Let’s be real here. Money is speech, de facto, regardless of laws, especially if the law says so, and corporations are legally people. But yes, with a winning message that motivates the downtrodden, it can be overcome.
The Super PAC they funded, Fix the City, spent more than $22 million on the mayoral race and the mayoral race only. It ended up being responsible for effectively half (49.5 percent) of all the outside spending in every single race, in a year with dozens of candidates and all fifty-one city council seats on the ballot. Another pro-Israel super PAC, Sensible City, Inc., spent more than $100,000 opposing Zohran Mamdani. All told, pro-Cuomo forces raised a staggering combined total of $35 million, making the pro-Mamdani side’s $9 million look measly.
It’s disgusting that we allow this political corruption, but we do.
More info on Cuomo’s behavior: in 2023 he declared it was “time for the Shabbos Goy” at an event hosted by Rabbi Schmuley Boteach. He was announcing that he was starting a Democrat political group completely devoted to Israel, as part of a scheme to come back into politics after his sexual harassment scandals. More from Forward:
https://forward.com/news/539829/shabbos-goy-andrew-cuomo-israel-democratic-antisemitism/