US News

Dem, GOP foes gang up on Gov. Cuomo

Gov. Cuomo can still bring opposing sides together — to call him names.

The Republican and left-wing Democratic candidates for governor joined in an unusual show of unity against New York’s incumbent on Tuesday, accusing him of sinking into the ethical muck he promised to clean up.

Professor Zephyr Teachout, the Democrat, and GOP Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino lashed out at Cuomo for failing to keep his 2010 campaign promises to battle corruption.

“I’m here today with a man I disagree with on almost everything, because recent events show that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not merely failed to clean up Albany, he has become part of the problem and an example of the very thing he once promised to fix,” Teachout said outside the Tweed Courthouse behind City Hall, the city’s symbol of late-19th-century corruption.

Among the issues cited by the two Albany hopefuls were Cuomo’s alleged influence over — and dismantling of — the Moreland Commission, an anti-corruption task force that lasted for just one year.

While Cuomo has said he curtailed the commission because legislators agreed to ethics reforms in this year’s state budget, US Attorney Preet Bharara has issued subpoenas for documents related to the aborted mission.

“Only in New York can the anti-corruption commission already be corrupted — and that’s what we face today,” said Astorino.

A Cuomo campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.