What's holding BAC back? A self-serving democrat with ambition.
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Andrew Cuomo Grinds Toward 2010, Nicely
By Jason Horowitz
On March 25, Andrew Cuomo met with influential Democrats and political donors on the seventh floor of the University Club in midtown Manhattan for a breakfast of muffins and salmon and a discussion about issues facing New York State.
“We talked about issues on our mind and his, issues about the state of New York,” said Lawrence Buttenwieser, a prominent political donor and one of the 18 attendees at the event, which was organized by longtime Cuomo confidante Michael Del Giudice. “We talked about the total dysfunctionality of the state government.”
At the meeting, Mr. Cuomo described his December proposal to streamline local governments across the state, stated his opposition to using stimulus dollars to balance the state’s budget and generally impressed the donors and other influential Democrats, according to Mr. Buttenwieser, who emphasized that Mr. Cuomo never explicitly criticized Governor David Paterson.
“He didn’t talk as if he was a candidate,” said Mr. Buttenwieser. “But I have an idea that’s crossed his mind. It did in 2002.”
Certainly, as Mr. Cuomo gears up for a run for unspecified office in 2010, it has occurred to him that he’s closer to the governorship now than he was at any point during his official bid for that office eight years ago. Each week seems to bring a new poll detailing the total collapse of confidence in Governor David Paterson, who is the chief obstacle standing between Mr. Cuomo and the office his father once occupied.
All the while, Attorney General Cuomo continues to afflict a rogues’ gallery of greedy bankers and credit-card usurers and Ponzi schemesters, and to reap the resultant, priceless publicity. He has also gradually but unmistakably expanded his definition of the attorney general’s purview, embracing the causes—again, as he did in 2002—of state-government efficiency and transparency.
But there is also a less-public component to Mr. Cuomo’s preparations for the coming campaign, and it, too, dovetails nicely with the (as-yet) un-uttered aim of winning the state’s highest office. He has for some time now been waging an aggressive charm offensive to transform his image within the party from abrasive outsider to broad-based Democratic champion, reaching out to old enemies, cultivating new friends and donors and building the goodwill that will ease his way to the nomination.
“Andrew’s outreach used to have a much harder edge to it; there was frustration if people didn’t understand the rationale for his running for office,” said the National Action Network’s executive director, Charlie King, who ran as Mr. Cuomo’s lieutenant governor for the 2002 election. “I think he’s lost that hard edge.”
“There is no question he’d like to be governor,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic consultant who worked for one of Mr. Cuomo’s opponents in the 2006 attorney general race. “The question is, can he do it in a way that angers the fewest number of people possible. That’s why what he is doing is very smart, because it reduces the potential negatives, creates a more personal relationship with people and makes him into a more approachable figure, which is what he has to do.”
On March 13, Assemblyman Jonathan Bing received a birthday card from Mr. Cuomo “with a nice note on the bottom” thanking him for his support and friendship. For many legislators and power brokers in the state, such greeting cards and holiday wishes from Mr. Cuomo are as regular as those from a close relative.
“I think his outreach improved a long time ago,” said Assemblyman Adam Bradley, who called Mr. Cuomo’s staff “extremely responsive” on issues important to his constituents.
“Much more so than I found then–Attorney General Spitzer,” he said.
Assemblywoman Joan Christensen said that one of Mr. Cuomo’s staffers was in her office on April 2 to ask if any of the attorney general’s programs could be “helpful to our constituents,” she said.
“Two years ago I was honored by the 17th Ward Democratic Committee, and he was there. He came in,” Ms. Christensen said. “I sat next to him at a volunteer firefighters dinner in Liverpool; he came in for that. Recently he’s been at the local high school talking to students about college tuition. There’s quite a nice outreach from the attorney general’s office.”
“I was talking to his people just the other day,” said Sean Hennessey, the Democratic Party chair of Jefferson County.
Mr. Hennessey said that Mr. Cuomo’s top political aide, Joe Percoco, “stays in contact as much as he possibly can” and has recently discussed with him the logistics of Mr. Cuomo appearing at a county fund-raiser in June. They do not discuss Mr. Cuomo’s political ambitions, he said. “It’s more just ‘how’ve you been, how’s your family, is there anything we can do for you’ sort of stuff.”
Lorie Longhany, the party chair of Genesee County, said that when she met Mr. Percoco during the State Senate races last fall, “he was very gracious. I’m a brand-new county chair and he gave me his personal number and he said don’t hesitate to call at any time.”
“Joe Percoco has reached out on numerous occasions,” said Daniel McCoy, the party chair of Albany County. He described the calls as “building relationships to understand what our needs might be.” Mr. McCoy said that about two weeks ago, he asked Mr. Percoco if Mr. Cuomo was running for Governor as he had heard around the state.
“They said this is what he is concentrating on, this is what is in front of him now, and he loves being an attorney.”
Apparently, Mr. Cuomo has been reaching out to political rivals as well: Two sources independently told The Observer about conversations they had with Mr. Paterson’s former chief of staff, Charles O’Byrne, in which Mr. O’Byrne told them that Mr. Cuomo had called him to offer support after he was cut loose from the administration late last year. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo initially denied that the call was ever made, then another Cuomo aide called back to say that they could neither confirm nor deny calls classified as personal. Mr. O’Byrne declined to comment.
It’s not just politicians who have felt Mr. Cuomo’s aggressive warmth. A number of current and former reporters tell of receiving out-of-the-blue calls from the attorney general to talk about … what they’re up to.
About a month ago, Maria Laurino, an essayist and author who wrote about politics and Mario Cuomo for The Village Voice, got a call from the younger Mr. Cuomo, who, to her surprise, wanted to talk about her book, Were You Always an Italian?—the title of which was taken from a question his father once asked her.
“We had a lovely conversation,” Ms. Laurino said. “We spoke about Italian culture and ethnic identity.”
Not that Mr. Cuomo is all sweetness and light now: While careful not to openly covet Mr. Paterson’s office, he is clearly not just sitting around and waiting for fate to unfold.
He benefits greatly from the fact that he himself is up for reelection in 2010, and can thus go about the business of building the most effective, intimidating and well-funded campaign machine possible while all the time claiming that he is simply going about his business.
He recently hired fund-raiser Cindy Darrison from Mr. Paterson’s camp, and retains the services of the influential Global Strategy Group, the consultants who ended their business relationship with the governor shortly after the Senate debacle.
On April 14, there will be a fund-raiser for Mr. Cuomo’s office-unspecific “Cuomo 2010” campaign at the Oheka Castle in Long Island, as well as several events coming up in Manhattan, according to one donor.
And this week, on April 6, he seemed to have crossed a significant line in terms of his public posture toward the sitting governor when New York Post columnist Fred Dicker ran an on-the-record quote from the attorney general’s spokesman, Richard Bamberger, criticizing the “state” as inefficient and procedurally opaque in a column headlined “Budget Bashing,” with the subhed, “Cuomo Rips Paterson’s Tax Hikes.”
Among Albany-watchers, there was little doubt that Mr. Paterson was the target of the comment.
“It is critical of the governor,” said Gerald Benjamin, a professor of political science at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
Apparently, Mr. Paterson agreed, telling the Albany radio station WROW-AM later that day that “[a] lot of this is a game. Some of the reactions are being fed by people who are interested in holding this job. Maybe the greatest curse on them is that they might get it, but it won’t be before I leave, I assure you.”
Jason Horowitz can be reached via email at jhorowitz@observer.com.
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