The End of the Bully

"For him, it was always better to be feared than loved. During his 11 years as governor, he wielded the machinery of the government to unsettle and punish his rivals like few in the history of New York, and he was known, above all, as an executive who was never to be crossed. He was a bruiser, a bully, and as a mayoral candidate he hoped to export that cutthroat style to the streets of New York City."

"Instead, he was throttled twice by Zohran Mamdani. Cuomo found himself, for the first time in many decades, bereft of power - the sort that used to make any Democrat in the state quake and the median voter respect the force he brought to bear on the government. On Tuesday, New Yorkers soundly rejected him in the highest-turnout election of the century."

Andrew Cuomo practiced a ruthless, Machiavellian form of politics, preferring to be feared rather than loved. He used government machinery to unsettle and punish rivals during 11 years as governor and cultivated a reputation as an executive never to be crossed. After resigning amid sexual-harassment allegations, he mounted a mayoral comeback bid with substantial backing from major Democrats, labor unions, and billionaire donors. Cuomo aimed to import his bruising style to New York City politics rather than courting voters. Two decisive losses to Zohran Mamdani exposed a collapse of that power, and New Yorkers rejected him in a very high-turnout election.

Read at Intelligencer