The governor has suffered consequential defections from core constituencies, including labor, white suburban lawmakers and Black political leaders.
Five weeks ago, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s most stalwart supporters paid $10,000 a head to mingle with him on the 32nd floor of a luxury skyscraper in Rockefeller Center, in the heart of Manhattan. Even then, as the subject of multiple state and federal investigations, the governor exercised an ineluctable gravitational pull. The fund-raiser at 75 Rockefeller Plaza was teeming with business and political leaders, including the Brooklyn and Staten Island Democratic Party bosses and the head of one of the state’s largest unions, who made opening remarks. But that all seems to have changed since Tuesday, when the New York attorney general released a report that concluded that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women, violated federal and state law and fostered an office culture of unusual toxicity. By Wednesday, the two Democratic county chairs at the fund-raiser had demanded Mr. Cuomo’s resignation. The union leader, George Gresham, has yet to renounce the governor, unlike many of his colleagues, but he was reticent about Mr. Cuomo’s future — which is about all the governor can hope for from his friends at the greatest moment of political vulnerability in his career. The pillars of Mr. Cuomo’s political base now appear to be cracking beneath him, as he suffers consequential defections from core constituencies, including labor, white suburban lawmakers and Black political leaders. His only apparent hope is that, during the time it takes to draw up impeachment papers as the State Assembly advances its investigation, the reservoir of public good will he earned early in the pandemic will stifle the sentiment against him in the legislature and elsewhere. Certainly, in interviews on Wednesday across the state, not all voters saw the report as decisive. “He is a single man, he is a human being, so mistakes can be made,” said Melissa Edwards,39, as she began her workout routine in Southeast Queens, suggesting that the accusations paled in comparison to those by women who “are being raped and molested by people — look at Jeffrey Epstein or Bill Cosby.” “Without him as our governor, I think New York would be in a different and difficult predicament,” she said. Bernice Diaz,56, a longtime supporter of Mr. Cuomo and a South Bronx resident, said she believes Mr. Cuomo was set up by Republicans and former President Donald J. Trump. “He took charge of everything when nobody else would,” Ms. Diaz said as she sat in St. Mary’s Park. “I have a lot of respect for Governor Cuomo.” Mr. Cuomo’s future may hinge on whether those forgiving views are widely held — and it is far from clear that they are.
