The Abandonment of Andrew Cuomo: Unions, Party Leaders and Deep Allies

The governor has suffered consequential defections from core constituencies, including labor, white suburban lawmakers and Black political leaders.

Five weeks ago, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s most stalwart supporters paid $10,000 a head to mingle with him on the 32nd floor of a luxury skyscraper in Rockefeller Center, in the heart of Manhattan. Even then, as the subject of multiple state and federal investigations, the governor exercised an ineluctable gravitational pull. The fund-raiser at 75 Rockefeller Plaza was teeming with business and political leaders, including the Brooklyn and Staten Island Democratic Party bosses and the head of one of the state’s largest unions, who made opening remarks. But that all seems to have changed since Tuesday, when the New York attorney general released a report that concluded that Mr. Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women, violated federal and state law and fostered an office culture of unusual toxicity.