08/13/2021
A blistering report, a denial, then a resignation: How will history judge Cuomo?
One bombshell begets another. A week after the attorney general's report documented cases of sexual harassment, Gov. Andrew Cuomo sat behind a New York City microphone and announced his
resignation, a stunning exit from the political stage.
When his father, Mario Cuomo, was governor, contemplating whether a run for the White House was to be or not to be, pundits dubbed him “Hamlet on the Hudson,” a man who they said thought too much.
When Andrew Cuomo took office in January 2011, he was determined not to sit around and wait for things to happen. In public life for more than 30 years at that time, the younger Cuomo pushed his legislative and executive agenda with a pugnacious my-way-or-the-highway style that bristled opponents and allies alike.
There were achievements: marriage equality, a $15 minimum wage, the $4-billion bridge he named for his father, and a science-based voice of reason at the center of the global pandemic, a stark contrast to the muddled White House messaging at the time.
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There were also nursing home deaths to COVID, a book deal that raised eyebrows and, after allegations of sexual harassment emerged in March 2021, a circle-the-wagons and control-the-narrative posture that forbade media at his public events. He would wait, Cuomo had said, for the report by Attorney General Letitia James before discussing the allegations: "Hamlet on the Hudson: The Sequel."
That lasted a week, a week full of howls for his resignation and plans for his impeachment. Even before Cuomo resigned Tuesday, allies and adversaries from Rochester to Westchester began taking stock of Cuomo’s legacy and wondering how history will treat the 56th governor of New York.
'A damn shame'
James’ report arrived weeks after New York marked the 10th anniversary of marriage equality, a signature legislative success in the first months of Cuomo’s first term.
In 2011, the governor was able to do what others had failed to in 2009: convince four Republican members of the state Senate to side with the Democrats in making same-sex marriage the law in New York, the first large state to do so. The final vote came in the waning minutes of the legislative session and Cuomo was on hand to sign it, practically before the ink was dry on the bill.
Marriage equality activist Michael Sabatino of Yonkers was in the Senate chamber that night a decade ago and has come to know the governor over the years. Sabatino's husband, Robert Voorheis, had lobbied for marriage equality.
"I think a lot of people in the LGBT community will always appreciate the efforts that he made to push for marriage equality," Sabatino said. "He had really organized the whole group of people from different aspects of the movement to try and get things done."
In the near term, the AG's report and impeachment and scandal and resignation is what New Yorkers will think of when they think of the governor.
"People hold on to the negative stuff," Sabatino said. "They don't always remember the positive stuff."
