If Cuomo Wins, It Was All But Inevitable. Here's Why.
Nearly all polls have shown Cuomo in the lead, though the most recent surveys suggest a tightening race with Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the candidate of the Democratic Socialists of America.
If Cuomo, the born politician with his universal name recognition, triumphs in the Democratic primary this month, it will complete a revolution that started 12 years ago, when ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner used his viral fame to vault ahead of municipal pols in the 2013 mayoral race before he imploded. Hyper-local political networks — whether embodied in the machines or in their opposition — have lost the ability and even the will to mobilize voters en masse and to independently elevate mayoral candidates.
This has coincided with a collapse in participation in local elections, and the rise of what Dr. Heather James, a social sciences professor at Borough of Manhattan Community College, termed “superstar politics” — in which national name recognition counts for everything.
“The information structure has nationalized,” she asserted. “Cuomo is sort of his own superstar name in New York. He definitely benefits from that consolidation of information. It’s harder for other candidates to get their name out there and compete.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/06/18/andrew-cuomo-comeback-nyc-politics-culture-00403331
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