Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo may be in too big a rush to be mayor.
The June 24 primary front-runner, who already has two speeding tickets on the record of his new muscle car, was caught on camera driving through a red light after receiving several union endorsements in Midtown on Wednesday.
Reporter Katie Honan of The City captured the footage, though it was posted by her Daily News rival Chris Sommerfeldt:
The Cuomo violation — which would result in a traffic ticket if it had been seen by a police officer, but in a criminal summons if he had been on a bike — followed the endorsement announcement. In another video on Sommerfeldt's feed, Cuomo, who resigned from office in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal, is seen piloting his Dodge Charger out of the 1199 SEIU headquarters' parking garage, whereupon reporters crowded around the vehicle hoping the candidate would answer their questions.
He drove gingerly along W. 36th Street until he was clear of the ink-stained and pixel-pocked wretches, then increased speed towards Seventh Avenue before passing through a red light. The person directly to the right of the car is a member of Cuomo's security team.
Cuomo had signaled for the turn.
And as Fox5 reporter Morgan McKay clearly showed in her video taken seconds earlier, Cuomo was in fact driving:
It is unclear why Cuomo would drive into the most-congested part of the city, which, conveniently, is the part of the city with the best transit. The endorsement meeting was steps from Penn Station, as well as the A/C/E and 1/2/3 trains.
Some of Cuomo's online fans dismissed the transgression as minor, but it is anything but: According to the city Department of Transportation, 29 people were killed by drivers who ran red lights in 2023, more than double the annual average of the previous decade.
One online commenter likened the mistake to the three-fingered gesture made by Lt. Hicox in "Inglourious Basterds" that ends a key mission in a fusillade of bullets. As Screen Rant reported, the proper German way to order three whiskeys is with the thumb, index and middle fingers, not with the index, middle and ring fingers, which the Allied spies quickly discover. The tweet was later removed, but here's what it looked like:
And others treated it for great sport: "Maybe he doesn't know right on red is illegal in the city," posted Bronx River Digital on Bluesky. "It's not like he lives there."
In fact, Cuomo does live in the city — on E. 54th Street to be exact. According to vehicle records obtained by Streetsblog, he moved there between March 7 and May 20.
A spokesperson for the Cuomo campaign said that the governor did not run the red light, arguing that the video does not capture the entire story. According to the spokesperson, Cuomo's car was so "swarmed" by reporters that a staffer on foot trailed the car to the corner. The spokesperson claimed that Cuomo initially had the green light, but stopped to avoid a pedestrian in the crosswalk. At that point, he was already in the intersection, and turned right to avoid blocking traffic.
"As always, context matters: while being guided through a green light, the governor paused mid-turn to allow a pedestrian to cross safely, then proceeded once the path was clear,” said the spokesperson, Esther Jensen.
But the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles driver-instruction manual suggests that Cuomo should have stopped.
"You cannot enter an intersection if traffic is backed up ... and you cannot get completely through the intersection," the manual states.
And an online guide provided by CoreWay driving school also suggests that Cuomo erred:
"Busy New York intersections present unique challenges," it says. "Anticipate light changes. ... Be prepared for sudden pedestrian movements."
And a prominent law firm likened driving through a red light to selfishness.
"Running a red light constitutes negligent driving," the Groth Law Firm stated. "A driver should only enter an intersection during a yellow light if he or she cannot stop safely prior to the intersection."
Cuomo received the endorsement of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 1500 after promising to raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour by 2027 if he is elected.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
