Andrew Cuomo’s main donors are stopping and reevaluating his support for the New York governor, who has been accused of sexual harassment by two former advisers, according to people directly involved in fundraising.
Several of these people declined to be identified for fear of retaliation from the governor, who will be the subject of an independent investigation by the state. Cuomo is running for a fourth term in next year’s elections.
“No one is giving it to him right now. Everything is on hold,” said a finance executive.
Others expressed their bewilderment over the crisis that Cuomo faces.
“I think people who like him and have been with him for a long time are scratching their heads, asking how he put himself in that position,” Bernard Schwartz, a New York businessman who has supported Cuomo for years, told CNBC on Monday. .
“Unless he comes forward and tackles the situation completely, openly and honestly, he does not deserve a fourth term, although I like him very much,” said Schwartz, who has donated $ 70,000 to Cuomo’s campaign since 2019. Schwartz said who plans to call Cuomo in the next few days.
Cuomo is a moderate Democrat who has built a vast and powerful donor network. Since July, his campaign has raised more than $ 4 million, state records show. His campaign started the new year with a war chest of more than $ 16 million.
Fund-raisers and donors are the last group to react against Cuomo after the allegations were made public. Federal and state Democratic lawmakers, including President Joe Biden’s administration, supported an independent investigation into the claims made against Cuomo.
The New York attorney general’s office, Letitia James, must choose an independent outside lawyer to conduct the investigation. A press representative for Cuomo did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Cuomo’s former aide, Charlotte Bennett, 25, accused the governor of asking questions about her personal life, such as whether she was monogamous in relationships and “had been with an older man.”
Cuomo, 63, admitted that he had conversations with aides that were “misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation”. He denied touching or making inappropriate proposals to anyone.
Lindsey Boylan, 36, another former aide, accused Cuomo of kissing her without consent, among other alleged issues. He denied his claims.
The relationships that Cuomo built with his financial network were evident during the early stages of the presidential primaries, when he signaled to donors that they should support Biden.
John Catsimatidis, founder of the Gristedes supermarket chain, based in New York, is another donor who gave his opinion on the controversy. Catsimatidis, who is due to run for the second time as mayor of New York as a Republican, has not ruled out the possibility of abandoning Cuomo.
“We will see what the investigations reveal,” Catsimatidis told CNBC on Monday. Catsimatidis gave $ 10,000 to the Cuomo campaign in 2018, the records show.
Several Wall Street executives close to Cuomo’s donors and bundlers told CNBC, on condition of anonymity, that efforts to raise money have been halted or are being reevaluated following the allegations.
“They are more in a wait and see mode. If that passes, they don’t want to be on the wrong side of the governor,” said one person. “So they are in a wait and see mode, which means they are not going to sign a check now, but they are also not willing to cut it completely yet.”
A former Cuomo associate, who regularly contributes to his campaigns, told CNBC that sexual harassment charges may force New York voters to look for another leader for their state. Cuomo is involved in other scandals, including underreporting the state of deaths in Covid-19 nursing homes.
Meanwhile, the corporations that funded Cuomo’s most recent candidacy in 2018, and in some cases continued to support him over the past year, remain silent on the charges.
AT&T, Comcast, United Health Group, Ernst and Young, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Bank of America are among the top companies that contributed to Cuomo’s political operation. Representatives from JPMorgan and Citi declined to comment. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment. Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, owner of CNBC.
After the January 6 deadly riot on Capitol Hill, these companies chose to stop contributions to Republican and Democratic lawmakers, stop donations to lawmakers who contested the election results, review their general policy on campaign contributions to lawmakers on both sides. corridor or suspend political donations entirely.
Veteran Democratic political strategist Hank Sheinkopf explained that most corporations will not back down in Cuomo, at least not yet, because many are based in New York and conduct much of their business in the state.
“Many of these companies are located in New York and have interests in New York, and are likely to support the governor because it is in their interest to do so,” said Sheinkopf.