It’s
a shame former Conservative Party candidate Daniel Mahony moved to Connecticut
earlier this month, thereby disqualifying himself from the race for lieutenant
governor. If his running mate, Rochester businessman Tom Golisano, won the
governorship and subsequently abdicated to, say, goal tend for the Buffalo
Sabres, Mahony would make a great Guv. He’s got one quality New Yorkers would
really appreciate: He’s a lousy liar.
In court on August 15 to face
allegations he manipulated the electoral system to vote twice in several
elections, Mahony developed a sudden fondness for the core principles of our
Constitution. On the stand, he reportedly took the Fifth 10 times, perspiring
profusely and blushing as he did so. As soon as his “testimony” was over, he
bolted from the courtroom, eluding the press by running down five flights of
spiral stairs (we always ride the elevator).
Clearly, this guy’s got what it
takes to lead the Empire State. At last we’d have a governor incapable of
obfuscating problems with vague pledges of reform, fuzzy math, and wry smiles.
Faced with tough questions about his policies, Governor Mahony would either
answer them honestly or curl up under the podium and sob, in which case we
could comfort him (“It’s OK, Dan. You still the man!”) and get to work actually
fixing things.
But alas, Mahony’s out of contention
(though by no means out of the woods — felony convictions for registering and
voting twice each carry up to seven years in subsidized, high-security
housing). We’re left with a group of gubernatorial hopefuls unwilling to admit
their mistakes, much less flee the state when faced with them.
In the September 10 primary,
registered Democrats get the chance to choose between former federal Housing
and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo and current state comptroller Carl
McCall. Neither has seriously challenged the other on any substantive policy
issues, preferring instead to snipe at Pataki and complain about one another’s
campaign strategy.
For example, in early June McCall
characterized the increased presence of ex-governor Mario Cuomo in his son’s
campaign as Andrew having to “run home for dad” for help in the primary. The
elder Cuomo criticized McCall’s comment, saying the comptroller was trying to
“make this a street fight.”
Of course, when it comes to
intra-Democratic-Party rumbles, Mario Cuomo’s scrapped with the best of ’em.
His 1982 primary fight with Ed Koch was notable mostly for its nastiness.
Cuomo went on to win the primary and
the governorship that year. His campaign manager: Andrew Cuomo. His pick for
lieutenant governor: then-State Senator Carl McCall (McCall lost the Democratic
lieutenant governor primary to Koch’s running mate, Al DelBello).
The Cuomo-McCall scrap is like a
bout between boxing-nun puppets. It’s fun to watch, it’s more than a little
ridiculous, and in the end, no one really gets hurt. The Dems’ idea, after all,
is for one of the contenders to survive the primary with enough strength left
to beat two-term incumbent George Pataki. And to the Dems’ amusement, Pataki’s
also got a fight on his hands.
Golisano, a Pataki challenger in
1994 and 1998, is back for Round 3. And like Rocky III, the budget for this production is the biggest yet.
The founder and CEO of Paychex
doubled the amount of his own personal fortune he spent on each of the last two
campaigns — and doubled his percentage of the vote, accordingly. Granted, the
$13 million he blew through in 1998 made him little more than a blip — he
only got 8 percent of the vote. But this year, he’s pledged to spend as much as
$75 million to punch holes in Pataki’s record. And a double-digit showing could
sap Pataki of enough conservative and independent votes to hand the election to
the Democrat.
As we’ve previously reported (see
“Fear of a dark horse,” City,August 7, 2002), Golisano’s strategy
seems to be one of divide and conquer. He’s challenging Pataki on primary day
on the Independence Party line and the Conservative Party line, though
registered Conservatives supporting Golisano will have to write in his name in
the latter case.
Pataki and his running mate, Lt.
Gov. Mary Donohue, have the Republican line all to themselves this November.
Any votes the pair gets on the Independence and Conservative lines would be
added to the ticket’s total from the Republican line, but only if they remain
paired on the third-party lines after September 10.
If Golisano can pick off Pataki in
one or both primaries, or if one of his running mates (Rochester lawyer William
Neild on the Independence line; Staten Island Conservative Party activist
Marylou Shanahan, Mahony’s replacement, a write-in on the Conservative line)
can beat Donohue, Pataki would lose the third-party gravy votes that can swing
a tight major-party race.
That possibility is the main
motivation behind the Pataki camp’s legal challenges, which question the
validity of signatures gathered to put Golisano and his running mates on the
ballot. Golisano’s camp lost the first two rounds in court, but the billionaire
has vowed to take the fight to the highest levels.
Let’s get ready to rumble…
Andrew Cuomo
Background: Andrew Cuomo, 44, grew up on the mean streets of
Queens. He’s a graduate of Fordham University and Albany Law School, where he
trained to be a lawyer before taking a job as Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan
in 1984. The next year, he took a job as a partner at a New York City law firm,
where he fought court battles until 1988. That year, he founded Housing
Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP), a non-profit, comprehensive social service
organization for the homeless that’s since grown to become the largest
organization of its kind in the country.
Cuomo is the son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo. His
wife is Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, daughter of former New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy
and, by extension, a member of the Kennedy political dynasty. They have three
daughters.
Political experience: In 1982, Cuomo worked as his father’s campaign manager
during Cuomo the elder’s successful gubernatorial bid. (As though to prove his toughness,
the pol-in-training let it be known he was paid only $1 for his efforts.) He also
worked as one of his father’s aids and advisors for several years in the early 1980s.
In 1991, he was appointed to head the New York City Commission
on the Homeless. Cuomo went on to become Assistant Secretary of the federal Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a position he held from 1993 to 1997. He
served as HUD Secretary from 1997 to 2001.
Record: Cuomo touts his tenure at HUD, highlighting accomplishments
such as the fact home ownership rose to its highest level ever under his leadership:
67.7 percent. He also claims to have saved taxpayers millions by reforming the way
the department operates.
Cuomo has made a name for himself as a proponent of gun safety.
He’s collaborated on state and local government lawsuits against gun manufacturers,
and spearheaded the Clinton Administration’s successful push to make the tough guys
at Smith & Wesson change the way they design and sell handguns.
Platform: Cuomo is pro-choice, and goes so far as to support a measure,
enacted in only two other states so far, allowing women to get “Emergency Contraception”
(read: the morning-after pill) from specially trained pharmacists, without a prescription.
On the gay rights front, Cuomo supports state recognition
of same-sex unions, bestowing such couples the same benefits and legal protections
heterosexual married couples enjoy. He also supports passage of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits
discrimination based on sexual orientation
in matters of employment, housing, public accommodations, education, and credit.
An advocate for reforming the harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws,
Cuomo would eliminate mandatory minimums for small-scale, non-violent drug offenders;
direct judges to consider an offender’s role in a crime, rather than just the amount
of drugs involved; and support community-based drug treatment for non-violent drug
offenders.
He supports a $1.60 boost in the minimum wage, bringing it
to $6.75 an hour. A bill to that effect passed the Assembly this year, but hasn’t
gotten much further.
His environmental platform includes implementation of a “New
York Kyoto Protocol” to reduce greenhouse gases in the state to 7 percent below
1990 levels by 2010, and cap carbon dioxide emissions at 40 percent below 1990 levels
by 2010. His “Clean Air New York” program would give tax credits to power plants
investing in clean-air technology. He also says he’s committed to cleaning up Superfund
sites and brownfields.
In terms of education reform, Cuomo says his top priority
is to attract qualified teachers to the state. Toward that end, he says he’ll improve
pay and give scholarships and student loan forgiveness to teachers who commit to
work in New York classrooms. He claims his Empire Scholars program will bring 5,000
new teachers to the state each year. The rest of his education agenda is a mix of
pledges to demand greater accountability, reduce class sizes, increase funding for
pre-school education, make college more affordable, and reform state funding of
public schools.
One interesting note: If the state budget is late, as usual,
when he’s in the governor’s mansion, he’s pledged to forgo his salary until the
budget is passed. If the specter of poor, hungry kids doesn’t move lawmakers to
action, perhaps the prospect of a poor, hungry governor will get their pens moving.
Or, perhaps not.
War chest: Over $6.3 million.
Key endorsements: Former Governor Mario Cuomo, unions representing New York
State sheetmetal workers and steelworkers, the New York State Association of Letter
Carriers, and the New York State chapter of Communications Workers of America.
Running mate: Attorney Charlie King.
Carl McCall
Background: H. Carl McCall, 66, was raised in the rough neighborhoods
of Roxbury, Massachusetts, in Boston. One mini-scandal in the campaign stemmed
from McCall’s claim to have lived in public housing as a child. “I started in
public housing and I don’t mind going back into it,” he’s joked in
speeches, referring to his hope to live in the governor’s mansion. In
mid-August, the New York Post looked into McCall’s claim and found no
records to back it up. Instead, it seems the multifamily homes McCall lived in
were privately owned, albeit dumpy. The gist of McCall’s response: My mother
— who raised me and five siblings, alone, on welfare — told me we lived in
public housing when I was an infant. The scandal has since subsided.
McCall graduated from Dartmouth College, and attended
Newton Theological School and the University of Edinburgh. He was a vice
president of Citicorp for eight years. His wife, Dr. Joyce Brown, is president
of the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. They
have one daughter.
Political experience: The state’s comptroller, McCall is the first
African-American elected to statewide office in New York State. Ironically, it
was then-Governor Mario Cuomo who tapped McCall to fill the post when Republican Ned Regan resigned
it in 1993. McCall won the job on his own merits in 1994 and 1998. He received more votes than any other statewide candidate in
1998: 2.9 million.
McCall has been President of the New York City Board of
Education, an ambassador to the United Nations, Commissioner of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Commissioner of the New York State
Division of Human Rights. He served three terms as a New York State Senator.
The comptroller’s primary duty is to oversee the state
pension fund.
Record: The state pension fund has grown from $56 billion to
over $112 billion since McCall took office. That’s down from a high of $127
billion in 2000, though the stock market’s decline is mainly to blame.
McCall’s taken some heat lately for his management of the
Venture Capital Program, a program designed to provide seed money to upstart
businesses in the state. The Buffalo News reported in mid-August that in
the three years since the program was created, only $14.1 million of the $250
million available in the investment fund had been distributed. And of that fraction,
businesses headquartered in other states had received millions, while no
investments were made in companies in Western New York.
McCall defended the out-of-state investments as within
the scope of the program’s purpose. More money will be invested in New York
firms in the future, he said, adding that he was trying to manage the fund
“prudently.”
Outside his duties running the pension fund, McCall has
focused on education, leading efforts to restore state budget funding for New
York’s public university system, among other efforts.
Platform: Like Cuomo, McCall is pro-choice, supports state
recognition of same-sex marriages with full benefits and protections, and
favors of the Sexual
Orientation Non-Discrimination Act.
McCall
has urged Pataki to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws. He’s embraced the bill
passed by the Assembly that would give judges more discretion in sentencing
offenders; put non-violent drug offenders in mandatory treatment, rather than
prison; and improve drug-treatment programs in prisons. The law would also
increase sentences in cases where guns are involved or the offender has sold
drugs to kids.
The
minimum wage bill that passed the Assembly also has McCall’s support.
McCall’s
environmental platform calls for the passage of a brownfields bill that would
make it easier for local governments clean up and redevelop plots of industrial
wasteland. Like Cuomo, he’d refinance Superfund. McCall’s energy policy is
geared toward reducing consumption, and he would require utilities to purchase
10 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2008.
His
education plan specifically calls for an $8 billion increase in education aid
over his first four years in office. Greater school accountability, smaller
classes, and sound pre- and after-school education are also prominent features
of the plan. In addition, McCall
says his Excellence in Education Scholarship Program — an initiative that
would give students who agree to teach in public schools for five years a free
graduate-level teaching education — will bring 10,000 new teachers to New
York each year. Estimated cost: $95 million the first year, as much as $185
million in future years.
In
terms of higher education, McCall would reduce tuition at state community
colleges by about 25 percent, so no student would pay more than $2,000 a year
in tuition and fees, and increase the state’s investment in higher education,
among other measures.
War chest: Nearly
5.6 million.
Key endorsements: US
Senator Charles Schumer, US Representatives Louise Slaughter and John LaFalce,
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver,
Assemblyman David Gantt, Monroe County Democratic Party Chair Ted O’Brien,
Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson, the Civil Service Employees Union.
Running mate: Businessman
Dennis Mehiel.
George Pataki
Background: George Pataki, 57, grew up on his family’s farm in
Peekskill, NY. He graduated from Yale and Columbia Law School. He and his wife,
Libby (a marketing consultant), have four children.
Political experience: After graduating from Columbia, Pataki was elected
mayor of Peekskill, where he served two terms. He went on to serve four terms
in the State Assembly, and was elected to the State Senate in 1992. Two years
later, he ran for Governor, defeating three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo. He was
re-elected in 1998.
Missing in his Web bio is a stint working for the
campaign of former Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a conservative Republican whose
liberal tendencies invoked the ire of right-wingers.
It’s also worth noting that Pataki pledged in 1994 to
serve only two terms. Yet, here he is, again.
Record: Among Pataki’s first decisions in office was to
reinstate the death penalty. Despite this, no convicts have been put to death
in New York while he’s been governor.
Elected, in large part, because of his conservative credentials
and voter dissatisfaction with Mario Cuomo’s liberal policies, Pataki has since
drifted toward the center of the political spectrum. Earlier in his current
term, he tightened the state’s gun control laws and signed the Women’s Health
Bill, which requires insurers to cover the cost of birth control and other
contraceptives. Taxes have been cut, though they remain high compared to other
states, and both debt and state spending have increased under his leadership.
Job growth upstate (that is, outside New York City, Long
Island, and three downstate counties) has increased by a small fraction (about
0.7 percent) compared to the nation as a whole (which saw employment increase
almost 10 percent) since Pataki took office. But Pataki’s party counters that
private-sector jobs have increased far more under his administration than
during Mario Cuomo’s reign.
Primary challenger Tom Golisano has been flooding the
airwaves with ads claiming New York has lost 300,000 jobs since Pataki became
governor. However, statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor show the state
has added 600,000 jobs since 1995, and Pataki credits his administration’s
initiatives, such as the creation of Empire Zones, with keeping businesses in
New York.
Platform: Pataki is pro-choice, and has made no effort to ban
so-called partial-birth abortions in New York. Despite his on-the-record
support for the Sexual
Orientation Non-Discrimination Act, which
passed the Assembly and seems to have enough support in the Senate to reach the
governor’s desk, Pataki has not pushed hard enough to make the legislation law.
The idea of recognizing same-sex unions seems well outside his political radar.
Reform
of the Rockefeller Drug Laws has likewise languished under his leadership,
though he’s generally supportive of the reforms outlined in the Assembly bill.
Increasing the minimum wage has not been a priority.
On
the education front, Pataki’s taken a lot of heat for his administration’s
court clash with a coalition seeking increased state aid to New York City
Schools. Pataki has embraced the dubious argument that New York’s Constitution
only requires the state to provide students with a junior-high-level education.
The legal battle continues.
Meanwhile,
Pataki points out that under his leadership, state support to schools has
increased by $4.8 billion, or
49 percent. The “Flex Aid” reforms he’s proposed would tie school performance
to state aid, providing more aid to the neediest school systems. His “Teachers
of Tomorrow” program seeks to attract and retain educators through tuition
reimbursement, funding for teacher certification, and other incentives.
Environmentally,
the Governor’s taken flack for the state’s failure to refinance the Superfund
toxic-site cleanup program. Pataki supports refinancing Superfund, but has
clashed with Assembly Democrats over the details.
In
particular, the Assembly plan calls for a $200-million-a-year program capable of cleaning up
all of the state’s toxic waste sites, within a decade, to the highest
standards. Pataki has proposed funding the program with $90 million a year,
stringing out cleanup efforts over two decades, and allowing some sites, such
as those zoned for industrial use, to be cleaned up to a lesser degree than
sites suitable for residential development. His plan would also split the cost
of cleanups evenly between state funds and fees paid by industry; the Assembly
plan calls for companies to pay 75 percent of the program’s costs.
War chest: $23.3
million.
Key endorsements: Former
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; SEIU-1199, a health care workers union; the
Teamsters Union, national and state chapters; the New York League of
Conservation Voters.
Running mate: Lt. Gov.
Mary Donohue.
Tom Golisano
Background: Tom Golisano, 60, grew up in Irondequoit, the son of
a heating contractor and a seamstress. He completed a two-year business program
at SUNY Technical College at Alfred.
In 1971, he started Paychex Inc. with $3,000. The
publicly traded payroll services company is now valued at more than $10 billion
and employs more than 7,000 people. As founder and CEO, Golisano is estimated
to be worth $1.7 billion.
Critics have accused Golisano of running his seemingly
Quixotic campaigns to boost the value of his company’s stock. According to the
website PoliticsNY.com, which tracks the value of Paychex stock while Golisano
stumps around the state, the company’s stock value “soared” during his first
two gubernatorial bids.
This year, however, that’s not the case. According to the
site, Paychex’ stock price had dropped over 33 percent by August 21, compared
to its value the day Golisano announced he was running again, May 1. Whether
that’s due to the stock market’s general decline or a perception among
investors that Golisano’s being distracted from his duties as CEO is a matter
of debate.
A philanthropist, Golisano has given over $33 million to
area colleges and the Strong Children’s Hospital, according to his official
bio. In 1986, he established of the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation, which awards
grants to organizations providing services to people with disabilities. He
serves on RIT’s board of trustees, and has served on the boards of Rochester
General Hospital, Norstar Bank, St. John Fisher College, and the Executive
Committee of the Greater Metro Chamber of Commerce — again, according to his
bio.
Golisano has been divorced twice and has two children and
five grandchildren. He lives in Victor.
Political experience: Golisano helped found the state’s Independence Party,
and ran on its ticket in 1994. He got 4 percent of the vote. In 1998, he ran on
the Independence Party line and received 8 percent of the vote.
He has never held elected office.
Platform: Golisano’s campaign has been all but silent on social
issues so far, focusing instead on the businessman’s fiscal initiatives.
Golisano has, however, been critical of Pataki’s gun-control measures, and
boasts of sleeping with a shotgun under his bed.
Golisano pledges to cut property and income taxes.
According to his website (www.golisano.com), he intends to pay for those cuts,
in part, by “slashing the waste and political patronage from government
spending” and “reforming the state budget process.” His campaign has been short
on specifics in this regard.
Golisano also supports passage of Initiative and
Referendum Laws, which would allow citizens to put legislation on the ballot
for a public vote, provided they collect a sufficient number of signatures.
Pataki also supports changing the state Constitution to allow such citizen
participation, though he has not exerted much political muscle to make it
happen.
A self-financed candidate, Golisano would try to make
corporate and union campaign contributions illegal in New York. He says such a
measure would free New York from “the grip special interests have on the
state.” Golisano also supports term limits for all statewide elected officials,
and says he’ll seek changes in New York’s election laws to make it easier for
third parties, like his own, to compete in the political process.
Although Golisano says his business interests are
unrelated to his political campaign, since announcing his candidacy, he’s
publicly expressed interest in two sports-related matters that could rally
Western New York fans to his side.
In early August, he announced his interest in buying the
Buffalo Sabres NHL hockey team. The NHL is selling the team because former
owner John Rigas is bankrupt and facing fraud charges in connection with
Adelphia Corp.’s finances. Golisano, who’s described himself as “sort of” a
hockey fan, has said he’d like to lead a group of Western New York businessmen
in acquiring the team, and would consider converting it to public ownership in
the future to ensure the franchise remains in Buffalo. The NHL is still in the
process of seeking bids.
Later in August, Golisano offered the State University of
New York at Buffalo a multimillion-dollar donation to improve its football
program, but on one condition: the school change its name to New York State
University. He told the Democrat and Chronicle the name change could
make the team “a rallying point for the entire state,” the way college football
fans in Tennessee, Ohio, and other states affiliate themselves with their
states’ state university programs. University officials have not publicly
commented on the offer.
War chest: By late August, Golisano had given his own campaign
$35 million. His camp has indicated he’s willing to spend as much as $75
million on his bid this year.
Key endorsements: None to speak of.
Running mates: Rochester lawyer William Neild (Independence Party),
Staten Island Conservative Party activist Marylou Shanahan (Conservative Party,
write-in candidate to replace Daniel Mahony).
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2002.
