Democrat Andrew Cuomo last night became the first son of a New York governor to be elected to the same office, crushing loose-cannon Republican Carl Paladino — and declaring his victory a “mandate to clean up Albany.”
Cuomo — a political phoenix who had suffered humiliating rejection when he first sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2002 — trounced the Tea Party-backed Paladino in nearly all corners and among virtually every demographic group in the state.
The attorney general vowed to end the “dysfunction and degradation” of state government in a thunderous victory speech at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers in Midtown and warned that New York would have no economic future if leaders didn’t “get taxes under control.”
“The people have spoken loud and clear,” Cuomo told a crowd of 400 cheering supporters.
“What they are saying is they want reform. The mandate tonight is to clean up Albany,” the gov-elect said.
Cuomo, 52, was joined on stage by his three daughters, his girlfriend Sandra Lee, his mother, Matilda, and his dad, ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo.
The governor-elect singled out his father for special praise, hailing him as a reminder of “principle and integrity and quality in government.”
The younger Cuomo then walked over and kissed his father on the cheek. The former governor appeared on the verge of tears.
Cuomo enjoyed a commanding lead in opinion polls and had expected victory for weeks.
The Associated Press called the race moments after the polls closed, and Mayor Bloomberg called Cuomo shortly after 10 p.m. to congratulate him on his victory. With nearly two-thirds of the vote counted, Cuomo led Paladino by 60-36 percent.
The Cuomo camp fended off any complacency among voters by pouring an extraordinary $3 million into a get-out-the-vote effort.
With victory secured, Cuomo will soon have to answer the question of whether he’s prepared to take on his Democratic allies to deliver on his pledge to reform state government, freeze state spending, cap local property taxes and once again make the state attractive to business.
Cuomo, who was secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, has been the front-runner since Paladino’s upset victory over former US Rep. Rick Lazio in the Sept. 14 GOP primary.
Cuomo spent close to $30 million on the election, much of it on negative TV ads aimed at undermining Paladino’s claim of fitness for office.
Cuomo’s victory means his running mate, Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy, that city’s former police chief, will become the state’s first elected lieutenant governor in more than 2½ years.
Paladino continued to attack Cuomo in his rambling concession speech last night — delivered to a half-filled ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Buffalo.
The tough-talking real-estate mogul, who had threatened to clean up Albany with a baseball bat at one point, actually brought a real bat on stage.
“I’ve always said my baseball bat is a metaphor for the people who want to take their government back,” Paladino said.
“As our next governor, you can grab this handle and take the people with you to Albany, or you can leave it untouched and run the risk of having it wielded against you.
“Because, make no mistake, you have not heard the last of Carl Paladino,” he said.
Exit polls showed Cuomo was carried to his landslide victory with overwhelming support from women (68 percent), blacks (94 percent) and Latinos (82 percent). He even ran strongly among right-leaning voters, with one in four self-described conservatives voting for the Democrat.
The two candidates split the support of white men.
As expected, Paladino performed strongest in rural, upstate districts where the exit polls showed he got a majority of the vote.
Cuomo will succeed David Paterson, a former lieutenant governor who ascended to the top post in March 2008 after his predecessor, Democrat Eliot Spitzer, resigned in disgrace amid a hooker scandal.
Paladino, who sought to paint Cuomo as a corrupt Albany insider, had pledged to spend $10 million of his personal fortune, and while he dipped deeply into his bank account, his final spending is expected to be $2 million short of that amount.
Paladino contrasted his pledge to stop the proposed mosque near Ground Zero with Cuomo’s acceptance of the project, hoping to benefit from what polls show is widespread public opposition to the proposed location.
The campaign between the two foes turned especially nasty in late September as Paladino, 64, made unsubstantiated claims that Cuomo had multiple “paramours” and may have even been kicked out of his home by then-wife Kerry Kennedy.
The Republican announced after entering the race that he had fathered an out-of-wedlock child and remained close to the mother.
Paladino’s problems with the voters worsened after he met with leaders of a small Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn and made several anti-gay comments, including denouncing the “brainwashing” of youngsters to believe that homosexuality and heterosexuality were “equally valid.”
Public-opinion polls showed support for Paladino hitting rock bottom, and he never recovered.