When he nominated her to head the state Human Rights Commission last week, Gov. Cuomo called her one of the “best and brightest minds’’ in New York — but there are others who call former Bronx City Councilwoman Helen Foster anything but.
The Post last month named Foster, who succeeded father Wendell Foster on the City Council, the council’s worst no-show member for 2012, with an attendance record of just 60.6 percent. She was AWOL from 56 council meetings out of 142 she was slated to attend during Fiscal Year 2013, records show.
What’s more, while Cuomo’s announcement of Foster says she attended the City University’s law school and “worked as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office,’’ state records show Foster isn’t admitted to legal practice in New York.
A Cuomo aide conceded that Foster flunked the bar exam several times, which he attributed to “dyslexia.’’
Cuomo’s announcement also said that Foster, while in law school, “was part of an international exchange program at the University of Havana’’ in communist Cuba, a country not exactly known for its commitment to human rights. The Cuomo aide wouldn’t comment on the program.
Some who have worked with Foster describe her as a political nonentity who simply benefitted from her father’s political connections.
“During her 12 undistinguished years on the council, she didn’t lead on a single issue . . . She is best known for her absenteeism,’’ said former Bronx Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, a one-time Foster political opponent.
Others called Foster’s appointment a “Carl Heastie contract,’’ a reference to the Bronx Democratic chairman and assemblyman who is a close Cuomo political ally.
A spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos said Foster’s nomination will be “thoroughly reviewed.’’ Foster is already on the state payroll as a $109,800-a-year “special assistant’’ at the Division of Human Rights.
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A Mayor Bill De Blasio would have “the power to destroy’’ Cuomo’s presidential ambitions if, as expected, the governor blocks De Blasio’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy, a source close to both men has told The Post.
The source, who insisted on anonymity, said Cuomo is nervously aware of the danger posed by the front-running De Blasio’s election and has privately conceded that a Mayor de Blasio would have “enormous leverage,’’ since he’ll be viewed as a hero of the party’s influential progressive, or leftist, wing, which often dominates presidential primaries.
“If Bill de Blasio is mayor in January, he will be a national sensation with the Democratic left and he’ll have the power to speak out and destroy Cuomo’s presidential aspirations if the governor blocks his agenda,’’ the source continued.
The governor, who faces re-election next year, has told big-dollar campaign contributors that he’s planning to cut taxes in 2014, not raise them. He also has claimed he wants to make the state business-friendly by reducing its enormous tax burden.
However, Cuomo, stung by criticism in 2012 by progressive Democrats angry that he has worked closely with Republicans and cut state spending, shifted to the left earlier this year by unexpectedly renewing his own state tax on the wealthy, backing union-favored public financing of elections, refusing to OK “hydrofracking’’ for natural gas, supporting a controversial “women’s agenda’’ sought by abortion-rights groups, and winning passage of tough, new restrictions on gun ownership.
“There’s no doubt that Cuomo is nervous about the power of the Democratic left,’’ said the source.
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While Cuomo spent tens of millions of dollars this year on a national TV campaign claiming there’s a new, business-friendly, “New, New York’’ the governor was anything but business friendly last week when he skipped the annual meeting of the state’s Business Council on Lake George, although he was just 25 miles away.
“We had hoped the governor would attend,’’ said Heather Briccetti, president of the state’s largest business organization.
Insiders said Cuomo was angry at the council for its lack of enthusiasm for his “New, New York’’ program and mad at Briccetti for revealing to The Post last spring that the governor, despite official claims to the contrary, had said he wasn’t approving “hydrofracking’’ for fear that the Legislature would override his action.