Good morning. Today we'll look at #MeToo and candidates in New York. We'll also look at what Senator Robert Menendez says the F.B.I. did to his house in a search in 2022.
It has been roughly six years since the #MeToo movement became a force that could end a political career. Now three potential candidates in the next race for mayor in New York City are men who have been accused of sexual misconduct. This raised questions about the staying power of the #MeToo movement. I asked our City Hall bureau chief, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, to discuss the political calculus for candidates and voters. Are allegations of sexual misconduct still career-enders for politicians in New York? There may be a subtle re-evaluation of politicians who have been accused of sexual harassment or abuse and whether they can survive an allegation or run for office again. Many voters are now weighing the circumstances and severity of #MeToo allegations case by case. Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in 2021 after a state investigation found that he had sexually harassed at least 11 women. But now he's polling well again and is considering making a political comeback. Three potential candidates for mayor have been accused of sexual misconduct. What are the allegations against them? The first is Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who is running for re-election next year. In November, he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993 when they were both city employees. We don't know many details about her allegations yet, but we could learn more as the case moves through the legal system. The second is Cuomo, who has told associates that he would consider running for mayor if Adams left the race. Adams is facing a federal investigation into his campaign fund-raising, and that has prompted more politicians to weigh their chances. The third is Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller whose campaign for mayor in 2021 was derailed by allegations of sexual harassment by two women. He announced last week that he would start raising funds to run again. Stringer, like Cuomo and Adams, denied the allegations, and Stringer sued his accuser, Jean Kim, for defamation. She was a campaign volunteer when he ran for public advocate in 2001. Another woman, Teresa Logan, accused him of kissing and groping her when she was a waitress at a bar on the Upper West Side that he ran in the 1990s. You write that the calculus in #MeToo is complicated for Democrats. Why? Democrats tend to take these allegations more seriously than Republicans, but some Democrats like Cuomo argue that the #MeToo movement has gone too far. They have questioned how the party handled cases like Al Franken, a U.S. senator who was forced to resign in 2017 after a woman said he had groped her years earlier, when he was a comedian.
Carolyn Maloney, a former Democratic congresswoman from New York, told me that she tends to believe women, and that we should listen to them. Ruth Messinger, the Democratic nominee for mayor in 1997, said that she thought the allegations against Stringer were exaggerated and she would consider supporting him again. What about voters, particularly millennials and Gen Z-ers? Are they more likely to vote against candidates who've been accused of sexual misconduct? Women younger than 30 are the most likely to support the #MeToo movement among any age group, and they often believe that officials like Cuomo and Stringer should not hold positions of power again. Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who is a millennial, was an early endorser of Stringer in 2021, but she now says he and Cuomo should step aside. Exit polls suggest that more than 55 percent of voters in a Democratic primary in New York City are women. You write that white Democrats were more likely than Black and Hispanic Democrats to support #MeToo. How could that affect the race for mayor?
Black voters helped elect Adams, the city's second Black mayor, and they continue to view him favorably despite his many challenges. Christina Greer, a political science professor, told me that Black voters are often more skeptical of allegations because there is a long history of Black men being falsely accused of sexual misconduct. Other candidates who are hoping to gain support from white voters and younger voters might face more scrutiny if they are accused of sexual misconduct. WEATHER Expect high 40s with a slight chance of rain in the afternoon. Rain is likely in the evening with temperatures in the low 40s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Feb. 9 (Lunar New Year's Eve). The latest New York news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. The F.B.I. 'ransacked' my home, Menendez says
"I was shocked to find my belongings and furniture in complete disarray," Senator Robert Menendez wrote in a court filing, describing his house after a search by federal agents one morning in June 2022. They even broke down unlocked doors, Menendez wrote. In searches of his home and a safe deposit box, they found 13 bars of gold bullion and more than $550,000 in cash — including tens of thousands of dollars stuffed in envelopes. Menendez was charged with accepting cash, gold and a luxury car in exchange for political favors. Menendez — along with his wife, the man whose fingerprints were found in the envelope and two other businessmen who were indicted at the same time — has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued on Monday that much of what was seized during what they called "exploratory rummaging" should not be part of the case as it proceeds toward a trial that is scheduled to start in May. The warrants, they said, were issued by magistrate judges duped by prosecutors who "actively distorted the evidence." Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, declined to comment on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors told the judge on Monday that the grand jury investigation was not over. "Although the grand jury has returned indictments in this case, its investigation remains ongoing," the prosecutors wrote in the letter, which came in response to a request by The New York Times and Inner City Press, a website that features legal news, to disclose certain information shielded from public view. Menendez's lawyers presented the investigation as payback for the Justice Department's failure to prove earlier charges of corruption against Menendez, who was indicted in 2015 in New Jersey on unrelated bribery charges. In that case, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, and prosecutors declined to pursue the case after a judge tossed out the most serious charges. "The government's apparent zeal to 'get back' at Senator Menendez for defeating its prior prosecution has overwhelmed its sound judgment," his lawyers wrote. METROPOLITAN DIARY To La Guardia
Dear Diary: I got lost near the Battery while rushing to return my rental car to La Guardia Airport. I was in danger of missing my flight. This was some years ago, and I didn't have an app or even a map to guide me. Panicking, I pulled up behind a long row of yellow cabs. I ran up to the first one and asked the driver if he could lead me to the airport as fast as possible. He asked where I was headed. Calgary, I said. He said he was an opera singer and had performed there. We agreed on a price and off we went, driving as fast as the law allowed. Soon, we were pulling into the car rental lot. The cabby jumped out and broke into a stirring tenor. We hugged, and I made my plane just in time. — Joan Vickers Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Francis Mateo and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: #MeToo and the mayoral election
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