# NY gubernatorial primary 09/09/14: Cuomo v. Teachout **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 19, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915 "2014-08-19T17:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/1 "2014-08-19T17:40:36Z")
Incumbent [Andrew Cuomo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_cuomo) seemed like a shoo-in until the [Moreland Commission](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreland_Commission_to_Investigate_Public_Corruption) scandal broke. Now [Zephyr Teachout](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_Teachout), [challenging Cuomo from the left,](http://www.salon.com/2014/08/19/challenger_zephyr_teachout_%e2%80%9candrew_cuomo_has_been_such_a_failure_as_a_democrat%e2%80%9d/) might have a ghost of a chance at the nomination. > [@](#): > > Teachout herself comes from the party’s Cuomo wing – as in Mario Cuomo, the governor’s father. A believer in FDR liberalism, she says, she loved Mario Cuomo, but thinks his son is the symbol of a party that lost its way. An electoral politics novice, as a candidate anyway, she famously challenged Cuomo for the Working Families Party nomination in May, a sign that the progressive party, independent from but usually allied with Democrats, was fed up with a governor who was great on social issues like gun control and gay marriage but bad on economic ones. Cuomo has blocked tax hikes for the rich, cut the estate tax and enacted other tax cuts and exemptions for both businesses and individuals. Until recently, he opposed letting cities raise the local minimum wage. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/2 "2014-08-19T17:45:51Z")
Interesting. If he can’t even get re-elected as governor, he’s not going to have a chance for President. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/3 "2014-08-19T17:52:33Z")
[Sez the Daily News:](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/lovett-zephyr-teachout-hurt-gov-cuomo-democratic-primary-article-1.1906741) > [@](#): > > Teachout faces an uphill battle even getting out of single digits. A Siena College poll in July showed that only 9% of likely Democratic voters had even heard of her. I’m not aware of more recent polls, and the Salon article didn’t appear to include any. If nobody’s heard of her, “ghost of a chance” is a big overstatement. I’d heard of her but didn’t know she was a woman, so I guess I’m a little ahead of the curve. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/4 "2014-08-19T21:48:26Z")
Wait, I hadn’t noticed that the primary was so soon. Yeah, if people are only just now starting to talk about her, three weeks out, this in nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/5 "2014-08-19T23:49:41Z")
She has a “ghost of a chance” to get in the double digits, maybe, but no, she’s a non-entity when it comes to any shot. What’s interesting is that the person who might have a shot is Tim Wu for Lieutenant Governor. I don’t think he’ll win; I think Hochul will be able to get the nomination, but Wu has a shot. ---
**Author:** ![zain8500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@zain8500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zain8500)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2014, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/6 "2014-08-20T10:30:59Z")
It is an interesting competition. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/7 "2014-08-24T03:58:54Z")
I’m on her emailing list. (I am on many candidates’ emailing lists, so there’s that.) I am not much enamored with Cuomo. And I am the sort of generally liberal Democrat who would be most likely to support her. And my wife, who REALLY dislikes Cuomo, may wind up voting for her. But she just doesn’t seem to be a particularly compelling candidate for any number of reasons, among them her lack of any significant experience. (I also don’t get her reverence for Mario, who always struck me as more of a grandstander than a doer where True Liberalism was concerned.) And Andy Cuomo remains quite powerful if not exactly beloved. He has certainly been quite strong on the social issues, from a liberal point of view, and my impression is that those will matter more than the economic issues for most solid Democratic voters in NY. Anyway. I doubt I will vote for her and I would be very surprised if she garners twenty percent of the vote. We shall see! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2014, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/8 "2014-08-25T20:19:55Z")
The governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/9 "2014-08-26T00:31:07Z")
They’re elected separately in the primary, together in the general. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/10 "2014-08-26T13:42:09Z")
OK, that’s a little less chaotic, then, but it seems like you could still get some situations where the Guv and Looie can’t stand each other. Must make for some interesting politics. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/11 "2014-08-26T13:55:41Z")
Something like that happened in 1982, where Mario’s choice for Lt. Gov, Carl McCall, was beaten in the primary by Al DelBello, the mayor of Yonkers, who Cuomo didn’t like. He didn’t give him anything to do, and DelBello, bored, resigned a few years later. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/12 "2014-08-26T16:03:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > …it seems like you could still get some situations where the Guv and Looie can’t stand each other. That was the situation in _Benson_. The lieutenant governor was not to be trusted. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/13 "2014-08-28T04:40:47Z")
I want to say that it was Adlai Stevenson (the youngest) in Illinois a couple of decades ago who got saddled with running with a LaRouchie as his lieutenant governor. He essentially folded the campaign tent if memory serves. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/14 "2014-08-28T10:42:04Z")
It’s worse in some states, where the Governor and Lieutenant Governor can be from separate parties. There was an incident in California in the 1970s. Jerry Brown, the governor, was a Democrat, and Mike Curb, his Lieutenant Governor, was a Republican. Brown was running for President in 1980, so he was out of the state a lot, and one time when he was gone, and Curb was serving as acting governor, Curb appointed a candidate to the California Court of Appeals after Brown had spent a bunch of time vetting somebody else. This led to a lawsuit, where Curb’s actions were withheld. So, Governor-Lieutenant Governor relationships aren’t always great. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2014, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/15 "2014-08-28T11:17:59Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > It’s worse in some states, where the Governor and Lieutenant Governor can be from separate parties. This is how it was in Ohio until the 70s. In 1974, both incumbents were from separate parties and both lost their re-election bids, leading to a bizarre incident where the lame duck lieutenant governor (then the president of the Senate) slept in the Statehouse to block any legislation from being sent to the lame duck governor for his signature. (IIRC, the president pro tempore could sign a bill if the lieutenant governor wasn’t in the building, or if it had been so many days. But so many days would have put it into the new governor’s term, so the lieutenant governor camped out to keep it from being signed.) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/16 "2014-09-10T04:15:18Z")
Teachout did not come anywhere close to winning, but she did do better than might’ve been expected. Cuomo didn’t get the national launch he wanted because of the Moreland scandal and general dissatisfaction from the left. He won about 62% to 35%. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/17 "2014-09-11T18:56:56Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Teachout did not come anywhere close to winning, but she did do better than might’ve been expected. Cuomo didn’t get the national launch he wanted because of the Moreland scandal and general dissatisfaction from the left. He won about 62% to 35%. I’m hardly the only one who thinks Cuomo is a Presidential candidate mostly in his own mind. IMHO, he’s the Democratic version of guys on the GOP side like Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels. The press keeps puffing them up, but outside their own state, nobody really gives a hoot about them. Also, unless Hillary surprises us all and decides not to run, he can forget about 2016 and probably 2020. I don’t see him looking any better a cycle or two down the road than he does now. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/18 "2014-09-11T21:45:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’m hardly the only one who thinks Cuomo is a Presidential candidate mostly in his own mind. > > IMHO, he’s the Democratic version of guys on the GOP side like Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels. The press keeps puffing them up, but outside their own state, nobody really gives a hoot about them. > > Also, unless Hillary surprises us all and decides not to run, he can forget about 2016 and probably 2020. I don’t see him looking any better a cycle or two down the road than he does now. He has been effective. A gets things done type of governor. First on time budgets for NY State in decades, marriage equality, property tax caps, etc. All while working with a Republican or pseudo-Republican majority in the state Senate. He’s not a thrilling orator, but not a total putz either. If he could talk like his dad, he’d be a contender, but your conclusion about him may be correct. Pissing off the left isn’t an entirely bad thing. Pissing off people who care about clean government is not good, but not fatal politically as has been proven over and over again. At this point in the cycle, I like him more than I liked Obama in mid 2006. Hillary looks inevitable, but who knows. Odd things happen. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-gubernatorial-primary-09-09-14-cuomo-v-teachout/695915/19 "2014-09-12T02:25:34Z")
It’s weird, because I should like Cuomo…I agree with most of his positions on the issues, but I just find him so incredibly offputting and obnoxious, I have trouble supporting him.