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NY: Will Attorney General Cuomo Become Candidate for Governor?

From The New York Times:

Andrew M. Cuomo’s father, Mario, once left a plane waiting on a runway here that would have carried him to New Hampshire and a presidential candidacy, ending years of speculation about his interest in higher office.

From the outside, it looks as if Cuomo the son is reprising his father’s role as a reluctant Democratic star.

With the primary election for governor eight months away, Mr. Cuomo, the attorney general, continues to delay pulling the trigger on a candidacy amid growing calls for him to do so. Impatience among Democrats has increased in the past few days, as Mr. Cuomo reported a huge fund-raising lead over Gov. David A. Paterson — $16 million on hand to the governor’s $3 million — and a Republican upset in a Senate race in Massachusetts renewed fears in New York about Mr. Paterson’s vulnerability.

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New York: Governor’s Moves go Nowhere

From The Buffalo News:

Gov. David A. Paterson on Tuesday proposed a new set of deficit-closing ideas with far less drastic reductions in aid to public schools and more reliance on federal bailout money.

And in a bit of a mixed message, he also urged lawmakers to grant him unprecedented emergency powers to cut the budget on his own — an idea that won no support in the State Legislature.

In the end, no decisions were made. Lawmakers rejected Paterson’s more modest round of proposed cuts and went home for the Thanksgiving holiday with plans to not return until Monday, when they will try — for the fourth week in a row — to erase the state’s $3.2 billion deficit.

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NY: Legislature Gathers as Budget Talks Fail

From Yahoo! News:

New York lawmakers and Governor David Paterson said they continue to negotiate a plan to narrow a $10 billion budget deficit over the next 17 months and solve a December cash squeeze.

Paterson, a Democrat who called legislators to Albany for special sessions last week and yesterday, told the Associated Press he will hold them in the state capital until there’s an agreement or they vote down the proposal he made a month ago. He said a vote on the budget-reduction plan isn’t likely today.

Paterson’s plan for midyear spending cuts to education and Medicaid spending, the two largest parts of the state’s $133.2 billion budget, have been stumbling blocks since he made his proposal on Oct. 15. Senate Democrats have sought to replace spending cuts with other one-time revenue, including $500 million from a restructuring of the state’s $3.59 billion of tobacco bonds.

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NY: AG Leads Governor by 59 in new Poll

From the New York Post:

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has opened a staggering 59-point lead over Gov. Paterson after the embattled governor spent more than $500,000 on TV ads aimed at bolstering his image, according to a new poll.

Cuomo extended his already massive lead over Paterson in a potential primary next year for the state’s top job. The poll found Cuomo would beat his fellow Democrat 75-16 in a hypothetical 2010 matchup, according to the statewide Siena Research Institute.

That 59-point spread is up nine points from a similar poll last month.

In fact, Paterson now trails all potential major party candidates for governor after former Long Island Congressman Rick Lazio, a Republican, gained five points to lead Paterson 42-39 in a head-to-head contest.

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NY: AG Cuomo Wants to Shape Ticket in run for Governor

From The New York Times:

Mr. Cuomo has discussed candidates who would diversify the ticket, which, given the interest shown, has the potential to be dominated by Italian-American men, and he is said to be intrigued by William C. Thompson Jr., among others, as a candidate for state comptroller. Mr. Thompson, New York City’s comptroller, put up a surprisingly strong challenge to Michael R. Bloomberg in the race for mayor of New York, despite being outspent 14 to 1.

Adding a prominent African-American could help Mr. Cuomo soothe any resentment he sets off if Gov. David A. Paterson, the state’s first African-American governor, stays in the race and the two men battle for the party’s support at the state convention in the summer.

Mr. Cuomo is also trying to repair any lingering damage from his 2002 primary for the governor’s office with H. Carl McCall, then the state comptroller and the first black official elected statewide in New York.

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NY: Disgraced ex-Governor Spitzer Thinks Current Governor is doing Great Job

From New York Daily News:

Gov. Paterson may not have the President’s backing, but he got a ringing endorsement Thursday from hooker-happy Eliot Spitzer – the man who got him into this mess in the first place.

“David is a friend. He is somebody I support,” the disgraced former governor said at Harvard University’s Safra ethics center.

“All Democrats in the state should support him,” Spitzer told the Daily News after delivering a lecture on big business corruption.

“He is making tough decisions on the budget and the welter of issues that need to be confronted in a moment of economic crisis, and he is doing so thoughtfully.”

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NY: Governor Now Says He’ll Work with Legislators

From wgrz.com:

After talking tough about the need to cut state spending, Gov. David Paterson this morning suggested that he’s open to any deal with legislative leaders could close a $3.2 billion mid-year budget deficit.

Paterson held a half-hour conference call with legislative leaders that reporters were able to listen in on.

“I’m less and less ideological about deficit reduction,” he told the leaders. “We just have to do it. In other words, if the four of you agreed on something that I don’t right now, I’d be persuaded to go along with it.”

He said his “main thrust is doing what’s right for the people of New York, which is not to injury our financial position as so many states have.”

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NY: Democrat Senators Rebuff Dem Governor

From The Buffalo News:

Reducing the state’s soaring deficit, legalizing gay marriage, slowing property tax growth and toughening drunk driving laws are among the items on the agenda for a special session of the Legislature that Gov. David A. Paterson has scheduled for Tuesday.

The governor, though, is being rebuffed by his fellow Democrats who run the State Senate in his quest to address both houses a day earlier in a rare joint session in which he hopes to convince them of the need to cut state spending to trim the $3.2 billion deficit.

But Democrats in the Senate, where Paterson served for years before becoming governor, have rejected that notion. Senate Republicans plan to attend the Monday session, as do Assembly Democrats and Republicans.

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Concerns About NY Governor Raise Issue of Presidential Endorsement

From The Hill:

President Barack Obama’s recent meddling in the New York governor’s race is setting off another round of will-he-or-won’t-he when it comes to the president’s endorsement habits.

Empire State Gov. David Paterson (D) stepped on to the national stage Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where David Gregory tried to press Paterson on exactly what was contained in the message from the Obama administration, which reportedly urged him not to run.

“I’m blind, but I’m not oblivious,” Paterson said. “I realize that there are people who don’t want me to run. I’ve never gotten an explicit indication authorized from the White House that I shouldn’t run.”

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POTUS will be a factor in Redistricting

Cross posted on http://www.rslc.com/redistricting

from Chuck Todd’s First Read:

As today’s New York Times indicates, the president isn’t being shy about getting involved in key political races, even if it means taking sides in a Democratic primary or, in the case of embattled/unpopular New York Governor David Paterson, suggest to him that he not run.
Obama’s not just the Commander-in-Chief, leader of the free world etc.., he’s also the head of the Democratic Party. Because these next set of elected governors (in 2009 and 2010) will be in office when the next round of redistricting/reapportionment takes place, it raises the stakes even higher than usual. All of this may explain why the White House — whose chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, himself has spent years getting Dems elected to the House — is taking such an interest in governor’s races.

In the case of New York, the state may lose another House seat once the census is completed, making the redistricting process very important if they want to protect some newly elected Democrats sitting in swing/GOP leaning districts. So that’s why governors matter so much more this cycle than the last two combined. How important are governor races to the White House?

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