Opinion

Cuomo’s challenge

Congratulations to Andrew Cuomo, governor-elect of the all-but-sky- blue state of New York.

The attorney general yesterday easily deflected a challenge from Republican businessman Carl Paladino, and fellow Democrats were on their way to running the table in statewide races.

Certainly Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand also won handily, as did state Sen. Eric Schneiderman in his bid for attorney general.

Republicans, to be sure, distinguished themselves in some House races, but control of the state Senate was far from clear late last night.

All of this likely adds up to trouble for Cuomo as he moves to implement the intricate reform platform that he ran, and won, on.

He vowed to return New York to solvency, while bringing New York’s intransigent, corrupt political culture to heel.

That task would be formidable under any circumstances, but the degree of difficulty would have been eased somewhat had voters added some Republican counterweight to the Albany mix.

Much remained unsettled late last night, but a critical mass for reform seems not to have been achieved.

Thus the pressures to keep the status quo in Albany — kowtowing to public-sector unions and special interests — will be as strong as ever.

That will leave Cuomo alongside far too many of the same old Democratic, pro-labor hacks who’ve brought the state to its current sad circumstance.

Can Cuomo get around all that?

That remains to be seen.

Already, folks like Dan Cantor — executive director of the union-front Working Families Party — are lamenting that Democrats suffered yesterday because they were too “timid.”

His point: Salaries, benefits and wages for union members aren’t lavish enough.

Taxes aren’t high enough.

And Cuomo took the WFP’s endorsement; who knows where that will lead?

The governor-elect says he’s got a plan to push through a reform agenda — forging alliances and winning over support through diplomacy. He seems to understand what the state needs: control over taxes and spending, someone to say “no” to the unions.

But going to war without allies is always a risky business, and even if Cuomo does manage to wrestle the capital’s knaves to the ground, he’ll still be faced with the sad fact that — based on yesterday’s election results — New Yorkers aren’t all that unhappy with Albany.

They say they want change.

But they don’t vote that way.

This will complicate Cuomo’s task.