Opinion: Andrew Cuomo’s last stand

Andrew Cuomo doesn’t like debating. He avoids it as much as he can. Not because he’s bad at it. Under the right circumstances (more on this later), he’s actually quite good. I know because I’ve prepped and practiced with him as a longtime Cuomo staffer. Yet he avoids debating for the same reason he avoids interacting with voters – he thinks he is above it.

If he seems annoyed to share the debate stage with Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa, that’s why.

Since being elected state attorney general two decades ago, Cuomo has not done more than one televised debate per primary or general election – until this year. In 2014, he simply refused to debate his Democratic primary opponent, the liberal law professor Zephyr Teachout, altogether.

And why should he have? In 2014, like the great majority of elections that he has participated in, he faced no real threat of defeat. By debating, he had a lot to lose and little to gain.

That’s no longer the case.

Make no mistake, Cuomo is a strong debater. When he ran against future Fox News host (and now U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia) Jeanine Pirro for state attorney general in 2006, the New York Post declared “CUOMO WON BY NOT LOSING.” In a 2010 gubernatorial general election debate that placed him on stage with Republican Carl Paladino and a clown car of minor party nominees, Cuomo stood above the field and won plaudits from Politico for “creating a clear sense that it was him and then everyone else.”

Then there was his 2018 gubernatorial primary debate against actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, in which Cuomo was able to neutralize her central corruption attack by repeatedly, and somewhat bizarrely, accusing her of being a “corporation” and asking the mayor for “special favors.” The truth was more benign: Nixon, like many artists and freelancers, filed her taxes through what is known as an S-corporation, and she had once called the mayor’s office to ask that helicopters don’t fly low over free performances of Shakespeare in the Park. But without live fact-checking, the damage was done. Rolling Stone called Cuomo’s tactics “cunning and brazen.”

With today’s debate, it won’t just be Cuomo’s final opportunity to make his case to voters; it could be the defining last breath of his lifeless campaign. Down by double-digits in the polls, Cuomo needs to turn in a debate performance for the ages to have a hope of changing the course of this election. I expect him to step up – as he has in big moments throughout his political career.

But as all good campaign operatives know: If you are counting on a debate to change the outcome of your campaign, it’s probably already too late.