Spitzer II

What does Cuomo want?

JOHN FUND

Why didn't New York Governor David Paterson appoint Andrew Cuomo, the state's hyperambitious attorney general, to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate earlier this year, thereby removing a potential rival for his governor's office? Perhaps it's because Mr. Cuomo privately made clear he didn't want the job. But he sure wants Mr. Paterson's now. Earlier this week Cuomo spokesman Richard Bamberger told the New York Post's Fred Dicker that the AG was disappointed in the tax-and-spend budget the governor just helped cook up behind closed doors.

"The attorney general believes the state must do a better job of reducing government spending and increasing efficiencies in order to avoid tax hikes," Mr. Bamberger said. "The AG also believes our government needs to be more transparent in its budget processes."

Mr. Cuomo's pointed comments came even before a new Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed that Governor Paterson is at best a limping political duck, and perhaps even a dead one. Only 22% of New York voters believe Mr. Paterson (who ascended to the job after Eliot Spitzer resigned) deserves election to a four-year term in 2010. A plurality of his own Democrats say he should drop out of the race for governor immediately. In a potential matchup between the two men, Mr. Cuomo wins in a romp in a Democratic primary by 61% to 18%.

"The slide started with the Caroline Kennedy flap and deepened with the humongous state budget passed last week. The budget was an opportunity for Paterson to reverse his slide, but voters disapprove almost 4-1 of the way he handled it," says Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Mr. Cuomo is so confident of his standing in the Democratic Party that he has already begun reaching out to broader constituencies. In February, he raised eyebrows by accepting an invitation to address the annual convention of the state's Conservative Party. Mr. Cuomo's office explained the move by saying "the attorney general has been trying to reach across the political lines to develop a consensus for the much-needed reform at the local level that he is seeking." All of this makes it very clear that Mr. Cuomo is also seeking to become the next member of his family occupying the governor's mansion in Albany.