I'm trying to figure out what African-American political leaders have against Kathy Hochul.
I'd imagine it's mostly that their political machines know Cuomo and they don't know Hochul because up until a month or two ago she was politically irrelevant and Cuomo looked like presidential material. They don't care about ideology or morality, they care about the sorts of political benefits you can only reliably get through personal connections behind closed doors. That's also probably part of why none of the unions have turned on him either and it wouldn't be too surprising if they came down behind him soon enough.
The other issue is frankly just a matter of framing. The emphasis from most of the media has been on the sexual harassment allegations with the nursing home mismanagement and coverup being more of an afterthought. This is very convincing to the sorts of upper middle class white people who won the election for Biden but for non-white and working class voters it's decidedly less of a priority. The impression many of those without the time to catch more than snippets of the news are left with is that Cuomo is a great manager who handled COVID like a champ but acted like a creep around women and also might have fudged some insignificant numbers. After all, if it was such a big deal why does it get a sentence of mention next to "
CUOMO ACCUSED OF LEWD REMARKS"?
Whether we like it or not most people won't go against their partisan interests (or typically even their economic interests) over MeToo accusations and other character attacks unless they're
particularly heinous, and sometimes
not even then. Just look at how
the people still behind Cuomo put it:
Kester Grant, a 27-year-old FedEx employee who lives in East New York, said resignation would be premature and he’s glad that his Congressman, Hakeem Jeffries, has not gone as far as others in calling for Cuomo to resign over more than a half dozen sexual misconduct allegations.
“It’s both sides to the thing, so we’re trying to really figure out what really is going on,” Grant said, adding that he respected Cuomo’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. “I really love how he really handled the pandemic,” he said. Compared to other states, he continued, “most of our stuff was really controlled.”
Kester Grant, a 27-year-old FedEx employee who lives in East New York, said resignation would be premature and he’s glad that his Congressman, Hakeem Jeffries, has not gone as far as others in calling for Cuomo to resign over more than a half dozen sexual misconduct allegations.
“It’s both sides to the thing, so we’re trying to really figure out what really is going on,” Grant said, adding that he respected Cuomo’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. “I really love how he really handled the pandemic,” he said. Compared to other states, he continued, “most of our stuff was really controlled.”
Standing outside a Marshall’s in Ozone Park, Queens, a neighborhood Meeks represents, 40-year-old hospital worker Livy Giancani said Cuomo was too good a leader to lose in this moment. “They should listen to what the women need to say, but resigning, I think that’s too much,” she said. “Look at the way, he deal with all this COVID stuff and how well he do for New York. He’s good.”
So long as the myth of Perfect Administrator Cuomo persists he'll have plenty of public support. Were that myth to be systematically demolished his approval would be through the floor but the collateral damage would be sufficiently widespread to make tolerating Cuomo (at least for the remainder of his term) the lesser evil for New York Democrats. The real question is whether enough Democrats will vote against the preferences of their constituents or not.
