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Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo had lunch with an influential labor union honcho as he mulls making a comeback bid for his old office, sources told The Post.
Cuomo met with Peter Ward, former president of the Hotel Trades Council, at his favored business meeting spot, Fresco By Scotto restaurant, earlier this week.
But Ward’s old union, representing thousands of hotel workers, has already endorsed Cuomo’s successor, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, to remain the state’s chief executive.
The meeting with Ward came a day before he spoke to controversial former lawmaker the Rev. Reuben Diaz Sr. and the Hispanic Clergy Association in The Bronx. Diaz is vilified in the LGBT community for making homophobic comments and voting against the gay marriage law, which Cuomo championed in 2011.
The former three-term Democratic governor appointed Ward as one of his representatives to the MTA board from 2015 to 2019.
“If Andrew is meeting with Rev. Reuben Diaz and Peter Ward in the same week, he’s kicking the tires about making a comeback — or least wants people to think he’s kicking the tires,” said Allen Cappelli, who worked for his father, the late three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo for 12 years.
Fresco by Scotto owner Anthony Scotto confirmed the two dined at his Italian eatery.
“Former Gov. Cuomo had lunch with Peter,” said Scotto, who knows both well. He said Cuomo used to host big dinners with union leaders at the restaurant when he was governor.
Scotto — whose diners have included former Republican President Donald Trump — said the restaurant is neutral political territory. Cuomo also recently dined with former NJ GOP Gov. Chris Christie at the midtown eatery.
“We’re Switzerland over here,” he quipped.
But Cappelli wants no part of an Andrew Cuomo reemergence. He had a good relationship with Mario but had a falling out with Andrew in 2002 when Cappelli was campaign manager for Democratic Carl McCall’s bid for governor against Andrew. McCall, then the state comptroller, defeated Cuomo in the primary — and he said Andrew never forgave him for working for McCall.
“Andrew should get off the stage. I told him in 2002 he shouldn’t run against Carl McCall, who was the better candidate. I would tell him today that Kathy Hochul is the better candidate and he shouldn’t run,” Cappelli said.
Sources said Cuomo, who resigned under the threat of impeachment following a slew of sexual harassment accusations, is giving more serious consideration to making a comeback later this year — possibly running as an independent under his own party banner, if not as a Democrat, sources said.
He was buoyed by an Emerson College poll that showed him trailing Kathy Hochul, his former lieutenant governor, by just four points in a hypothetical Democratic primary.
Cuomo said, “I am open to all options” after meeting with Diaz and the Hispanic ministers on Thursday.
Cuomo also said he was open to creating his own political party to run, rather than attempting to secure the Democratic Party’s spot on the November ballot.
“I’ve done it before,” the lifelong Democrat claimed, in reference to his 2014 invention of the “Women’s Equality Party.
“My father’s done it before,” he added, apparently referencing Mario Cuomo’s unsuccessful 1977 mayoral bid while running in the general election on the Liberal Party’s line after losing the Democratic primary earlier that year.
Some longtime Cuomo associates remain skeptical that the scandal-scarred former governor could make a comeback so soon and expressed concern that he could only play spoiler and help elect a Republican by running a third party candidacy.
But one source briefed on Cuomo’s thinking said, “Cuomo is really taking a deep dive and looking at this. He’s been encouraged by some donors.”
Sources said he’s also making calls to political consultants who run field operations to conduct petitioning to get on the ballot.
Cuomo still has $16.4 million in his campaign coffers, money he’s now using to run campaign-style TV ads as part of an effort to rehab, in the very least, his tarnished reputations. The ads defend his record as governor and claims he’s innocent of the sexual harassment accusations because DAs have declined to prosecute him.
His campaign committee — Friends of Andrew Cuomo — spent about $2.1 million during the last half of 2021 but raised only $224,270.55.
Hochul raised a record $21.9 million during the last half of 2021. Institutional players — labor unions, reel estate developers and others dependent on Albany assistance — have switched their allegiance from Cuomo to Hochul, making it harder for the former governor to raise big donations going forward.
“I am so focused right now on the next two weeks to get through a budget…I’ll focus on the politics later on down the road,” said Hochul, when asked if she’s worried about a possible primary against the ex-pol during an unrelated Buffalo-based news conference Friday.
And Cuomo has other baggage besides sexual misconduct.
A damning state audit released by state Comptroller Tom Di Napoli on Tuesday found the state Health Department under Cuomo intentionally “misled the public” about the number of nursing home deaths from COVID-19 to help boost Cuomo’s reputation as he negotiated with a publisher to write a book about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Specifically, auditors discovered that DOH officials undercounted the death toll by at least 4,100 residents and at times by more than 50 percent. The audit mirrored the findings of a a similar report released by state Attorney General Letitia James last year.
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