New York Democrats will vote for a gubernatorial slate in Tuesday”™s primary election without having seen a debate between the party”™s candidates.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a one-term incumbent, did not agree to participate in any debates against challenger Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor. The governor, who has $35 million in his campaign bank account and is enjoying comfortable 30-point leads in the polls over Republican candidate Rob Astorino, has barely acknowledged publicly he is facing a primary although his campaign reported spending $2.5 million in the two weeks leading up to the election.
The governor”™s camp hasn”™t held any official campaign events leading up to the primary, though attorneys for Cuomo tried unsuccessfully to have Teachout kicked off the ballot. Cuomo”™s court proceeding said the challenger hadn”™t lived in the state for five years consecutively as required by law, but a judge ruled she had adequately proven her residency.
“Today we beat the governor and his old boys club in court,” Teachout said after the decision. “There wasn”™t supposed to be a primary in Andrew Cuomo”™s New York. Game on.”
Cuomo remains the clear front-runner in the race despite campaign momentum and a series of public appearances across the state from Teachout, who was considered a political unknown and underarmed David going into the election against a heavily-favored and well-known Goliath in Cuomo.
One possibility arising from the gains of the Teachout ticket is that Teachout”™s running mate, Tim Wu, could beat Cuomo”™s pick for lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, a former U.S. representative from the Buffalo area.
Wu, a Columbia University law professor who was said to have coined the phrase “net neutrality,” was endorsed by The New York Times for lieutenant governor over Hochul, who was reportedly handpicked by the governor when current Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy decided not to seek re-election. Wu has said he would use the position as a state public advocate position and the Times said he offers “a new voice to counter the entrenched Albany players.”
“Ms. Hochul does not, and she has a deeply troubling record on health reform, gun control and environmental deregulation,” the Times stated. Hochul backs Cuomo”™s gun control SAFE Act but previously carried the endorsement of the National Rifle Association. She was also one of seven Democrats to vote in favor of repealing aspects of the Affordable Care Act while in Congress, the Times said.
Wu is now considered lined up for an upset victory to the point that Fred Dicker, the New York Post”™s political columnist and Cuomo critic, reported the governor”™s campaign was considering dropping its support of Hochul altogether. A victory by Wu could complicate the re-election effort because the Democratic Party line on the November general election ballot would be for Cuomo-Wu, while Cuomo-Hochul would continue to appear on three other minor party lines: the Working Families Party line, the Independence Party line and the Cuomo-backed Women”™s Equality Party line.
Votes for Cuomo-Hochul would not be added to Cuomo-Wu”™s overall tally, Dicker said, so the campaign was weighing whether to have Hochul drop out of the race and seek a judgeship (running for a court office is the only way a candidate can be removed from a ballot for another office).
Cuomo denied the report and said he would continue to support Hochul. The last time a lieutenant governor challenger won a primary was in 1982, when former Westchester County Executive Alfred DelBello beat Carl McCall in a Democratic race. DelBello was the running mate of Ed Koch, who lost the primary to the current governor”™s father, Mario Cuomo. Cuomo and DelBello won the general election, but DelBello later resigned from the position.
Although Teachout”™s chances for victory appear slim, a strong showing by the candidate could be a blow to the governor, who is often mentioned as having aspirations for the presidency.
Teachout cashed in on Cuomo”™s reputation as a moderate, winning endorsements from the state branch of the National Organization of Women and the Public Employees Federation. She also took moral victories in the form of non-endorsements from the New York State United Teachers and the state branch of the AFL-CIO, which represents more than 3,000 unions. Cuomo won his first election as governor with limited backing from labor groups ”“ the United Teachers did not endorse him in his first race, although the AFL-CIO did.
The Times did not offer an endorsement for governor after it published a series of articles documenting the governor”™s alleged interference in an ethics commission he formed and later prematurely disbanded. The Times said Cuomo backed off the commission from issuing subpoenas to a company with ties to Cuomo”™s 2010 campaign. In its non-endorsement for governor, it said Cuomo had “broken his most important promise” by not cleaning up government corruption in Albany. (The Times said it didn”™t endorse Teachout because she lacked administrative experience.)
