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By Theodore Hamm / Original to ScheerPost
After his shocking loss to Zohran Mamdani in the June primary for New York City mayor, Andrew Cuomo shifted gears. Among other things, the veteran Democrat now running as an independent in the general election — on his self-created “Fight and Deliver” (F&D) ballot line — now became a people person.
During the primary, Cuomo assumed that he would coast to victory. He thus deployed a “Rose Garden” strategy, avoiding most candidate forums and interacting with few voters. Over the summer, the F&D guy got out more. He rode the Staten Island Ferry, shook hands in delis across the five boroughs, and visited an auto body shop in the Queens neighborhood of his youth.
This week, Cuomo jumped ten points in the polls and now trails Mamdani by 13%. The bump resulted from Mayor Eric Adams’ late September suspension of his reelection bid. By reminding voters that he is on the ballot, Cuomo’s more energetic campaign style helped him gain ground.
But in an election that will bring well over one million voters to the polls, candidates only will interact directly with a small fraction of the electorate. Cuomo has acknowledged that Mamdani’s deft use of social media propelled the insurgent’s primary success. Both campaigns also know that in the homestretch of the campaign, the “air war” (aka television ads) will be crucial.
Cuomo’s cringy opening salvo, however, was a complete misfire — in no small part because it completely contradicted the F&D challenger’s new people-centric campaign approach.
Titled “Day One,” the 30-second spot tries to whimsically contrast Cuomo’s executive experience with Mamdani’s lack thereof. Backed by a twangy soundtrack, the newly chipper candidate informs viewers that he could “pretend” that he is qualified for any number of jobs commonly associated with New York City, including stock trader, Broadway production hand, and high-rise window cleaner. “There are a lot of jobs I can’t do,” the veteran pol says, “but I’m ready to be your mayor on day one.”
Upon its rollout, the ad sparked much derision on social media because it relied heavily on A.I., most notably by superimposing the F&D guy’s head on machine-generated actors. In case any viewer was unsure, the city’s campaign rules required the inclusion of a statement that “This political communication was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence” appear on the screen.
Mamdani quickly blasted the insult to the local workforce. “In a city of world-class artists and production crew hunting for the next gig,” the Democratic frontrunner wrote on X, “Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI. Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?”
The leftist leader thus acidly connected his challenger’s current campaign to a major gaffe by Cuomo’s team during the primary. Next-gen communications strategist Morris Katz, a member of Mamdani’s inner circle, noted that “This is one of the worst ads I’ve ever seen and it’s so funny imagining the conversations that led to its conception.”
In addition to insulting actors and production hands, A.I. represents a fast-growing threat to wide swaths of the New York City workforce, including educators, financial analysts, copywriters, and HR professionals. Other than tech investors and software engineers, there are not many voters who might cheer on the machine creations.
In the ad, Cuomo does mention people, albeit abstractly. While he pledges to hire 5,000 new cops and remove the homeless from city streets, he says nothing about the city’s skyrocketing cost of living. In trying hard to be clever and connect with voters, the former frontrunner looks clueless.
Mamdani, by contrast, recently re-upped a rent freeze spot that worked well for him in the primary. In a West Side Story-like setting, actual human beings respond enthusiastically to the democratic socialist candidate’s leading campaign pledge, which indeed foregrounds the city’s affordability crisis.
While his ads appeared on voters’ TV screens, thousands of Zohran for NYC volunteers knocked on their doors. Whether on the ground or in the air, people remain at the front and center of Mamdani’s grassroots campaign.
On Friday, October 10, Cuomo released a new ad that features several (mostly middle-aged) humans who appear to be fans of the former governor, including a woman who enthusiastically says that “he’d kick anybody’s ass [that’s] standing in the way.” No artificial intelligence was used in the production.
Theodore Hamm’s Run Zohran Run! is now available from OR Books.
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Theodore Hamm
Theodore Hamm is the author of Bernie’s Brooklyn: How Growing Up in the New Deal City Shaped Bernie Sanders’ Politics. He covered Mamdani’s mayoral campaign for The Indypendent and Drop Site News.