NYC mayor accuses N.Y. governor of waging ‘vendetta’ against him

This honeymoon is so over.

Michael Ip/for New York Daily News Both Gov. Cuomo (left) and Mayor de Blasio (right) stand to lose a lot should they end up in a prolonged personal battle. “I started with, meaning a year and a half ago, with the hope of a very strong partnership”. “I have been disappointed at every turn”.

On Monday night, he was finally able to fulfill that promise, as the de Blasio-appointed New York City Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-2 to freeze rent increases on rent-stabilized apartments with one-year leases in New York City. Cuomo, with the help of Republicans who control the Senate, stymied de Blasio.

“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”.

“There was some interesting back and forth last week, and some unnamed sources-well placed in the Cuomo administration-had a few things to say,” de Blasio said in an interview with NY1’s Errol Louis. The Wall Street Journal quoted the official saying, “What we’re dealing with is a mayor who is universally acknowledged to be bumbling and incompetent”.

“The first rule of New York politics is never underestimate any Cuomo, especially Andrew”, Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said.

“In a spitefest between the mayor and the governor, there is a good chance that the people are going to be the losers”, he said. Behind the scenes, with nary a word said publicly, he can do all kinds of things, such as appoint a special prosecutor to investigate any city agency, even the mayor’s office. “Sometimes we talk on the record, sometimes we talk on background”.

Yahoo!’s Bianna Golodryga added the sympathy card wouldn’t play well for de Blasio, seeing as his allies are limited in Albany and New York. He said mayoral control of the schools, “turned into a political football”. “I think the governor’s influence played substantially in their decision to limit it to one year”. He and Cuomo are still debating whether to require developers pay construction workers a prevailing wage on 421-a projects-an issue he said Cuomo “manufactured”.

De Blasio, fresh off a series of stinging defeats in Albany, wasn’t interested in hiding behind anonymity.

Later in the day, de Blasio reiterated his frustrations to reporters from his office in City Hall, hours before leaving for a family vacation.

Advertisement

De Blasio, who had asked for permanent control, said Cuomo utilized a cravenly transactional style of negotiating to further his own aims and “did not act with New York City’s interests at heart”.