NEW YORK — For months, the race for mayor of New York City felt stuck in suspended animation. No more.

The contest burst into motion Sunday as a new front-runner, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, began a comeback campaign in lower Manhattan, and Mayor Eric Adams and seven fellow Democrats fanned out across the city to try to stop him. Fresh off announcing his candidacy, Cuomo, 67, reintroduced himself to fellow New Yorkers, thinner and grayer after three years in the political wilderness. He presented himself to a crowd of family and loyal supporters as a battle-tested executive ready to reassert control over a city “in chaos” while keeping an eye toward the national stage.

After collecting endorsements from the carpenters and painters unions, the former governor accused his rivals of adopting stances too far left on crime, homelessness and Israel.

“These politicians now running to be mayor made a terrible, terrible mistake,” Cuomo said. “They uttered the three dumbest words ever uttered by a public official: Cut police funding.”

— The New York Times