Repair the Metropolis, an excellent PAC that spent an unprecedented $22.5 million on propping up Andrew Cuomo’s failed Democratic main marketing campaign for mayor, is teaming up with at the very least one different impartial spending group to spice up Cuomo as he faces off a second time in opposition to front-runner Zohran Mamdani in November’s election.
The coalition, for starters, is comprised of Repair the Metropolis and New Yorkers for a Higher Future, an excellent PAC that has been elevating cash for months with out formally registering to again or oppose a particular candidate within the mayor’s race.
“FTC and NYFABF will each execute programs that complement — never duplicate — each other, while staying entirely separate from any campaign,” Leb stated, utilizing acronyms for the PACs. “Just as importantly, we will educate voters about the stakes of this election and make clear that Zohran Mamdani simply isn’t up to serving as mayor of the largest city in America.”
Steve Cohen, Repair the Metropolis’s chairman who was Cuomo’s prime Albany aide whereas he was governor, stated he expects a number of extra anti-Mamdani PACs to hitch the pro-Cuomo coalition in coming weeks. He declined to instantly identify them.
Steven Cohen, adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011. (AP Picture/Mike Groll)
In contrast to campaigns, PACs can increase and spend as a lot cash as they need in elections, so long as they don’t coordinate with the candidates they’re supporting. Propelled by billionaire donors, like ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund supervisor Invoice Ackman, Repair the Metropolis spent almost $23 million in the course of the main on efforts to spice up Cuomo, who nonetheless misplaced to Mamdani by greater than 12%.
The brand new coalition effort marks the most recent signal of New York’s enterprise communities coalescing round Cuomo as he continues to ballot as essentially the most viable challenger to tackle Mamdani in November.
Mayor Adams, who, like Cuomo, is working on an impartial line on November’s poll, has been contemplating exiting the race in an effort to take a job within the Trump administration, a transfer that will seemingly stand to learn the ex-gov’s probabilities of beating Mamdani. Publicly, although, Adams has maintained he’ll keep within the race.
Sources engaged on Repair the Metropolis’s new PAC coalition effort stated there aren’t any rapid plans to make use of sources to assault Adams and urge him to step out of the race to extend the viability of Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual {and professional} misconduct accusations he denies. However the sources stated the coalition is just not ruling out that this might change if Adams insists on staying within the race.
A spokesman for Cuomo, whose marketing campaign obtained in bother in the course of the main over alleged coordination with Repair the Metropolis, declined to touch upon the brand new tremendous PAC coalition. A spokeswoman for Mamdani, a democratic socialist who continues to ballot because the clear favourite to win November’s mayoral election, didn’t instantly remark, both.
Different anti-Mamdani PACs, together with an entity known as Wise Metropolis, operated independently in the course of the main.
Through the main, he conceded, Repair the Metropolis didn’t do a ok job explaining in adverts and mailers what he characterised as the hazards of Mamdani. The brand new efforts might be centered on going into extra granular element about particular Mamdani proposals, in response to Cohen, who additionally stated there might be a renewed give attention to pro-Cuomo road canvassing initiatives.
“We are enthusiastic about joining efforts with NYFBF to bring experienced and sensible leadership to New York City,” Cohen stated.
Leb, a longtime political marketing consultant, has operated PAC efforts in New York elections for years, and sources stated there’s an expectation his operation will give attention to producing anti-Mamdani adverts, particularly. The sources stated Leb’s PAC will use synthetic intelligence software program to tailor adverts for particular communities throughout the town.
Initially Revealed: September 10, 2025 at 5:49 PM EDT
