Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks outside the West Side Institutional Synagogue on April 1, 2025, in New York City.

At this moment, the polls suggest there’s a good chance that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace four years ago, will be the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor this year.

No doubt, Republicans, without a whiff of irony, will decry the idea of a disgraced politician running for such a high position of public trust. That would be rich, coming from a party unapologetically led by an insurrectionist, felon, adjudicated rapist, serial liar and a long train of other offenses and affronts to the Constitution and simple decency that only grow longer as his second term festers on.

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But the idea that we should not elect ne’er-do-wells isn’t in itself wrong. Nor is the notion that we shouldn’t elect people with a track record of attacking democracy — a group that includes too many folks on both sides of the two-party aisle, including, yes, Andrew Cuomo.

This is not to engage in whataboutism or false equivalence. There are vast differences between Trump and Cuomo, and it would be intellectually dishonest to suggest they’re the same.

Trump built his political career on divisiveness. Cuomo can talk coherently and convincingly of a big-tent view of society. Trump governs as if it’s all just bread and circuses. Cuomo governed with competence and picked his people........

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