Grieving Families’ Dilemma: Holding Cuomo Accountable, but Reluctant to Cast a Mayoral Vote

In a deeply personal and politically fraught story, The Times spotlights Peter Arbeeny—who lost his father Norman at a Brooklyn nursing home during the COVID‑19 pandemic—and his continuing fight to hold former Governor Andrew Cuomo accountable. While he fiercely criticizes Cuomo’s March 25, 2020 directive and the upward‑revised death toll tied to it, Arbeeny finds himself politically homeless in the 2025 New York City mayoral race. Although he has met nearly all the candidates except Cuomo, ideological differences make him wary of getting behind any of them. Across the city, older Democrats and other nursing‑home families face the same dilemma: their anger at Cuomo’s past and their distrust of the current crop of candidates leave them undecided—while the spotlight on the nursing‑home scandal threatens to upend Cuomo’s comeback bid.