9 February 2022: NY Board of Elections Thinks Cuomo's Running for Office

Cuomo doesn't say whether he's running for office. The Board of Elections implies he is.

This report confirms that Andrew M. Cuomo's recent PR effort involving running television ads and speaking to some 150 congregants of a church in Brooklyn meet New York's Board of Elections' definition of campaign activities.

For the purposes of state Election Law, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is considering a run for office.

"Although former Gov. Cuomo has not announced any explicit plan to run for a specific public office, his conduct fits the definition of candidate set forth in Election Law," New York's Board of Elections Chief Enforcement Counsel Michael L. Johnson wrote in a finding this week regarding a complaint filed by good governments over Cuomo's use of campaign funds following his resignation in August.

Cuomo has not formally declared he is running for office, but he has been mounting a public-relations campaign akin to a political one in recent months. This past week he spoke to a Black congregation in Brooklyn on the first Sunday of Lent. He also has begun running TV ads intended to repair his reputation after his resignation amid mounting scandals and an ongoing impeachment investigation.

"I'm not going anywhere," Cuomo said as he revved up his vehicle and spoke to reporters following the church services. "I said what I said today and that's all I'm going to say today."

Johnson, an appointee of Cuomo, detailed that state Election Law "does not prohibit a former office holder, or anyone else from using campaign funds to test the waters for a future political candidacy."

Give public polling, Cuomo has little prospect of winning any statewide election in New York. We think Cuomo's recent campaign-like activities are really aimed at two objectives:

1. Accessing $16+ million in funds that would otherwise have to sit dormant in his political campaign organization's bank accounts.
2. Executing a PR campaign to influence potential jurors who will decide the civil lawsuits he faces for his alleged sexual harassment of multiple women with the goal of minimizing the cost of settling those cases.

On the first point, it would be interesting to learn how many of Andrew M. Cuomo's family members are employed in any capacity by his campaign organization, as well as whether Cuomo himself is being compensated by the organization, which would indicate the extent to which Cuomo might be using the campaign activities to "launder" the political donations amassed in his campaign organization's bank accounts so he and members of his family can pocket the cash. We already know Cuomo is receiving a personal benefit in the form of the campaign organization's payments to his personal lawyers, which allows him having to pay them to defend himself against the criminal and civil charges he faces related to his personal conduct while governor of New York.

On the second point, it will be interesting to see the extent to which Cuomo's campaign-like activities are directed toward the local jurisdictions where the civil lawsuits he faces will be litigated in court. Such efforts would provide additional confirmation of the second purpose we described above.