseless conspiracy theories that sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo are a Republican plot to remove him from office, via the Daily News

– Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa, in a 2020 text message to state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi that was recently published, via New York magazine light that represented an escalation from the previous claims. An unnamed female aide to the governor claimed Cuomo groped her when they were alone in the Executive Mansion last year. The governor’s office referred the complaint to the Albany Police Department. This is on top of the ongoing nursing home scandal, which is in part driving calls for Cuomo’s resignation and impeachment. In the latest development, the Cuomo administration reportedly tried to get details from the federal government about what numbers they would release about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, and whether they would differ from what the state publicly reported. At the time, the state was not including hospital deaths of nursing home residents.

Congress passed and Biden signed an enormous $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that’s set to deliver some $100 billion to New York state. In addition to money for struggling small businesses, schools, transit and other things, the stimulus includes direct and unrestricted funds sent to state and local governments. The state will receive about $12.6 billion – a little less than the

$15 billion Cuomo had been demanding for months, but still a huge sum that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spokesperson said was more than enough to cover the state’s budget deficit. The aid package was approved as budget negotiations begin to ramp up in Albany amid differing opinions about the actual state of New York’s finances. The governor’s office continues to paint a fairly grim picture, even with the cumulative aid that the state has received, while state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said that New York might actually be looking at budget surpluses this year and next, while still warning about a cloudy long-term outlook. New York City will also receive $6 billion, independent of the state’s funding.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. recently announced he won’t run for a fourth term. Although this was the first confirmation he wasn’t running, his lack of fundraising and failure to participate in candidate forums indicated as much. Eight candidates are running in the Democratic primary to replace him, a race that was crowded long before it was clear that Vance wouldn’t run again. Whoever wins the primary is all but guaranteed to become the next district attorney and will likely inherit Vance’s investigations into former President Donald Trump. Those investigations have been gaining steam since Trump left office.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance will leave behind a high-profile Trump investigation after his term is up.

One might say that Corey Johnson already fell victim to the City Council speaker curse. After all, his run for mayor ended before it began, when he closed his fledgling campaign in September and became the latest speaker to unsuccessfully seek higher office after leading the city’s legislative body. Three of the four speakers before him ran for mayor and lost in the Democratic primary. The other, Melissa Mark-Viverito, ran for both public advocate, then Congress, and lost in both primaries.

Now six months after opting out of the 2021 elections, Johnson is opting back in. He officially kicked off his campaign for New York City comptroller March 9 with a press conference in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park. And with that, he’ll get a second shot at becoming the first speaker in the modern era to extend his life in electoral politics.

“Anyone who’s been speaker and run for citywide office, it’s clearly known it comes with difficulties,” said Camille Rivera, a political strategist who worked on Mark-Viverito’s 2020 congressional campaign. “You’re coming from a place where compromise is the name of the game. You’ve got 51 members … with different priorities.”

With that comes difficult decisions under a spotlight that borough presidents or even the city comptroller rarely have to deal with, like we saw in last year’s budget battle over reducing funding for the NYPD that was thought to have damaged Johnson politically.

The job of speaker could also be deceptively powerful when it comes to electoral politics. “The reality is that the speaker position is not a citywide election position,” since they’re chosen by members, and not the public, Mark-Viverito told City & State. To win higher office, she said, “You have to be able to break beyond your district and make the pitch to a larger population in a multiracial, multilingual city.” But does Mark-Viverito believe the job is cursed? “I think that’s overstating it,” she said.

Curse or not, Johnson seems to have a good chance at winning the race for comptroller. Other leading candidates like City Council Member Brad Lander, state Sen. Brian Benjamin and Assembly Member David Weprin have already accumulated a ton of endorsements and support before Johnson entered the race and have been actively campaigning for months. But Johnson should be able to catch up quickly. Thanks to the fundraising for his abandoned mayoral campaign, Johnson will actually enter the race having raised more private funds than any of his opponents. – Jeff Coltin

MONDAY 3/15

Start getting ready to network in person. The state begins allowing “catered events” of up to 150 people. INSIDE DOPE

Politicos are whispering about how the governor announced new pandemic rules before responding to ongoing scandals at press briefings. TUESDAY 3/16

The New York City Council Public Safety Committee holds a 9:30 a.m. preliminary budget hearing and reviews a police reform draft plan, with testimony from the NYPD. FRIDAY 3/19

City & State hosts an affordable housing virtual forum at 10 a.m. featuring two state senators and four Assembly members.

LAST WEEK, Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani shared on “The Capitol Pressroom” that he and five other democratic socialist legislators frequently get together to strategize. “We are currently known as ‘Socialists in Office.’ We’re looking for any new names,” he told WCNY. The squad of like-minded state lawmakers includes state Sens. Jabari Brisport and Julia Salazar, and Assembly Members Mamdani, Emily Gallagher, Marcela Mitaynes and Phara Souffrant Forrest.

We took to Twitter and ran a 24-hour poll with four options, and now we’re excited to share the winner, the runnerups, the endorsements and the write-in suggestions. 754 people voted in total.

WINNER: RED BLOC, 38.9% Inspired by a tweet from state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, this nickname was triumphant. IN A CLOSE SECOND: CAPITOL COMRADES, 36.1% This one was endorsed as the “the only right answer among these options” by Salazar, and it almost took home the gold. Maybe we should trigger an instant runoff election, rankedchoice style? IN A DISTANT THIRD: THE SOCIAL JUSTICE LEAGUE, 14.6% In the vein of the “Wonder Twins,” this one would most easily translate to the silver screen, but alas, most people did not go for it. At least no one has to fight DC for branding rights. IN LAST PLACE: BERN’ UNIT, 10.5% No one was feeling this particular Bern, but we’re considering running this poll again four years from now and seeing if the nickname has more appeal. WINNER: ROSE CAUCUS This would be a great suggestion, and we happen to have a fake cover already mocked up, but it’s already taken by an unaffiliated organization. No one wants that drama.