Nixon Visits New York State Capital ‘Mad as Hell’

ALBANY, N.Y. — Exactly a week after declaring her candidacy to unseat Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Cynthia Nixon took her nascent campaign to the state capital on Monday, delivering a bushel of bon mots and attacks on “the old boys’ club” that she says runs Albany.

She called the governor a bully — of the media, of fellow elected officials, and “especially women.” She bashed his record on corruption, mentioning the recent conviction of his former aide, Joseph Percoco. And she compared Cuomo, a second-term Democrat, to Republicans from George W. Bush to Donald Trump.

Undergirding all of it was an assertion that despite having never held public office, Nixon, a Democrat, knew all about the capital and its notorious dysfunction.

“I have come to Albany mad as hell about Republicans, and I have come to Albany mad as hell about Democrats,” Nixon said, standing in front of about a dozen public-school parents. “And now I’ve come to Albany to join my brothers and sisters here today to say: It’s time for a change.”

Cuomo, 60, has already launched various campaign offensives to try to blunt the impact of the novelty of Nixon’s challenge, her celebrity and her attacks. He holds enormous advantages in fundraising, with some $30 million in campaign funds, and a big edge in early polling.

The governor also was the beneficiary of a supportive statement from Héctor Figueroa, the president of 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, released shortly after Nixon finished speaking. He lauded Cuomo’s record and downplayed those who “seize the most headlines” through personal attacks.

“We saw Cynthia Nixon’s news conference,” said Rachel Cohen, a union spokeswoman, when asked about the motivation for Figueroa’s statement. “And we just wanted to restate our support for the governor’s record.”

The stated reason for Nixon’s visit to Albany was to lobby for more equitable education funding, an issue on which the actress and activist has been lobbying for years. But the event was also, of course, an opportunity to cast a broader message.

Nixon, 51, took a smattering of questions after her speech, keeping most of her answers brief. She expressed support for raising taxes on the rich, called the governor’s 2 percent property-tax cap “disastrous,” and demurred when asked about revelations about Mayor Bill de Blasio — an ally of hers — taking tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a Long Island restaurateur seeking better lease terms for one of his restaurants.

“We just have to get big money out of politics,” Nixon said, while being chased down a Hilton stairwell by the press corps. “It’s completely subverting our democratic process.”

In her speech, Nixon, who is trying to become the state’s first female governor, seemed galled at Cuomo’s failure to invite the Senate minority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the only woman in leadership in the Legislature, to help negotiate a raft of new sexual-harassment proposals in the budget. Nixon likened the situation to the governor “mansplaining and lecturing women on sexual harassment.”

She also attacked Cuomo for being part of “an old boys’ club of one actual Republican and two wannabe Republicans,” referring to John J. Flanagan, the Republican Senate leader, and Jeffrey D. Klein, leader of the breakaway Independent Democratic Conference, which collaborates with Flanagan to rule the Senate.

“In a few days, or maybe sooner, Gov. Cuomo will walk out of that room and do what he always does: promise big, get some headlines,” she said, “and ultimately hand all the power over to his buddies in the Republican Senate.”