Gov. Ned Lamont made an unplanned endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for mayor of New York on Monday, ignoring the wishes of a top aide who tried to keep him focused on less contentious things — say, the veto of two bills backed by his own party.
At the end of a press conference on his veto of an omnibus housing bill and another that would have provided jobless benefits to strikers, the subject of the former New York governor’s comeback came up.
“If you lived in New York City, would you rank Andrew Cuomo on your ballot tomorrow?” asked Mike Cerulli of WTNH News 8. “He’s your former colleague.”
“I worked with him pretty constructively. I’ll just leave it at that,” Lamont replied.
Lamont worked with Cuomo throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating how to deal with President Donald Trump during his first term when the president both downplayed the health threat — and threatened to quarantine Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
The pair once fished together in New York, and Cuomo visited Lamont in Hartford.
But endorsing Cuomo, who resigned in August 2021 over a barrage of sexual harassment complaints, would have little upside for Lamont if he runs for another term. And Lamont clearly had no plan to endorse him, even as some prominent Democrats have slowly glided back to Cuomo’s orbit.
Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo, his former housing secretary, on Sunday, an effort to hold off Zohran Mamdani, a young state lawmaker and Democratic Socialist who has risen in the polls in the Democratic mayoral primary.
But message discipline never has been a strong suit for Lamont.
On Monday, the questioning in Lamont’s office turned from Cuomo and back to the topic of affordable housing. But the governor was pressed again about answering the Cuomo question.
Rob Blanchard, the governor’s communications director, already had announced an end to the press conference, an admonition ignored by the press — and governor.
Blanchard tried again to nudge the press to the door.
“All right, thanks everyone,” Blanchard said.
“Assert yourself, Rob,” Lamont said, laughing.
No one moved.
“You don’t want to say you’re endorsing Andrew Cuomo?” asked Chris Keating of The Hartford Courant.
“That’s not a story,” Blanchard said.
“It’s the biggest election in the country,” Cerulli said. “Many view it as a referendum on the future of the party. You’ve weighed in on that.”
“If you ask me who I’d vote for, I’d vote for Andrew Cuomo,” Lamont replied.
“You’d rank him first?”
“Yeah.”
