Andrew Cuomo wants to return to power.

Ha! He doesn't have a chance. Right?

Don't be so sure.

Other politicians recovered from pretty awful scandals.

Former Virginia governor Ralph Northam allegedly wore blackface in a medical school yearbook photo, unconvincingly denied it was him and finished his term.

His Lt. Gov., Justin Fairfax, was accused of sexual assault by two women - he also completed his term.

Marion Barry was caught on infamous FBI sting video allegedly smoking crack-cocaine. He was re-elected mayor of Washington after a drug conviction and jail sentence.

If there's one thing going for Andrew Cuomo, it's that he's got nothing else going for him.

He craved the spotlight as New York Governor - he believes he was bred for power. He's got nothing else to lose.

The question is - would Cuomo be welcomed back? Only voters can keep him unemployed.

When Cuomo resigned in August,

In hindsight, the heir to the political legacy of his father, Mario Cuomo, was never truly remorseful for his behavior and always plotting a return.

'I am a fighter, and my instinct is to fight through this controversy because I truly believe it is politically motivated. I believe it is unfair and it is untruthful,' he said in his resignation speech.

Flash forward, and now Cuomo's got a few points in his favor.

Above all - his lack of any conscience or moral compass.

He's going around claiming he feels 'vindicated.'

Cuomo even told

The

Four different New York District Attorneys decided not to prosecute the harassment allegations-even though they all said Cuomo's accusers were credible.

The fifth D.A's office., for Manhattan, also dropped its sexual misconduct investigation without commenting on the allegations.

These types of cases are notoriously hard to prove in court. The decisions not to prosecute are hardly an exoneration - but in his mind, give Cuomo a window.

Cuomo also has an unethical, fawning media to rely on.

Remember the incompetent media's 'Cuomosexual' obsession?

Throughout the pandemic, the media framed Cuomo as the liberal, grownup alternative to then-President Trump.

Cuomo enjoyed popular press for his daily pandemic briefings (even snagging a friggin' Grammy!) in contrast to media hostility toward Trump in similar-style briefings.

Cuomo took unethical media counsel from his TV star brother (and probably from ousted CNN former chief Jeff Zucker).

He systematically abused the power of the office of the governor by using his powerful media allies, including his brother, to undermine and discredit his accusers.

Leaders of Time's Up, a non-profit dedicated to the MeToo movement, worked with Cuomo's office to discredit his accusers.

With friends like that, who will protect innocent women from enemies like Cuomo?

And there's always the notoriously corrupt New York state political machine, which seems ready to assist Cuomo again.

Fox News Senior Meteorologist Janice Dean, an outspoken Cuomo critic who blames Cuomo for the deaths of her in-laws placed in a COVID-infected nursing home, said she thinks the ex-governor made a deal with outgoing D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr., before he left office.

'It doesn't take long to do a search on Cuomo and Vance's relationship over the years helping one another out,' Dean told me over email.

'I definitely think there were deals made before Cuomo resigned. They probably told him he was going to be impeached, and resignation was a better avenue so he can try to make a comeback again.'

Infuriatingly, New York Mayor Eric Adams appears willing to give Cuomo a hand, meeting the tarnished former pol for dinner, saying Cuomo had things to teach him.

Dean says Cuomo was testing the waters about a possible comeback to see if Adams would support that.

'I think Mayor Adams has more important issues to spend his time on like crime in his city, getting businesses back up and and kids doing well in schools instead of hanging out with a disgraced former governor,' Dean said.

And last, progressive Democrats, from ex-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have so decimated New York with their soft-on-crime policies that voters may be desperate to put a 'moderate' back in charge.

Cuomo is far-left by any reasonable measure, but he's down-the-middle compared to the radicals leading today's Democratic Party.

So that's the nightmare scenario.

Cuomo claims redemption. The partisan, biased media sees him as a valuable weapon against Republicans. Then his fellow Democrats open the door, and he walks back through.

That's if voters allow it. And they shouldn't, because Cuomo is a morally bankrupt individual whose offenses weren't only alleged harassment and sexually assault.

His administration is also accused of intentionally undercounting COVID nursing home deaths.

The Wall Street Journal's Andy Kessler followed the money behind Cuomo's fatal decision, reporting the Cuomo re-election campaign received more than $1 million from the Greater New York Hospital Association in 2018.

Cuomo then turned around and increased Medicaid fees paid to nursing homes and hospitals.

'When the pandemic hit, the same hospital association requested that nursing homes be compelled to accept patients who had tested positive for Covid-19,' Kessler wrote. 'Then, as deaths mounted, the Cuomo administration underreported the number.'

Dean, who received our Independent Women's Forum Woman Of Valor Award in November for standing up to Cuomo, cited another important consideration.

'The Manhattan DA's investigation isn't the one that counts, by the way. It's the U.S Attorney, the FBI and the NY DOJ that have taken the lead in the nursing home issues and those investigations are very much open and pending,' she said. 'There are many investigations still pending into Cuomo's corrupt and deadly leadership.'

Cuomo also reportedly doled out COVID testing to close friends and family.

And an ethics panel concluded Cuomo improperly used his office to write his COVID memoirs.

Cuomo's $5 million COVID book royalties and any money related to his COVID Grammy-or anything else where he profited off the deaths of New Yorkers-is blood money.

He should be paying it all to COVID nursing home victims and sexual harassment victims.

As a former New Yorker, I fled NYC in early 2020 after nearly ten years in the area.

I just signed paperwork for my first home purchase here in Virginia-a state managed by our wonderful Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a real leader. Like many ex-New Yorkers, I don't foresee when I'd ever go back, unless there's a major leadership overhaul.

Even before the pandemic, New York City took a sharp downward spiral under ex-Mayor Bill De Blasio, and it nosedived further under Cuomo's bankrupt leadership. There are many people like me who permanently left New York for conservative-led places like Florida, Texas, Georgia and the Midwest.

I'm also a former Moody's municipal bond analyst, and my former employer in October downgraded the credit ratings of both New York City and New York state, a consequence of COVID's mounting toll on the economy.

The shutdowns caused both governments to face significant revenue shortfalls. Did those shutdowns work? No.

COVID restrictions only reduced COVID mortality rates by 0.2 percent, according to a new study from three respected economists, including from Johns Hopkins University.

Bond downgrades are a sign of economic weakness. Who presided over that weakness? Andrew Cuomo. Why on earth would New Yorkers reward this deadly incompetence?

Dean has a to her fellow New York voters: buyer beware.

'Take a good look at what's happened to New York in the last two years. Are you better off than you were?' she said.

'Maybe you should wait and see how those other major investigations play out before you start thinking about resurrecting his career. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers are no longer with us because of his reckless decisions.'

Carrie Sheffield is a senior policy analyst at