“You rise above it publicly, but quietly, underneath, cut somebody’s legs off.”
— Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R), in an interview on MSNBC, on how he would handle the public feud between New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio (D).
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, “in candid and searing words rarely employed by elected officials of his stature,” accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of stymieing his city’s legislative goals out of personal pettiness, “game-playing” and a desire for “revenge,” the New York Times reports.
Said de Blasio: “I started a year and a half ago with a hope of a very strong partnership. I have been disappointed at every turn.”
“His criticism — barbed by any measure, but especially so for a sitting mayor — amounted to an audacious gambit by Mr. de Blasio: The mayor is betting that he can outflank a governor who wields enormous power over his administration’s affairs, even as he needs him as a negotiating partner.”
First Read: “This feud is going to keep political reporters in NYC busy and entertained for some time.”
A new Siena Research Institute survey in New York finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) approval rating at an all-time low, with only 41% approving of his job performance and 59% who do not.
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A new Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist poll in New York finds that only 37% of registered voters think Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is doing a good or excellent job, while 59% think he’s doing a fair or poor job, in part due to concerns of corruption in state government.
Key findings: “Despite new ethics rules that Mr. Cuomo proposed and legislators passed in April, half of those polled said they don’t think he is changing Albany for the better. About 40% said he is making improvements, down from 47% last September. Forty-three percent said state government has become more corrupt over the past few years. Just 8% said it has become less corrupt.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) “signaled that he intends to run for a third term in 2018,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Cuomo: “We are in the midst of a phenomenal transformation in the state of New York. There’s nothing else that I would rather do than what I’m doing. I plan to stay as long as the people will have me.”
“Hillary Clinton isn’t the only public figure whose email practices are under scrutiny. In recent weeks, the Cuomo administration has come under fire for the implementation of a policy that mandates purging New York state workers’ emails after 90 days,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Previously undisclosed emails by a mortgage industry lobbyist doubling as a consultant for then Attorney General Andrew Cuomo show the lobbyist played a self-described ‘critical role’ in one of Cuomo’s signature financial crisis investigations,” ProPublica reports.
“The emails from 2007 and 2008 detail how the lobbyist, longtime Cuomo confidant Howard Glaser, was involved in an investigation of mortgage industry players that included Glaser’s own clients.”
“Vice President Biden, in a very candid moment, which he enjoys, flew into LaGuardia and said, ‘You fly into LaGuardia, and you think you’re flying into a Third World country.’ Now, that was a slight overstatement, slightly insensitive, slightly insulting. But, basically true.”
— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), quoted by the New York Observer.
“In Albany and statewide, it’s a bleak winter for Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). And nationally, the picture isn’t much brighter,” the Albany Times Union reports.
“At home, Cuomo has been buffeted by the recent corruption arrest of now ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and continued criticism from his controversial decision to scrap his Moreland Commission panel investigating public corruption. And nationwide, Cuomo has begun his second term with little of the presidential buzz that attended his first year in office.”
A federal judge warned New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) that if he doesn’t schedule a special election to replace former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) by the end of the week, the court will do it for him, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“It’s been almost a month and a half since Mr. Grimm, a Republican, resigned from office after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Special elections in New York take place 70 to 80 days after a governor issues a proclamation to fill a vacancy. That means that Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn that make up the district will have to do without someone to represent them in the House of Representatives for at least 111 days.”
Jeffrey Toobin interviewed Andrew Cuomo (D), “the notoriously press-averse governor of New York, about a range of subjects, including his political rise, his father’s legacy, and corruption in Albany.”
“For better and for worse, Cuomo views his work as a series of transactions. He disdains rhetoric; he prizes results.”
Said Cuomo: “My job is to get to yes. If I don’t make a deal, I get nothing done. If I get nothing done, I am a failure. If the objective is to make a nice speech, it means nothing.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) “is expected to announce in his state-of-the- state address on Wednesday that he will lead a trade mission to Cuba in the coming months,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The trip “would be among the first by a high-profile U.S. politician since the Obama administration loosened travel and trade rules for the country.”
“He said it was good — especially for a second-termer. See? My father’s a third-termer.”
— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), quoted by the New York Times, after reading Mario Cuomo a draft of his inaugural speech just hours before he died.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) finished his re-election campaign with $9.2 million in the bank, Capital New York reports.
“It’s unclear what Cuomo will do with his war chest, particularly if he does not opt to seek a third term. A good-government advocate has said that it could seed a Cuomo-themed super PAC should he choose to become a national candidate. New York law does not have special restrictions on leftover funds in campaign accounts that belong to politicians who decline to seek office again, or die.”
New York Times: “The origins of Andrew M. Cuomo’s new political memoir are as revealing as anything contained within its pages. In 2012, 16 successful months into the governor’s first term, an Albany columnist for The New York Post set out to write a Cuomo biography, and Cuomo agreed to cooperate. But his relationship with The Post subsequently soured, and last year he announced he would be writing his own book — for the same publisher, which has since backed away from the first book.”
Fred Dicker: “The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.”
“Former state Republican Party Executive Director Michael Lawler — who managed Rob Astorino’s ill-fated gubernatorial run against Cuomo — told The Post that he learned of the alleged bombshell deal between Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos and Cuomo just days ago, after suspecting for months that it existed.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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