NYC mayor accuses N.Y. governor of waging ‘vendetta’ against him
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014. (Photo: Mike Groll/AP)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio blasted Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday, accusing the New York governor of having a “vendetta” against those who disagree with him.
“He engaged in his own sense of strategies, his own political machinations,” de Blasio said in a candid interview with local television station NY1. “And what we’ve often seen is, if someone disagrees with him openly, some kind of revenge or vendetta follows.”
The Democratic mayor expressed his frustration with the disappointing results of the state legislative session, which concluded last week. The Republican-majority state Senate defeated two of de Blasio’s key proposals: the repeal of a rule allowing certain rent-regulated apartments to be leased at market rates — a tenet of his affordable-housing plan — and permanent mayoral control of city schools. (He was granted one year.)
“I don’t believe the Assembly had a real working partner in the governor or the Senate in terms of getting things done for the people of this city and, in many cases, the people of this state,” de Blasio said. “In my many efforts to find some common ground, suspiciously, it seemed that every good idea got rejected or manipulated.”
Later in the day, de Blasio reiterated his frustrations to reporters from his office in City Hall, hours before leaving for a family vacation.
“I started a year and a half ago with a hope of a very strong partnership,” de Blasio said, according to the New York Times. “I have been disappointed at every turn.”
The mayor accused Cuomo of acting vindictively and harboring a desire for “revenge,” behavior that is “not anything like acceptable government practice.”
“We will not play these games,” de Blasio said.
De Blasio and Cuomo in happier times. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
In response, Cuomo’s office took a swipe at the first-term mayor’s relative inexperience in politics.
“For those new to the process, it takes coalition-building and compromise to get things done in government,” Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We wish the mayor well on his vacation.”
While the war of words was striking, Salvatore J. Fallica, a professor of political communication at New York University, told Yahoo News there have always been “degrees of conflict” between New York City mayors and New York governors.
“This is nothing new,” Fallica said. “New York City depends on the state for so many things. They have the same constituency, but different agendas. That’s the problem. Cuomo doesn’t like de Blasio’s aggressive agenda and he doesn’t like being outflanked on the left.”
“This overt hostility between Cuomo and de Blasio has been going on for a while,” he added.
Fallica, though, did question whether de Blasio’s comments were a political tactic or truly off the cuff.
“Quite frankly, when I read de Blasio’s interview, I thought that was pretty much airing out all the dirty laundry that is usually kept under wraps,” Fallica said. “I’m wondering what kind of advantage de Blasio sees in coming out with this, unless he’s just totally exasperated by Cuomo’s legislation.”
