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Letitia James Has Embraced Andrew Cuomo. Is It Worth It?

Letitia James, right, a candidate for attorney general, is the favored choice of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

For Letitia James, politics has made quick and convenient bedfellows.

After Eric T. Schneiderman suddenly resigned in May as New York’s attorney general, it soon became clear that Ms. James, the New York City public advocate, was the favored choice of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to succeed him.

Within weeks, Mr. Cuomo endorsed Ms. James; the Democratic Party’s formal nomination quickly followed. The governor then held a fund-raiser for her with a minimum ticket price of $1,000. He invited her to appear with him at rallies for reproductive rights. And, in July, he brought Ms. James and several of his political allies on his fifth trip to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria.

As the other three Democratic candidates for attorney general have tried to distance themselves from Mr. Cuomo, Ms. James has fully embraced him. But at a time when prosecuting Wall Street, pursuing political corruption in Albany, and being willing to challenge President Trump and his administration are considered highly prized qualifications for the job, Ms. James’s strategy has been one of high rewards, but also some risk.

“Perhaps no criterion is more important right now than the capacity of the next attorney general to be independent,” said the former attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, under whose tenure Ms. James ran the office’s Brooklyn operations. “The occupant of that office must have the wherewithal to pursue cases against the most powerful forces without regard to political consequences.”

The issue of demonstrating independence has jump-started a relatively quiet race where 42 percent of voters said in a recent poll that they are undecided about whom they will vote for in the Sept. 13 primary.

With little separating the four Democratic hopefuls on most campaign issues, the candidates — Sean Patrick Maloney, New York’s first openly gay congressman; Leecia Eve, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton and Mr. Cuomo; Zephyr Teachout, a law professor who ran a surprisingly effective race against Mr. Cuomo in the 2014 primary; and Ms. James — have taken to arguing about who is the least anchored to Mr. Cuomo.

“Unbossed and unbought,” Ms. James said when asked about her independence from Mr. Cuomo after a fund-raiser at a union hall in Manhattan last week. She scrunched her face and called the speculation that she was too close to Mr. Cuomo “disrespectful,” hinting that it may be coming her way because she would become the first black woman to hold statewide office were she to win.

“I think the governor supports me because he knows that I get things done, that I’ve got a long record in public service and that I understand how Albany works,” Ms. James said in an interview. “That does not mean I’m beholden to the governor.”

A series of remarks has not helped Ms. James make that case. Ms. James has said that she did not think there was a need for another Moreland Commission, a fact-finding body that Mr. Cuomo authorized to investigate corruption in Albany. The governor later hastily dismantled it, prompting Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan at the time, to probe the commission’s demise.

In a recent interview with Cosmopolitan, Ms. James said she would use the Martin Act, the expansive law that prosecutors in New York have used to pursue fraud charges against the biggest firms on Wall Street, but in a “judicious” manner.

Ms. James also defended Mr. Cuomo against recent remarks that some said were insensitive toward women. At a Women for Cuomo campaign event, Mr. Cuomo noted that he was “one of the few men in a room full of women. Could be worse, could be worse. Usually it is worse.” Mr. Cuomo’s Democratic primary opponent, Cynthia Nixon, called the comment “Trumpian” in an email to supporters.

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The audience reacting during a campaign event in Manhattan that was organized by Higher Heights, a group that promotes black women for elected office.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

“What did he say that was offensive?” Ms. James asked. “Everyone in the room enjoyed his comments and, in fact, he got a standing ovation.”

The event was turned into a campaign ad for Mr. Cuomo, and features Ms. James praising the governor.

Ms. James has also benefited from Mr. Cuomo’s skill as a fund-raiser. Of the 155 donors who gave Ms. James $1,000 or more for the July reporting period, just under a third of those donors, 28 percent, also gave money to Mr. Cuomo’s 2018 election account. Ms. James received more than $430,000 from those donors, according to campaign finance records.

One shared donor between Mr. Cuomo and Ms. James is the Medmen Opportunity Fund II L.P., a private equity firm that invests in companies that sell legal marijuana. In July, the company gave Mr. Cuomo’s campaign $65,000 and gave Ms. James’s campaign $21,000. They were the only two politicians in the state to receive donations from the fund, officials there confirmed.

“They are on the right side of the issue,” a Medmen spokesman, Daniel Yi, said in an interview.

As much as her association with Mr. Cuomo has helped elevate Ms. James’s profile, it has also alienated some of her supporters.

The New York Progressive Action Network interviewed Ms. James and Ms. Teachout in May, intending to make an endorsement soon after. But the decision was delayed because of concerns that Ms. James might be too close to the governor, according to leaders of the group.

By the time the board of directors reconvened in July, they had seen enough. They overwhelmingly endorsed Ms. Teachout.

“We’re not saying that she’s no longer a progressive,” said Traci Strickland, co-chairwoman of the group. “We’re just saying there’s a closeness to the incumbent governor for whom there are many questions.”

George Albros, a leader of the network and one of the founding members of the Working Families Party, which helped Ms. James win her first election to the City Council in 2003, was more blunt: “If you owe your election to the guy you are supposedly overseeing, that creates a problem.”

The Muslim Democratic Club of New York should have been another easy endorsement for Ms. James. Her first deputy in the public advocate’s office, Ibrahim Khan, is a member of the club, which is in Brooklyn, the heart of Ms. James’s political base. The group says it has endorsed Ms. James in previous races. But in July, the group backed Ms. Teachout.

Some members of the group were upset that Mr. Cuomo had never visited a mosque during his seven years as governor, and for his remarks comparing President Trump’s immigration policies to a “jihad.”

“For many of members of the club,” said one board member, Mohammad Khan, “any association with Cuomo is pretty toxic.”

One episode in particular seemed to rankle Ms. James’s former supporters: her decision to forgo the Working Families Party’s ballot line, at the apparent behest of Mr. Cuomo, who was upset at the party for endorsing Ms. Nixon.

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“Unbossed and unbought,” Ms. James said when asked about her independence from Mr. Cuomo after a fund-raiser in Manhattan.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

“Doing what the governor wanted her to do in rejecting the line was the canary in the coal mine,” said Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change. “For me, it was a sign that she’s not willing to challenge establishment politics.”

Mr. Westin’s group had also endorsed Ms. Nixon in April, and has since backed Ms. Teachout, who is running on a ticket with Ms. Nixon — a relationship that should also draw scrutiny, according to Mr. Maloney, the congressman seeking the attorney general post.

“The attorney general can’t be a lieutenant governor-style position,” Mr. Maloney said. “The attorney general has to stand on her own two feet.”

Mr. Maloney has his own history of supporting Mr. Cuomo, praising him in March for supporting same-sex marriage and calling him a “national progressive leader.” Democrats “should all support Governor Cuomo,” Mr. Maloney wrote in a statement.

“He’s been a very good governor and I agree with much of what he’s done,” Mr. Maloney said, “but he doesn’t get to pick the attorney general of New York.”

Ms. Teachout said her career has been focused on fighting corruption, and that she decided to run against Mr. Cuomo in 2014 because he abruptly shuttered the Moreland Commission. “I have never been scared to stand up to power,” Ms. Teachout said.

Ms. Eve noted that she was not the “candidate of either the Democratic or the Working Families Party.” She did participate in the Democratic Party’s convention. “I’m not aligning myself with any particular candidate,” Ms. Eve said.

But Ms. James, as the front-runner with 26 percent of the vote, according to the most recent poll from Quinnipiac University, has borne the brunt of questions about her independence from Mr. Cuomo.

She points to lawsuits against the administrations of Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio during her time as a member of the City Council and as the public advocate as proof of her autonomy.

As for the Martin Act, Ms. James says she will use it appropriately. “It’s really critically important that I not be known as the ‘Sheriff on Wall Street,’” Ms. James said, referring to a sobriquet Mr. Spitzer — who resigned as governor after it had emerged that he had patronized a prostitute — earned for prosecuting financial fraud. “I don’t believe in labels.”

Asked about Ms. James’s remarks, Mr. Spitzer, who has donated money to Mr. Maloney’s campaign, said paying close attention to “integrity on Wall Street” is more important than ever for state prosecutors.

[Ms. James’s remarks drew fire from her rivals, and forced her to clarify her statement. Read more here.]

“There is uniform agreement that prosecutors must step into the void created by the Trump administration’s abdication of its enforcement role in critical areas,” Mr. Spitzer said. “For Tish James to question that role is, at a minimum, very, very surprising.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: The Rewards (and the Risks) of Letitia James’s Embrace of Cuomo. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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