No matter the results of this week’s primary elections in New York, one thing is clear: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s presidential dreams are already dead.
Always ambitious, Cuomo headed into 2014 with one goal: win dominant primary and general election victories, then ride that momentum into a presidential bid. Hillary Clinton’s likely 2016 bid messed with his timetable, but at age 56, Cuomo doesn’t lack time.
{mosads}What he does lack is credibility among people who make those choices: liberal base voters. Cuomo might ride his massive war chest and daddy’s name to reelection in New York, but his Joe Lieberman style of politics has not won him friends.
Things began going awry after 2012. Cuomo was banking on a Republican-held Senate to bolster his bipartisan creds while also blocking economically progressive legislation that might tarnish him among his Wall Street donor base. He’d worked hard to ensure GOP control, signing into law a Republican gerrymander (after promising to veto it) in a state that hasn’t given a gubernatorial or presidential Republican more than 36 percent of the vote since 2006. But Empire State voters had other plans, ushering in a three-seat Democratic majority.
With Cuomo’s tacit approval, a renegade group of Democrats broke from their party’s caucus and joined Republicans, allowing the GOP to retain chamber control. And a recent report from Capital New York claims Cuomo wasn’t just “deeply involved” in the formation of the rebel caucus — he provided messaging and tactical advice.
There’s The Moreland Commission, which Cuomo created to supposedly combat corruption in state government, at least until it started sniffing around Cuomo’s friends. He defended killing the commission by throwing a tantrum. “It’s my commission. My subpoena power, my Moreland Commission. I can appoint it; I can disband it. I appoint you, I can un-appoint you tomorrow,” he huffed. Federal investigators are now looking into the sordid affair, but perhaps worse for Cuomo, Democratic presidential primary voters don’t have an affinity for petulant, corrupt candidates.
Remember Ken Langone, Home Depot’s billionaire founder and a staunch Republican who said the Democratic economic message was the same as “if you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany?” He’s held at least three fundraisers for Cuomo, pitching the nominal Democrat in front of GOP donors.
There’s Susan Del Percio, hired by Cuomo as a “special advisor to the governor.” Her previous job? Co-director of GOP efforts to keep their state Senate majority. Then there was Cuomo’s effort to enact campaign finance reform — but not for him. Just for Democratic rivals in the attorney general and controller races, trying to boost prospects of their underfunded Republican rivals.
There’s the fake Women’s Equality Party he created to cater to women, perhaps worried about primary challenger Zephyr Teachout. He heads it, and eight of the party’s 10 candidates are men, taking mansplaining to a new level. Cuomo also sued Teachout unsuccessfully to try to keep her and her running mate off the ballot. And he wouldn’t debate her, he said, because debates can be a “disservice to democracy.”
On Monday, it was reported that Cuomo had personally threatened Democratic officeholders with withholding funds for in-district projects if they didn’t endorse him, showing he learned all the wrong lessons from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s bridge fiasco.
Republicans might admire corrupt bullies who threaten constituents for political gain, but Democrats don’t. Cuomo can ride that hallowed last name to the top in New York, but that’s as far as he’s going.
Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.