Based on experience, I believe that Andrew Cuomo is the best candidate for the Mayor of New York City. Cuomo is running as an independent in the general election and lost to Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic Primary. He was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Bill Clinton administration from (1997- 2001). He was the Attorney General of New York State from (2007- 2010), and he was the Governor of New York State from (2011- 2021).
The aforementioned is 24 years of executive experience, which would definitely be above what I would describe as the minimum amount of experience you should have.
During his time as governor, Cuomo was able to rebuild LaGuardia Airport, build a new bridge to replace the old Tappan Zee Bridge and finish the 2nd Avenue Subway. This is an impressive infrastructure record, especially in a state where building buildings can be difficult due to regulations.
One of his goals is to build more affordable housing, and his record shows he can clearly do that. He was able to complete complex infrastructure projects as the governor and building affordable housing was basically his job as HUD Secretary.
Moving on to Mamdani, who is running on the Democratic line and won the primary in June; he is also affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. He has been the current representative from Astoria, Queens in the New York State Assembly since 2021.
I do not believe that his experience necessarily qualifies him for the Mayor of New York. He has never really done anything that an executive would have to do, which consists of managing a large budget, navigating a complex bureaucracy, managing different interests from multiple groups and managing a crisis. These are all important skills you need as mayor.
Being a member of the New York State Assembly does not necessarily give you these skills. It’s a good entry level job, but doesn’t mean you can go straight to being mayor of the largest city in America.
His lack of experience is also demonstrated in his policy proposals. One of his policies is making buses free. That would be out of the mayor’s jurisdiction, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) which manages NYC buses is under the control of the governor.
Additionally, his plan for paying for all of his expensive policies is taxing the wealthy. Even if he was able to actually do this, more wealthy people and corportaions will likely leave NYC, which would erode the city’s tax base because they contribute a large majority of tax dollars. The caveat is he would have to get Albany’s approval for any new tax plans.
According to the New York Post, Kathy Hochul, the Governor of New York, has claimed that she would not support Mamdani’s tax plans. The same thing happened to former mayor Bill de Blasio; his attempts to raise taxes on the wealthy were rejected in Albany two times.
I do not think Zohran really knows how government actually works. You cannot do everything you want as a mayor, and I do not think he understands the consequences of his policies; this can be explained because of his lack of experience.
Now moving on to Eric Adams, who is also running as an independent. He is the current Mayor of New York City. An argument can be made that he is the most experienced for the job because he is literally the current mayor, but I do not believe his experience is good.
According to the New York Times, Adams was indicted on corruption-related charges and multiple people in his administration have also been accused of corruption. His corruption charges were eventually dropped by Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) but has faced allegations of quid pro quo, especially since the reason for the case being dropped was that he had to assist Trump in his immigration policies.
I do not believe that someone who is corrupt and subservient to Donald Trump should be the mayor of New York.
Finally last, Curtis Sliwa, who is running as a Republican. He was a candidate for Mayor in the 2021 and is the CEO of the Guardian Angels, who in simple terms fight subway crime. I would consider being CEO of the Guardian Angels as experience, but I think that this experience is more fitting for a role in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) rather than mayor because his experience has mostly been fighting crime, not fiscal management or other necessary skill sets for mayor.
Therefore, I believe Andrew Cuomo should be the mayor of New York because he has the experience and skills to get the job done.
Image courtesy of Harris Wacaster ’28.
