31 December 2021: Andrew M. Cuomo's Annus Horribilus

After Cuomo's decade in power, 2021 became his 'horrible year'

Annus Horribilus is Latin for "horrible year", which is certainly true from the perspective of the resigned-in-disgrace former governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo. The following excerpt cites the view of respected political observer Hank Sheinkopf:

After 10 highflying years as governor, 2021 was Andrew M. Cuomo’s annus horribilis, when he tumbled from the national heights to resigning in disgrace, staining his legacy and taking down friends and family with him.

Just 12 months ago, Cuomo was cruising in his third term. Now, he’s out of office. He’s facing a criminal complaint alleging he groped a staffer. Potential civil lawsuits loom related to other sexual harassment claims. The state ethics commission is trying to force him to surrender $5.1 million in proceeds from a book deal. A U.S. Attorney is investigating sexual harassment complaints against Cuomo as well as his administration's nursing home policies.

Top allies who came to his aid in 2021 lost their jobs, including his brother, Chris Cuomo, the former CNN anchor, and James Malatras, the former State University of New York chancellor.

"It was one of the grandest falls in national politics we’ve seen in a long time," said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic consultant who worked both on and against Cuomo election campaigns. "One year ago, he was on top of the world … And when they took out the king, they took out everybody with him."

"The lesson here is not the arrogance of power. It’s the arrogance of wanting to remain in power," Sheinkopf said. "Every elected official, they’re subject to a reaction when they stay too long. Andrew stayed too long."

That arrogance was on full display nearly a year earlier when the Cuomo administration issued its deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which forced New York's nursing homes to blindly admit patients infected with COVID who were being dumped out of New York hospitals to free up their bed space. That action, combined with Cuomo's attempted cover-up of the full extent of excess deaths that resulted from it, led to the first cracks in Cuomo's hold on power in 2021, when New York attorney general Letitia James reported that the number of those deaths were nearly 50% greater than New York's official statistics indicated.

Sheinkopf is right in pointing to the "arrogance of wanting to remain in power", because it was one of the motives for Andrew M. Cuomo's cover-up of New York's excess COVID nursing home deaths. The desire to avoid criminal liability and to profit from a multi-million book deal provided additional motives. In our view, people with those kinds of motives deserve to have horrible years.

Sheinkopf is wrong in saying "they took out everybody with him". Many Cuomo loyalists who implemented and enforced his deadly directive have yet to face any meaningful consequences for their actions. Many even still remain in the positions to which Cuomo appointed them in New York's state government and public institutions. Metaphorically speaking, their heads still need to roll to properly clean house in the state government, while Cuomo himself still needs to face legal consequences for his deadly directive.