Is it really any wonder the Republican Party gets no respect in New York?
Take the support — or lack of it — for the party’s nominee for governor, Rob Astorino.
Given the advantages of incumbency and a blue state Gov. Cuomo enjoys, it was always going to be a long shot for any Republican to unseat him. And that’s reflected in the governor’s $35 million war chest and his 35-point lead in the polls.
Daunting as these numbers are, even more troubling for Astorino is something notable for its absence in his latest fund-raising report: Not a single Republican state senator contributed to his campaign. In short, 29 of New York’s most prominent Republican pols have turned their backs on their own candidate.
Meanwhile, these same Senate Republicans collected $5 million for themselves.
This is pathetic but not surprising, given the way Republican Dean Skelos, the Senate majority leader, has been more chummy with Cuomo and Albany’s backroom ways than any Republican ought to be.
Of course, Cuomo returned the favor by throwing Skelos & Co. under the bus so he could get his name on the ballot line of the left-wing Working Families Party.
Ed Cox, the GOP’s state chairman, insists the party is now united, that its state senators are all behind Astorinio. If so, he ought to be screaming at them for their clear lack of financial support, because it sends a terrible signal — and makes the idea Astorino can’t win a self-fulfilling prophecy well before Election Day.
After all, if New York’s Republicans do not support their own candidates, why should they expect anyone else to?