"After graduating from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, and a brief detour as a fashion publicist ("it was moment of rebellion," she said), she joined Bolton-St. John’s as a lobbyist, seeking out another partner at the firm so as not to directly work under her father.One of her first assignments was to work on a campaign for $2.9 billion bond act to finance transportation projects statewide. We negotiated to bring a snack machine to school.”DeRosa was entrenched in politics and government from a very young age. Others are increasingly focused on the woman usually seated at his left: the one who on a recent Thursday countered a reporter’s suggestion that New York had dragged its heels in response to the spread of the coronavirus by assuring him in a tone like flint that once it was clear that New York, and not just the West Coast, was an entry point for the virus, “we shut down fully, with literally zero guidance from the federal government.”She is Melissa DeRosa, the trusted aide and strategist to whom Mr. Cuomo routinely turns for a reliable litany of figures and facts: often seen taking notes, checking her cellphone and sliding relevant documents under the nose of her boss. “The governor, when he walks through the door, expects us to be ready with ideas for what we need to be saying to the public for a day, a full briefing,” she said.“He interrogates us,” she said. “And I think right now that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”Who Can Say ‘No’ to Cuomo? An Albany veteran, Ms. DeRosa, 34, is the first woman to hold the position. Director for then Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.The couple bought a lovely Brooklyn Heights co-op for $2.2 million, the A steady presence on the dais, Ms. DeRosa, 37, is having an extended breakout moment.As secretary to the governor, she is the most powerful appointed official in the state, the first woman to hold that position, and one of the youngest, her robust command of facts and arcana only hinting at her sway.“If you’re an Albany lawmaker and you get a call from Melissa DeRosa, you’re essentially getting a call from the governor,” said Lis Smith, the former spokeswoman for Mr. Cuomo’s re-election campaign and the senior communications adviser to Pete Buttigieg during his presidential run.“In the midst of this crisis, she’s managed to carve out her own role,” Ms. Smith said. The referendum had been defeated twice by voters.“I loved moving around the state and setting up press conferences and gaming out who could be the people against this and how to get out in front of them, pitching the editorial boards, regionalizing data and how to make the best argument,” said DeRosa. In the $153 billion state budget that was enacted this month, Uber and other transportation services got permission to expand north of the state. No need to tell viewers tuning in to Gov. "Asked if she would ever consider running for elected office, DeRosa demurred. "This is all I'm focused on right now. Those connections, coupled with the fact that her husband, Matt Wing, a former Cuomo press secretary who now serves as a senior communications executive with Uber, has raised questions of potential conflicts of interest.Common Cause, a good-government advocacy group released a statement soon after DeRosa’s appointment saying the “family's extensive business interests before the state raise serious questions” and that to “avoid even the appearance of a conflict” the administration should disclose, among other things, the meetings she’s “recused” herself from and her role in the ride-hailing expansion in New York.Two years in, Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, said they had received no further information on the matter from either DeRosa or the governor’s office.“The same concerns still stand," said Lerner in an email.DeRosa said she has worked with the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, which oversees and regulates lobbying in the state, for years. It shouldn't happen to anyone else.”DeRosa's skills as a political operative have earned her the respect of her counterparts in opposing camps.Bill O'Reilly, a political consultant who served as communications director for Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, the Republican candidate for governor who ran against Cuomo last year, said he was not surprised by DeRosa’s career trajectory. "Her father’s passion for politics has rubbed off on her siblings, too.Both her older sister, Jessica, and her younger brother, Joseph, work at Bolton-St. Johns, the lobbying firm where their father is a partner. His brother Joseph DeRosa is also a member of the firm’s lobbying team. As part of a major reorganization of Gov.
Neal Kwatra, who served as Mr. Schneiderman’s chief of staff and now runs a political consulting firm, called Ms. DeRosa a “quadruple threat.” After graduation, she was tapped to lead then President Barack Obama’s national political action organization for New York.From there, she moved on to work as the deputy chief of staff to the state attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, for two years.Asked if she had any inkling of the #MeToo allegations that subsequently surfaced against her former boss, she said she was “as surprised as everyone else.”At the same time, she said she had dealt with her share of experiences of harassment and gender bias.When she was 26 and working as a lobbyist, she heard a client — whom she described as a national figure in progressive politics — making a lewd remark about her on a conference call that he didn’t know she was on.“My boss said, ‘Melissa will be taking the lead on the project’, and he said, ‘Why doesn't she take the lead right up to my hotel room?' And he's like, she runs the state of New York,” DeRosa said. She has long had the governor’s ear, Ms. Smith said: “When they’re in a room together, he looks to her to see how she reacts.”Ms. Melissa DeRosa is the powerful woman behind the governor, overseeing hospitals, restaurant closures, and tri-state relief efforts.