Friend,

I’ve been doing much reflecting these past few weeks and wanted to share some thoughts with you. First, I want to thank you for your friendship and support. You have been very kind to me personally and your friendship means much to me. We have been through a lot together. More importantly you have played a key role in an historic reform movement in our state. Our crusade as Governor was based on a powerful set of principles that we vindicated over years of service.

When we began, state government in Albany was dysfunctional and a laughingstock nationwide. Even worse, it had failed the people of the state that it was supposed to serve. We pledged to restore competence and effectiveness to state government and to make New York the progressive capital once again. That is exactly what we did. We passed state budgets on time and set historic records for government achievement. We didn’t shy away from challenges, we embraced them: our new LaGuardia Airport, JFK Airport, Moynihan Station, the Buffalo renaissance, LIRR improvements, the new Green Grid and renewable projects are not just dreams, but now reality. We restored New York as the progressive capital with such precedents as marriage equality, free college tuition, $15 minimum wage, new rights for union workers, gun safety, and the most aggressive environmental program in the country. We improved lives for millions of New Yorkers. Government performed and rose to the challenge to an unprecedented level.

We also managed new and pressing crises. Together, we beat back COVID. We professionalized emergency management, responding to Mother Nature’s wrath in storms and floods and saved the lives of New Yorkers. As we have seen in the most recent storms, lives are lost when government fails to rise to the occasion. We rejected the extreme politics du jour and the political flavor of the day. We governed with sound policies that provided good results rather than political policies that sound good. It is important to remember our accomplishments because we can not allow the state to go backwards. We worked too hard, and the consequences are too important.

I want you to know, on a personal level, my decision to resign was very difficult. From the beginning, this was an obvious effort by some to use Albany politics to do what the people of the state would not allow them to do at the ballot box: remove me from office.

On one hand, I did not want to cater to the extremists or false charges. I believe facts and truth win the day and that the legislature would eventually have failed at impeachment. The legislature's effort was based on the Attorney General’s report which was false; its findings purely politically and personally motivated. That would be clear to anyone who read the report and separated rhetoric from reality. Journalists who have reviewed the report with an objective perspective have already pointed out the inconsistencies, omissions and blatant fraud. Despite what the Attorney General led the public to believe, there were not eleven violations -- but rather than having been subjected to an honest review, the report was litigated through the lens of the political theatre of Albany.

On the other hand, it would have been months of Democrats fighting Democrats which would have paralyzed government and returned Albany to the days of dysfunction. It would have played into the political extremists’ hands by legitimizing the weaponization of harassment claims and increased New Yorkers’ distrust and cynicism about state government. It would have undermined much of our hard-earned progress over the past decade. That is the last thing that I was willing to do.

I fear the state is in a dangerous moment. We are seeing extremists and political expediency rule the day and “the tail is wagging the dog” in the Democratic Party. Government incompetence, political slogans and pandering are prevailing. Twitter has overtaken political dialogue. This is not New York at her finest and we must never settle for less than the people of the state deserve. Albany insiders underestimate the people of the state. New Yorkers have seen effective government that works for them and they will not return to the old days.

We must all do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen. Thank you, again.

Yours sincerely, in friendship and gratitude,

- Andrew M. Cuomo

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