To say Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio have a poisonous relationship does little justice to the toxic power of venom. 

The two Democrats over the last eight years have seen their relationship turn from reticent to frosty to downright nasty, even if there were detentes along the way. Now, term-limited de Blasio is leaving office at the end of the year and Cuomo on Wednesday indicated he was relieved to start a new chapter with his third mayor. 

“I think, in general, electing a new mayor is very, very positive for the city," Cuomo said on Wednesday. "We’re trying to get the city back up and running. Confidence in the mayor is very, very important.”

The current mayor, Cuomo said, does not inspire such confidence or competence in government. It's one of the final shots for Cuomo off de Blasio's bow. The relationship between New York governors and New York City mayors is never perfect and can be tense — John Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller, Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki. 

But the de Blasio-Cuomo feud has morphed into something else entirely. Both have tried to make it work, with Cuomo urging Bill Thompson eight years ago to not move forward with a runoff and de Blasio negotiating an endorsement from the Working Families Party for Cuomo in 2014. 

But that work got them nowhere on policy issues, like de Blasio's push for a tax increase in the city to pay for his universal pre-Kindergarten plan. Cuomo sought to spread the plan statewide without the increase in taxes. De Blasio blamed Cuomo and a state Senate then controlled by Republicans, purposefully so, the mayor said, thanks to the governor. Political operatives linked to de Blasio would later work for the primary campaign of Cynthia Nixon. 

Cuomo spoke highly of the apparent mayoral frontrunner in New York City, Democratic Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who ran heavily on calls for bolstering public safety. 

"I think law and order and public safety — job one," Cuomo said. "Bring the economy back. The economy doesn't come back if people don't feel safe. The people won't come back unless New York is safe."

And in the coverage of the horse race, he saw some parallels between the 2021 primary for mayor and his own challenge with Nixon three years ago. 

"I don't think the voters watch Twitter the way the analysts do," Cuomo said. "I think the analysts and the political pundits talk to each other on Twitter, and the voters say, 'yeah but I'm out here living my life."

Cuomo does not have a vote in the New York City election, but he pointed to Shaun Donovan, Kathryn Garcia and Ray McGuire as examples of "competence" -- giving some indication as to who he may have ranked in the voting booth. 

Buffalo, Cuomo argued, is different. Challenger India Walton in an upset defeated incumbent Mayor Byron Brown, a longtime Cuomo ally who once served as a state Democratic Committee co-chair. Brown, running for a fifth term this year, was potentially outworked, Cuomo said. 

And he drew a comparison to an upset win in 2018, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated Rep. Joe Crowley. 

"Mayor Brown, who I know very well, I have nothing but good things to say about Mayor Brown, his campaign strategy was to avoid engaging in a campaign and then you had a very low turnout," Cuomo said. "We know that combination."

Mayors of New York City can be stymied by what happens in Albany. Even though a powerful economic engine that helps to fuel New York's budget, it remains a creature of the state. The minimum wage, tax policy, rent laws — all set more than 100 miles to north along the Hudson River. 

Whoever the next mayor is will continue to face new, and potentially daunting challenges in Albany to get their agenda in place.