Cuomo Plays Hardball
The other is sitting in Albany, NY as Governor of New York State.
Two very different guys from different beginnings, doing different jobs.
One knows what he wants and how to get it but has no knowledge of the field he is in and carries on with a wild indifference to laws, facts, expectations, traditions. He didn’t think he’d get to where he is, but now wants it again.
The other is completely schooled in government with years and years of experience as an aide to his Father, a three-time Governor of New York, and now as a three term Governor of New York himself. And wanting a fourth term.
Their personalities and all those other differences exist but like two guys from Queens they expect to get away with as much as they can – even as they do it in very different ways.
The Washington guy ran on the Republican ticket even though he’d been a life-long Democrat. He campaigned as a populist concerned about the working man and about how immigrants – whom he defamed ruthlessly – were taking away jobs from real Americans. After his election he got the rich the biggest tax cut in history.
The New York guy ran as a liberal-progressive on the Democratic ticket in New York promising to end the pay to play corruption that has existed in the Democratic Party and a successful approach to economic development in the State.
Different guys but essentially the same: autocrats who will do whatever necessary to get what they want the way they want it and dare the political community to take them on.
FUSION
The New York State Legislature has been trying for months to develop a new plan for the public financing of political campaigns in the State. Failing to get together a Commission was formed – with nine members selected by the Governor and the Senate and Assembly. A close ally of the Governor was made chairman.
Its completed report seemed to have made a positive impression on both legislative bodies and discussions for passage began. Hidden within this report on campaign finance was a single sentence which called for an ending to fusion voting. It had nothing to do with campaign finance but if the proposed legislation is passed with that sentence included, fusion voting which has existed in New York State for centuries, will be ended.
Fusion voting allows candidates of one party to also be candidates on other party lines. That permits votes tallied for that candidate to come from several ballot lines and all are included in the total number of votes. The reality of fusion voting has allowed smaller so-called minor parties to greatly influence the final votes in many elections.
Mario Cuomo was elected Governor of New York by combining votes from Democrats with votes on the Liberal Party line. In addition to Liberal Party followers, the line attracted votes from independents and Republicans who would never have voted for Cuomo on the Democratic line.
The Liberal Party used the reality of fusion voting to help elect Governor Herbert Lehman years ago and in more modern times helped elect John Lindsay, a Republican as Mayor.
Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat ran as a Republican with the support of the Conservative and Independence parties. The fusion voting made him Mayor. He continued to count on fusion voting in his next two reelections.
The Conservative Party helped elect Republicans throughout New York State for years using this fusion approach.
The Working Families Party, the labor union party which has had a very strong success in electing candidates in the past ten years – including Bill DeBlasio as Mayor – has been an opponent of Andrew Cuomo’s since his first reelection campaign. In his third try, the WFP promoted actress Cynthia Nixon as Cuomo’s primary opponent. While she did well in her public relations efforts, she lost the primary by a significant number and then the WFP endorsed Cuomo – who again accepted their endorsement and ran on their line.
And yet now Mr. Cuomo feels it necessary to get rid of third parties by slipping a single sentence into a bill which has nothing to do with fusion voting.
Is he concerned about another primary challenge from the WFP…maybe with Bobby DeNiro or Alec Baldwin?
Does he hope to get rid of the Conservative Party because no Republican can win a state office without it?
All questions indicative of the way he thinks about himself and lays traps accordingly. He told his Father not to run for a fourth term because he had not built a legacy. Mario didn’t listen and lost to a political unknown at the time, George Pataki. What legacy has Andrew built that anybody believes?
THE HARD FACTS
Cuomo promised two things during his first election campaign: that he would end pay to play corruption in the Democratic Party and would build back the growth and prestige of economic development.
Ten years later pay to play exists every day. Even as this is written the New York Times carried a front page story indicating that the Greater New York Hospital Association gave the Governor two checks for $1 million dollars to the Democratic Party’s household account (where no fundraising limitations exist). In return the Association received a 2% increase in Medicaid funds for its hospitals and a 1% increase in funds for its nursing homes. This budget-breaking increase could amount to some $140 million dollars in increased income. When it was found that the increases would destroy the budget at that moment in time, the first payments were delayed for three days putting them into a new budget year.
This is Cuomo hardball at its best.
As for economic development – it is difficult not to laugh. At the end of his first term, after spending millions on advertising, the Administration could point to 470 new jobs…not businesses…jobs!
After ten years, New York State has moved from last among all States in economic development to next to last. But in the process two of Cuomo’s top aides, including one considered a “third brother” Joe Percoco, are serving prison terms for bribery in the failed Buffalo Billions project.
THE COURTS
Will this effort to end fusion voting win in the Legislature because they like the campaign finance approach and won’t take out the line about fusion voting — but then lose in the Courts?
The State’s highest court – the New York Court of Appeals – has reinforced the rights of the public to fusion voting three times in the 20th Century. According to attorneys involved, those decisions will not be ignored by this Court…although the Chief Judge is a Cuomo appointee.
The public’s outcry about a new license plate shut down the Legislature and Cuomo withdrew the program. There is no public involvement in the fusion issue at all.
Too bad one boy from Queens didn’t have the courage to take on the other one. He certainly knows what to say and how to appear as a progressive while remaining a true centrist…what many are looking for. Then the public might have taken care of things: two birds with one stone.