There are few available jobs guaranteed to be challenging endeavors from the very first moment, but New York Governor Andrew Cuomo may have the perfect position for an energetic, enterprising young upstart: his new communications director.
Now mired in controversy over an order he issued in the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic, mandating that nursing and other adult care facilities accept recovering coronavirus patients even if they still tested positive for the virus, Cuomo’s office is reportedly looking for some new public relations strategies, per Fox News.
“New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office is looking for a new senior communications officer to handle ‘messaging,’ as they navigate their way through scandals involving the administration’s handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic and a recent allegation of sexual harassment,” the outlet noted. “A listing for the position, senior communications lead for strategy and messaging, was posted on Daybook on Wednesday, Feb. 24, as discovered by Yahoo News reporter Hunter Walker.”
“The State of New York’s Executive Chamber has an immediate opening for a top-level executive to lead messaging for the Office of the Governor. The position reports to the Communications Director,” according to the listing, which sets the jobs annual pay at between $100,000 and $150,000.
Although the listing just appeared this week, Cuomo’s senior aide, Rich Azzopardi, told the Yahoo News reporter that the Cuomo administration has been seeking someone to fill the position since last October, well after the first issues with Cuomo’s nursing home order began to surface, but well before mainstream media outlets took notice.
Fox News notes that a similar job listing went live on LinkedIn around three weeks ago. The governor’s office, though, did not respond to requests from media to explain why the administration is suddenly in need of a “strategic” communications professional.
Cuomo has found himself under intense scrutiny these past several weeks, following news that one of his senior aides reportedly told New York’s Democratic leadership that the Cuomo administration deliberately downplayed the number of nursing home COVID deaths in order to avoid federal scrutiny over the governor’s order.
Last week, the Albany Times-Union revealed that Cuomo’s administration is facing an investigation by the FBI and the United States Attorney’s office in Brooklyn. One of New York’s lead Democrats suggested earlier this week that that investigation is over “obstruction of justice” — and he went on to note that there is a bipartisan group of New York lawmakers who are rallying support to impeach Cuomo.
This week, new allegations surfaced “from former deputy secretary for economic development and special adviser to the governor Lindsey Boylan, who claimed that when she worked for the governor he would make inappropriate comments and once kissed her on the lips in his New York City office.”
Cuomo’s office has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in regards to the nursing home order — even though the governor himself rescinded the order just two months after it went into effect — and on Wednesday, Cuomo’s office issued a blanket denial of the sexual harassment allegations as well, calling them, “quite simply false.”
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