CUOMO WANTS TOP JOB IN NEW YORK STATE

Rochester, N.Y.--  New York State’s Attorney General Andrew Cuomo accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor earlier this week, pledging to change the culture of government in Albany, which he characterized as corrupt and dysfunctional.

Cuomo, 52, who launched probes into alleged collusion among health insurers, abuses by student-loan companies and Wall Street bonus practices, received the unanimous approval of his party’s delegates by acclamation at a convention in suburban Westchester County.

After more than a year in which his job-approval ratings outperformed every other statewide elected official, the son of former three-term Governor Mario Cuomo, enters the race as the undisputed frontrunner in the nation’s third-most populous state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-to-1.

“We stood up for the little guy, we fought the good fight, and we won,” Cuomo said of his work as attorney general since January 2007. He added, “New York State is in crisis and it’s time this party stood up and made this state the Empire State once again.”

New York faces a $9.2 billion deficit in its $135 billion spending plan, and has failed to enact a state budget since the April 1 start of the current fiscal year because of disagreements about cutbacks and revenue measures among Governor David Paterson and leaders in the Senate and Assembly.

“State government that was supposed to be part of the solution became part of the problem,” Cuomo told convention delegates, referring to the budget deadlock.

Running Mate is Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy

Cuomo also introduced delegates to his running mate, our very own City of Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, 55, the former police chief of a city of about 220,000. Rochester is the state’s third-largest city after New York and Buffalo. Duffy, who will campaign for lieutenant governor while continuing his mayoral duties, vowed to back Cuomo’s agenda.

“If we are ever going to regain the peoples’ trust, we need to show them that we can do what every single family in our state has been forced to do -- live within our means,” Duffy told the delegates.

Duffy's relationship with local labor is mixed-- he has proven to be a partner in good government with the CSEA library workers, but other city unions have a more critical view of the Mayor's priorities.  Tensions between City Hall and the labor community have been brewing for some time, but came to a boil when Duffy pushed for mayoral control of city schools.  Cuomo touted Duffy in his acceptance speech, saying that he liked the way he "tangled" with the unions.

Cuomo reported $16.1 million in campaign funds to the state Board of Elections as of Jan. 15, more than any other candidate in the state.

Cuomo will face the winner of a Sept. 14 Republican primary election featuring likely candidates, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who reported $4.1 million, and Rick Lazio, a former U.S. congressman, who declared $637,357.

Cuomo’s campaign promises a “New New York Agenda” that would restrict spending and tax increases and include campaign finance and disclosure rules to restrict lobbyists’ influence and a Constitutional convention aimed at reducing legislative gridlock. He proposes a $3,000 per worker tax credit to encourage businesses to hire new employees.

Lazio and Levy have proposed similar spending and tax limits. The Republican convention is scheduled for June.

Cuomo’s relationship with working families

One of the big questions facing Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is whether he'll accept the endorsement of the Working Families Party, a coalition of labor groups that has recently fought off some bad press and has come under legal scrutiny.

Leaders of the 12-year-old fusion party, which has gained influence in New York by cross-endorsing candidates for office, have offered Mr. Cuomo its line on the November ballot and say they expect that he'll take it. Mr. Cuomo's political operation, however, has remained silent on the issue, and party officials say they don't know definitively that the attorney general is on board.

By accepting the Working Families Party nomination, Mr. Cuomo would risk giving ammunition to Levy and Lazio who are trying to cast Mr. Cuomo as a creature who is soft on "big labor."  By declining the party's endorsement, Mr. Cuomo could alienate a key constituency. The consequences for the WFP could be severe. Without Mr. Cuomo's support, the party could lose its automatic spot on the state ballot, a crucial source of its power, or be downgraded in the ballot order.

Mr. Cuomo has issued a 250-page book outlining his policies and priorities—some of them alarming to state workers and the unions that represent them. The platform includes a state employee salary freeze, a new tier 6, state spending cap, and an expansion of charter schools. Spokespeople for CSEA and the other large public employee unions are reserving their right to vet all potential candidates through their political action process and say it’s way too early to be endorsing any candidate at this time.