NYC Mayor’s Race: Lander vows to ‘crush’ corruption he says Cuomo and Trump epitomize in new ad

City Comptroller Brad Lander on Wednesday became the latest Democratic mayoral candidate to hit the airwaves with a TV ad portraying himself as a “crusher” of corruption, he says, epitomized by leading rival Andrew Cuomo and President Trump.

With the release of Lander’s 30-second spot, the race has fully entered its final stretch, in which candidates flood TV with ads introducing themselves and attacking their rivals, leading up to the June 24 primary. Lander and many other candidates are banking on TV advertising diminishing Cuomo’s commanding lead, which months of attacks from rivals have not appeared to put a dent in.

Lander in the junkyard

In the spot, Lander says he will drive a front loader through a junkyard, lifting up cars with phrases like “corruption” spray-painted on them into a hydraulic press, which then crushes them. According to Lander’s campaign, the ad is part of a $732,000 buy that will air across all broadcast channels, along with a wide array of cable stations and streaming sites.

“This ad introduces Brad Lander to voters as the honest, effective fighter New York City needs to stand up to Trump and turn the page on [Mayor] Eric Adams’ chaos, in stark contrast to Andrew Cuomo,” said Lander campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec in a statement.

Pekec said the ad did not employ AI or other computer graphics. Instead, it used real cars spray-painted with the phrases. The cars were found in a Queens junkyard, she said.

Lander used a sizable portion of the roughly $4.6 million in his campaign account to finance the ad.

The comptroller’s spot opens with a dramatic voiceover blasting Cuomo, the former governor who resigned in 2021 amid multiple accusations of sexual misconduct that he denies, over the upwards of $60 million the state has spent on legal matters stemming from his scandals while in office.

“New York City needs a mayor who can focus on our problems, not their own. We need Brad Lander,” the voiceover says. “Andrew Cuomo spent $60 million of your money to defend himself in court. That’s corrupt. But Brad Lander fights corruption to make New York safer and more affordable.”

Cuomo campaign scoffs

In response, Cuomo campaign spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said, “This city is in crisis and Governor Cuomo is the only person in this race with the management experience and the proven record of results to get New York back on track and no amount of desperate gutter tactics from a career politician polling in single digits with no accomplishments or vision of his own will change that.”

He also sent the infamous photo of failed Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in a tank during his 1988 campaign.

The comptroller has accused Cuomo of fecklessly spending millions in taxpayer dollars on his own legal defense against lawsuits brought by some of his nearly a dozen sexual harassment accusers. Cuomo’s team has pushed back, arguing that much of the $60 million sum was not directly spent on Cuomo’s personal legal fees.

In the ad, Lander also targets Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, who has led the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) since Trump took office.

The voiceover says he “stood up to” Trump and Musk, when the pair clawed back $80 million in city migrant aid in February, by pushing Mayor Adams’ administration to sue over the move. Lander then loads a Tesla, a car made by one of Musk’s companies, into the hydraulic press with Trump’s and Musk’s names on it to be crushed.

The comptroller’s ad is similar to one released by Queens Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani a couple of weeks ago, which also focused on contrasting Mamdani’s record with Cuomo’s and Adams’. Mamdani is currently running in second place to Cuomo, according to a string of recent polls.

A super PAC supporting Cuomo’s campaign, called “Fix the City,” has been running ads for a few weeks casting the city as “in crisis” and stating that he is the best person to fix it.