Former three-term New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D) died late Thursday at the age of 82, hours after his oldest son was sworn in for a second term as the state’s governor.
{mosads}“We’re missing one family member. My father is not with us today. We had hoped that he was going to be able to come; he is at home and he is not well enough to come,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Thursday during an inaugural address in which he said he and his family spent New Year’s Eve with his father.
“He couldn’t be here physically today, my father. But my father is in this room,” said Andrew Cuomo, who had abruptly canceled a swearing-in ceremony scheduled for late Wednesday.
“He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here. He is here and he is here, and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point,” the younger Cuomo added.
He also said he went over the speech with his father. “He said it was good, especially for a second-termer.”
A statement from the governor’s office said Mario Cuomo died at his home “from natural causes due to heart failure. Mario Cuomo, who was described with terms including “liberal beacon,” was recently hospitalized for a month with a heart condition and had been in poor health.
“Governor Cuomo presented eleven consecutive balanced budgets, reduced taxes, and implemented comprehensive governmental ethics and fiscal reforms. From the time Cuomo took office, New York experienced an increase of hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of thousands of businesses,” the governor’s office said in the statement.
“Proclaiming the Decade of the Child, Mario Cuomo ushered in a multi-faceted effort to improve the lives of all New York’s children. His administration became the first in the country to develop an Energy Plan and to sign into law controls on acid rain among many undertakings,” the governor’s office added.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted late Thursday that “the New York family lost one of its greatest sons.”
Schumer in a statement called Mario Cuomo a “colossal political mind” who “represented the best of public service.”
President Obama and first lady Michele Obama extended their condolences to the Cuomo family, friends and New Yorkers in a statement late Thursday.
“Mario paired his faith in God and faith in America to live a life of public service — and we are all better because for it,” President Obama said.
“He rose to be chief executive of a state he loved, a determined champion of progressive values, and an unflinching voice for tolerance, inclusiveness, fairness, dignity, and opportunity,” the president added.
Mario Cuomo, the son of immigrant parents, rose to national prominence at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, using the keynote address to portray President Reagan as out of touch with poor Americans.
“Mr. President, you ought to know that this nation is more a Tale of Two Cities than it is just a ‘shining city on a hill,’ ” he said.
Mario Cuomo was urged to run for president in 1988 and 1992. He was even considered the front-runner for the Democratic ticket before the cycles began. However, he wound up not running in either election.
President Clinton in 1993 also considered nominating the elder Cuomo to replace Justice Byron White on the Supreme Court, but Cuomo told Clinton that his priority was the residents of New York.
Mario Cuomo served as governor of New York from 1983 to 1994, when he was defeated by challenger George Pataki in the so-called “Republican Revolution.” Pataki called Cuomo a “soaring intellect & a great New Yorker” in a tweet late Thursday.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) late Thursday tweeted that “New York has lost a giant.”
CNN, where Mario Cuomo’s son, Chris, works as a news anchor, reported that, when asked how he wanted to be remembered, the former New York governor said: “One of the simple things I wanted to achieve is — I want to be governor. I want to be the hardest working there ever was. And I want, when it’s over — and I figured on four years at first — I want people to say, now, there was an honest person.”
Funeral arrangements are expected to be announced soon.
— This report was last updated at 10:49 p.m.