Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was formally nominated as the Democratic candidate for Governor yesterday, and he sounded his theme of "Albany sucks," telling the convention in Rye, "When you go around the state, from Montauk to Buffalo, you hear over and over and over again the betrayal people feel towards the government," and "We need to restore the public trust in government. We're going to have to show them they can trust the state government."
However, NY's Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox offered his critique of Cuomo's "reform" agenda to WCBS 2, "Look, we've had two Democratic governors, both of whom talked the talk of change and 'we're going to reform Albany,' and one was Spitzer and one was Paterson. Now we've got a third who is saying, 'we're new, we're the new party, we're going to reform Albany.' Do we want to really take that chance?" The Republicans vying for the nod are Rick Lazio, Steve Levy and Carl Paladino, so this fall should be real fun.
And in the political dynasty/human interest portion, Mario Cuomo was tearful in seeing his son receive the nomination; the former governor told the Post, "I'm not going to congratulate Andrew for being big and strong and being able to fix a motor on an old car. I love him because of what he's doing with the gift that he has. He's trying to make the state better for everybody. It's nice to know that your first son who was so close to you and who was so much a part of your own political success . . . learned something about the political process from his father just by watching me perform, for better or worse."
