It’s Andrew Cuomo’s Party and He’ll Cry If He Wants To

It’s Andrew Cuomo’s Party and He’ll Cry If He Wants To

Happy birthday, Governor from your friends at the Andrew Cuomo Initiative! We know how much you like gifts — especially on other people’s dime. After all, who could forget your newest helicopter courtesy of the New York taxpayers, or the Tiffany’s pen you purchased for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s birthday out of your campaign account? Leaving […]

December 6, 2017
It’s Andrew Cuomo’s Party and He’ll Cry If He Wants To

Happy birthday, Governor from your friends at the Andrew Cuomo Initiative! We know how much you like gifts — especially on other people’s dime. After all, who could forget your newest helicopter courtesy of the New York taxpayers, or the Tiffany’s pen you purchased for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s birthday out of your campaign account?

Leaving aside all the free stuff, we know that the gift you want more than anything is the White House. There’s only one small problem: you’re not liberal enough for the new and not-so-improved Democratic Party.

Governor Cuomo, we know you didn’t invite your nemesis, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, to your birthday party, but now you have a party crasher just across the Hudson River: Governor-elect Phil Murphy. As Politico detailed in a story this morning, the relationship between these two Democrats is going to be precarious:

“In their first press conference together — a media call-cum-tirade against the Trump tax plan — Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov.-elect Phil Murphy of New Jersey expressed a chumminess that bordered on hokey… Their gestures of public affection belie a more precarious reality. As Cuomo tacks left in preparation for a potential presidential run in 2020, a Democrat is ascending to office in Cuomo’s backyard with none of the baggage Cuomo carries from his seven years as a triangulating Democrat.”

A quoted New York Democrat went so far as to say that Governor-Elect Murphy is “Andrew Cuomo’s biggest challenge over the next six months” because he’ll shine on light on Governor Cuomo’s troubled relationship with progressives:

“If Murphy’s expected, out-of-the-gate liberalism underscores Cuomo’s own vulnerabilities on the progressive front, it’s not the only potential pitfall in their formative relationship. There’s also the state of the region’s infrastructure and the limited pool of money available to address it.”

Happy Birthday!