Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s much-an ticipated announcement that he’s running for governor could come a week from Wednesday, as he holds a major fund-raiser in Manhattan, sources said last night.
An April 28 announcement makes sense because the large crowd expected at the $1,000-a-ticket Waldorf-Astoria event “will be pumped up expecting to hear something big about the governor’s race, and that would be the place to do it,” said a well-positioned source.
An announcement that day would also come just two days before the start of the nominating convention of the Democratic Rural Conference, a group with which Cuomo has strong personal and political ties.
Excitement about Cuomo’s announcement has been building in Democratic circles as the impasse over a new state budget worsens and as the attorney general moves to wrap up several high-profile investigations, including the state pension-fund scandal and a probe of embattled Bronx Democratic Sen. Pedro Espada.
Cuomo’s declaration for governor is expected to be short on clichés and long on newsmaking specifics, addressing the state’s widespread financial, economic, and corruption problems without resorting to what one Democratic activist called “the normal political pabulum.”
“It will be grim but also hopeful, with a pledge not to raise taxes and a vow to slash runaway spending and borrowing. He’s going to say, ‘Yes, we’re in the sh – – – er, but dysfunction is not OK. It must be brought to an end. We can do much better,” said a source.
Cuomo, with no Democratic opponent and facing what polls show is only weak opposition from any of three potential GOP challengers, doesn’t have to announce his candidacy until his party’s nominating convention in late May, so there’s a chance he’ll wait until then.
He’s being urged by some advisers to do just that for fear that an announcement before then could somehow make the state budget deadlock even worse and put an additional political cast on actions taken by his office prior to the convention.
But polls show an increasing number of voters want the popular Cuomo to announce sooner rather than later — the flip side of surveys showing lame-duck Gov. Paterson and the Legislature with historically low approval ratings.
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“It’s war!”
That’s how a prominent activist described relations between Cuomo and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli over the weekend after the attorney general conspicuously refused late last week to endorse his fellow Democrat for election in November.
Cuomo raised eyebrows and embarrassed DiNapoli as he announced a series of multimillion-dollar settlements in the state pension-fund scandal and then disclosed that his office was looking into the comptroller’s role in meeting with politically connected companies seeking control over the investment of pension-fund money.
“Many of DiNapoli’s supporters were furious at Cuomo,” said a Democratic Party insider.
“They were all saying, ‘Tom is such a nice guy. How could Andrew be doing this to him?” the insider continued.
But a source close to Cuomo responded, “The attorney general doesn’t care if DiNapoli is a political ally or not. If you do the wrong thing, then you’ve done a wrong thing.”
“Frankly, it’s more evidence of Cuomo’s willingness to take on the existing political power structure, Democratic and Republican, ally or not.”