Cuomo campaign makes last-ditch effort to breathe life into NYC mayoral campaign with staff shakeup

Andrew Cuomo has overhauled his campaign staff in a last-ditch attempt to catch up with frontrunner Zohran Mamdani.

With just 56 days left until the election, Cuomo has appointed a new campaign manager, Greg Goldner, a political operative from Chicago with a history of running against a socialist mayoral candidate.

“Greg is a tough-as-nails Chicago operative,” said campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi. “He saw what happened when that city got into the grips of socialism with public safety grinding to a standstill still.

“He doesn’t want that to happen in New York City,” he added. “He moved halfway across the country to make sure it doesn’t.”

The hires were first reported by The New York Times.

Goldner worked for Rahm Emanuel and created the super PAC that unsuccessfully tried to prevent progressive Brandon Johnson from taking over in 2023.

Cuomo is also bringing on Cornell Belcher, who worked on President Obama’s campaigns, to do polling. He also hired North Shore Strategies for field operations and Beacon Media for ads.

The shake-up comes as the latest poll has Cuomo down by 22 points to Mamdani, the socialist who beat the ex-governor for the Democratic primary in June.

Since the defeat, Cuomo has failed to pick up any ground, with his polling stuck in the mid-20s in repeated surveys.