NYT may have endorsed Cuomo, but their own reporting shows it all came down to money. Small donors preferred his adversary - I wonder why.
Although I supported her, I had no great expectations of Cynthia Nixon, either as a candidate or a potential governor. But Cuomo has overstayed his corrupt and ludicrous tenure as governor, and the tragedy is that only an actress had the temerity to step up and oppose him. The man is monstrous. He talks about heath care for New Yorkers while foiling, through his support of the IDC, miraculously destroyed last night by the progressives the Times journalists seem to mock in their other article on the election, the single payer bill passed by the Assembly that never makes it to the floor of the Senate. He has done nothing to make voting easier for the citizens of this state, placing us 49th out of 50. Nor is abortion assured in this state, which should alarm everyone aware of the degradation of the US Supreme Court. He was supported by the Democratic dinosaurs who lost us the election in 2016. Now that's an achievement. But they are the only ones who will support him if he runs for president -- he hasn't got a chance in hell. Had the Democrats had a decent candidate to run against him, we wold be saying good bye to him too -- along with Jeff Klein and his Trump Democrats, whom Cuomo tolerated until Cynthia Nixon entered the fray and shamed him into a bogus agreement that would have kept the system we defeated intact.
2
If Nixon backs out due to MSM pressure, I may well vote R for the first time in my life. At least Molinaro cares about the environment and keeping charter schools in check/not making more of them. He did not vote for Trump, so I am not worried he will become a Trumpaloompa. Maybe he will use MTA money to actually fix the MTA and not to go on vacation. No, I don't feel "guilty" or "conflicted" about this. You Dems have it coming.
There is such a thing as knowledge, relevant skills. competence and executive experience.
Nixon had essentially none. Unbelievable that she actually thought she had the qualifications.
There was only one sensible choice. In this case he won.
Hope enough voters across the nation go for the sensible choice on their ballot too in Nov, then we might take back Congress, and ultimately get rid of you know who.
5
Ms. Nixon was running to be Governor of Manhattan. Not the “state” of New York. If there was any doubt, “Bagelgate” was it’s confirmation.
4
From the article: All three lost. All the energy, passion, and hype won't do a bit of good if the result is a loss. For Ms. Nixon, it was a substantial loss.
1
"The race cemented both Mr. Cuomo’s standing as an unmatched force in New York politics and a merciless tactician with little regard for diplomacy."
I think it was more about rejecting the fringe politics and accepting the moderate ones.
2
Cuomo is a hack politician in the NY tradition. But who in their right mind would vote for an actress with zero political experience and a bunch of pie in the sky ideas and no idea how to pay for them other than a generic "soak the rich". It is one thing to elect a super liberal to congress, that is one of 435. But the governor has to actually do stuff, and executive experience matters.
4
34% of voters picked a progressive TV celebrity with no experience in politics. That should be a wake up call for Gov. Cuomo. Many New Yorkers want change and he should pay attention!
2
One of Nixon's excuses for losing was to blame the high voter turnout for this primary. God forbid that people come out and vote. Gee, she must be a Republican.
3
Well we have New Yorks answer to Trump for four more years. A bully who was give his start thanks to Daddy's influence. Only difference Cuomo is more dangerous in that he is a product of the corrupt Queens Democratic County regime
4
@Patrick
And unlike Trump who got his start with his father's money and, whether you like it or not, somewhat made a success of himself, Cuomo,like his father, is only a success at spending other people's money - and often poorly, at that.
It'll be interesting to see what happens in November . Will Nixon drop off the ticket or leave it there as a spoiler ? If she is really interested and truly believes in the Democratic process and not allow the fracturing ; assuring a possible Republican win than she'll withdraw it . Progressives need to rethink their strategies other than cutting off their noses to spite their faces and ours too . Please don't let anger and disappointment rule , it takes patience and we need to keep New York a Democratic state . We'll get there united .
1
@sm nope. Sorry. I won't "unite" around a corrupt failure. I rely on the subway. All you mainstream Dems should keep your fingers crossed that Nixon stays in the race, or else Molinaro will win. Too many of us see Cuomo for who he really is.
Cuomo's clumsy attack on Nixon left me no choice but to ignore the recommendation of this newspaper's editorial board, which I usually follow to the letter. I voted for Nixon, but in any case, it's time to move on and focus on November.
3
@The Buddy
Haha, yes time to focus on another meaningless election where your favorite candidate will say whatever it is you want to here, but accomplish nothing but working on their reelection.
3
I’m not sure that Nixon would have been a better governor, but she may have been a leader, instead of the guy you just re-elected, who’s a mere politician, and not even a respectable politician. Cuomo is petty, vindictive, and as the recent (disgusting) mailing about Nixon being anti Semitic proved, no stranger to sleaze. The upside of that disgrace may be that he killed any chance for higher office.
But you did remove the gang of fake Democrats, which was good to see. If you could knock off the guy who shields the yeshiva schools from following even minimal standards for proper education, you’d be even better off. Maybe next time.
I’ve been observing the circus side show in Albany for quite a few years. Harrisburg has its own bad actors, but none (or fewer?) as blatantly and arrogantly crooked as NY’s. Congrats to those who are working to turn Albany around.
2
This man destroyed the Subway system in NYC. Enjoy that, New Yorkers.
4
Congratulations Governor Cuomo. If was a Democrat living in New York, I would have certainly chosen you over Cynthia Nixon. Good luck in November. Cheers!
1
Cuomo moved to the left on many issues, and it is now up to you to hold him accountable, so that he does not waver. (as usual)
I commend Nixon for getting into the race to essentially achieve what I think she was trying to do. Now is the time to come together and work to make New York a more Progressive state.
Good luck .
3
@FunkyIrishman
Yes, now is the time to come together - and vote Cuomo out of office by electing Marc Molinaro.
2
A Bloomberg campaign manager talking about "winning ugly"? Didn't his former boss ram a change to the term limit law through city counsel in three weeks in October of 2008 so that he could run for a third term in 2009?
I guess he's quoted because he knows from winning ugly.
4
The headline is misleading. The amount of money spent by his campaign, the stunts like opening the Tappan Zee Bridge early, the arm twisting of other elected officials in the state show just how hard it was for this deeply unpopular governor to win the nomination of his own party.
After the mailers falsely accusing Cynthia Nixon of antisemitism, I waited for even one of my own representatives to finally say: “Sir, have you no sense of decency.” But none did. It’s an indication of just how afraid they are of his famous penchant for retribution.
That’s no way to run a democracy. I hope we can find some way to break the grip. He didn’t win easily. We need to make it hard for him to dictate as well.
4
Nixon, a political novice won over a 3rd of the Democratics who chose to vote in the primary.
That is a powerful message to send to an incumbent who comes from a political dynasty.
It's letting Cuomo know that the triangulation of the Clinton era is over and we need and want progressive path for all New Yorkers to grow and thrive in.
4
@WendyLou14
Two generations of political hackery by Mario and Andrew Cuomo does not constitute a political dynasty.
1
Maybe now Democrats will quit wasting time and money on dilettantes. Losing by 30 percentage points doesn't even qualify as being at the races. A turnip could probably have polled better. People need to realize we are in a fight for the soul of this country, and only committed, professional, capable Democrats need apply.
7
Kudos for Ms. Nixon for running a principled progressive campaign which, even in defeat, accomplished two things. First, it forced Gov. Cuomo to move to his left on some key issues this summer. And second, by scaring him to promising not to run for president, she has spared the Democratic party and the rest of the nation from having to put up with this mook in 2020.
2
@Ross Outten
If you believe any of that, I have a bridge to sell you.
Cuomo is already super liberal, just not ultra like people who live in the could would like him to be.
Not running for president ... for now. he'll wait until the other wannabes join that race, burn money and burn out, and when they are all gone, he'll reluctantly join into that fight. It's called 'strategy', why burn money and get exposed now, when you can wait for the Nixons and Ocasios to burn first before you waste your time.
1
The Governor deserved to be re-elected. I was pulling for him. But Ms. Nixon deserved to run and push the liberal agenda. The public interest has been served.
3
These are the races that demonstrate why the Democrats are a failure today. Millions of qualified people in NY and the best we can come up with is an establishment politician widely disliked, and a television personality.
Very frightening is also the forecast that Donald Trump will serve a second term unless the Democrats back a solid national candidate.
Unfortunately, NY is no longer a leader for the rest of our country. We have only ourselves to blame for that.
8
I won't vote for Cuomo in the general election (I will support whoever the Republican is as any R is better), but I have a mild appreciation for him as although he has been liberal on some social issues, Cuomo has successfully defended New York against every hair brained tax increase (i.e. millionaires tax, commuter tax, etc) promoted by the screeching firebrands like De Blasio. He will win the general election, and New York could do worse.
5
Of course experience counts, but it doesn't count for much if you don't have the willingness to do what's right. Cuomo only does the right thing when it's politically expedient for him. He negotiated the IDC back to the Democrats as he saw how angry folks were about it - otherwise, how else did that fiasco happen for 8 years? And his petty fights with DeBlasio (who is also at fault) are simply embarrassing playground sandbox behavior. The MTA is still a disaster!
I voted for Ms. Nixon because I'm tired of watching the corruption and political machinations of these "experienced" incumbents who actually aren't doing good for their constituents, unless they are dragged to the task from public outcry. Maybe she is too inexperienced, but excuse me, how experienced is the man in the White House currently? Surely, Ms. Nixon would do better than him, surely?? At least with her there's no threat of nuclear war or stealing children at the border.
On a good note, I was so happy to see that our incumbent NY Senator, Jose Peralta, was shown the door by Jessica Ramos! After his years with the IDC, his time was up!
22
@Diva"Maybe she is too inexperienced, but excuse me, how experienced is the man in the White House currently? " ---- not much of an argument
3
The more I read of the criticisms of Cynthia Nixon and her so-called "pie in the sky", fantasy world of where she was going to obtain the money for her programs that were actually going to help people, the more and more I realize how totally dysfunctional American priorities are.
ONE AND A HALF TRILLION DOLLARS given away in tax cuts to primarily wealthy people and corporations whom have used the money to just buy back their own stock AND an additional $70 BILLION DOLLARS per year handed out to an already bloated military/industrial complex to help them continue fighting never ending wars in the Middle East that have continued now well into their second decade without resolution! TRILLIONS already spent (and growing), yet, some how to spend taxpayer's money on these fruitless endeavors is OK and Nixon is"pie in the sky"?
Just think of what could have been done with that money if directed towards infrastructure and improving the human condition in America?
I recommend reading Christopher Hedges latest novel "America, The Farewell Tour" and if you keep electing corrupt corporate backed politicians like Cuomo, you are well on your way towards reaching the conclusions in Hedges "very depressing" book.
5
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/nyregion/state-senate-election-result...
The above article states that Valesky won; however your election results have May as the winner.
Please clarify
Cuomo is truly pragmatic and transactional. Trump is pseudo-transactional. Bullying someone to get your way, but giving away the farm (a la North Korea) if you're flattered and cozied up to is not being transactional. Unless having to give up your lunch money to the school bully, unless you become part of his gang of mini-me's, is being transactional.
Trump tries to be pragmatic, but if you aren't wiling to put in the real work, decisions come back to bite you in the end. A la six bankruptcies..
2
It was that lox on a cinnamon raisin bagel that really led to Nixon's loss. Who wants a governor with such bad taste?
5
Dear Cynthia,
Please, PLEASE don't drop out of the race. Stay on the Working Families ticket. I will vote for you. You have TONS of support among Independents and others who are not allowed to vote in Democratic primaries. You have a better shot at winning than you think, with all of those votes added to the mix: independents, Greens, Working Families, etc.
Thanks,
Someone who would like to take a clean, timely, safe subway ride again sometime before they die
4
Great idea. Siphon as many votes from Andrew Cuomo as you can, get Molinaro elected, then you'll really have a governor you don't like. Can you say Ralph Nader?
7
@Humanesque
Dear Humanesque,
Kindly leave your bubble and try to breath oxygen that's not your own.
She has zero support. Yesterday proved that.
The 400 voters from the angry far left parties wont add a thing.
Thanks,
Someone who is happy that the bridges are being repaired for the first time in 50 years.
4
@Humanesque In the highest-turnout primary election in living memory, Nixon lost by forty points. Do you really think there are that many voters who are not registered Democrats that she can win in the general, or are you just bound and determined to see Albany gifted to the Republican Party.
I suppose that would be better than the alternative: Nixon actually winning. No more actors for office. Reagan, Schwarzenegger, Trump... the evidence is in. Actors are terrible politicians.
1
Of course experience counts, but it doesn't count for much if you don't have the willingness to do what's right. Cuomo only does the right thing when it's politically expedient for him. He negotiated the IDC back to the Democrats as he saw how angry folks were about it - otherwise, how else did that fiasco happen for 8 years? And his petty fights with DeBlasio (who is also at fault) are simply embarrassing playground sandbox behavior. The MTA is still a disaster!
I voted for Ms. Nixon because I'm tired of watching the corruption and political machinations of these "experienced" incumbents who actually aren't doing good for their constituents, unless they are dragged to the task from public outcry. Maybe she is too experienced, but excuse me, how experienced is the man in the White House currently? Surely, Ms. Nixon would do better than him, surely?? At least with her there's no threat of nuclear war or stealing children at the border.
On a good note, I was so happy to see that our incumbent NY Senator, Jose Peralta, was shown the door by Jessica Ramos! After his years with the IDC, his time was up!
2
With Cuomo's support, James is likely to be the nation's most important backup to Mueller's investigation, as state convictions cannot be pardoned by Trump. And most of his businesses are centered in NYC. Along with the DFS, when James is the State AG Trump's financial connections with foreign gov'ts and their banks will be secret no longer. Similarly "unpardonable" acts (pun intended) should also be investigated by AGs of VA and DC.
1
The real story here is that less than 25% of registered Democrats voted in this primary. Can’t bring about change without participation.
5
@MDB Really? Why does this article say that there was a huge turnout? They compared it to 2014...So was the turnout in 2014 only like 10% or something?! Either way, to call 25% a "large turnout" is...I hate to say it, but...FAKE NEWS!
2
Same old, same old.
Crony here, crony there.
Money in the pocket.
Government by banks and CEO's.
3
Fellow democrats who voted for someone other than those that won the primaries:
If you must throw a tantrum, do it before November. If you must cry and moan about triangulation, do it before November. If you must feel sorry for yourself, and feel your pristine, pure, halo-endowed candidate did not win because of extreme corruption and global warming - please do it now, get it out of your system. By end of October. If you have criticism of people who won, shout it out, by end of October. Throw yourselves a pity party, charge up the credit card. If you must list every single problem with people who won the dem primaries - by all means. Let your Twitter sing, your FB page moan . . . Until October.
But in November, come out and vote for the democrats who won the primaries. And take that the kids who are creating their own brands on social media (themselves) and are now terminally narcissists because you raised them that way - with you. Tell them about using a pen, and about shading the right circle.
Because the last time people like you (democrats) threw a tantrum, we had someone take power and produce a dystopic, nightmarish reality for the next hundred years.
I.e., if the dystopia become surreal, it will be because of you. Because if the democrats don't take the house and senate, Trump will declare a war just before 2020 in order to win again. And that will be on you.
9
@Kalidan, while there were a lot of Dems who threw tantrums, most were Independents.
1
But let's ask ourselves - is this all that the Democrats have to offer? Shouldn't there have been at least a half dozen well-qualified folks running for governor and we ended up with an actress with no political experience against Cuomo? Are the pickings that slim in the state party?
6
@Mr. Slater No one likes running a losing campaign. It takes a lot of time, personal commitment and money. Running against a capable incumbent like Andrew Cuomo is an act of ego and irrationality; it will not attract quality candidates. When was the last time a sitting President faced a meaningful primary challenge? Reagan unsuccessfully running against Ford in '76? Why should it be different for the Governor's office?
1
"TV celebrity" is not a qualification for an important political role as the head of an administration whose decisions impact the lives of millions.
Were Political Science Cynthia Nixon's true passion, she should have chosen that career path, instead of acting, decades ago.
1
Congratulations NY! You've just handed a win to a guy who's been corrupt for decades.
7
@Ian If you have evidence, I'd recommend you seek out the New York Attorney General's office. New York has an independent AG, which is why we have to vote for them separately from the governor, and there is a long history of NYAGs making their bones going after governors. It's happened recently, even.
Otherwise, stop throwing the term "corruption" around so loosely. It's lost its meaning. People bemoan "corruption" baselessly so much that when true corruption--like the Trump administration--bursts on to the scene, no one cares. "It's all corrupt!" they cry, equating the messy dealmaking that characterizes any living democracy with outright criminality. Cynthia Nixon might have been purer--and that's being incredibly charitable--but at best it would have been because she never managed to do anything, so she wouldn't get her hands dirty with any actual work.
3
@Daniel There's plenty of "evidence;" or were you asleep when Percoco and others were found guilty of pay-to-play, a sign company was paid millions to get a go-nowhere program of State "tourism" signs produced that most municipalities have or are planning to tear down, a hurried bridge upgrade named after one's daddy, and million$ in overcharges on a tunnel tiling job that "had" to sport New York State colors? Cancelled Moreland Commission, anyone?
Cuomo's a hack machine politician, who like Rudy won't make it to national office. If James is made AG, you can count on her to ignore the sins of her "godfather," Cuomo. But no matter where you comment (and I know you get around) we get it: you love Cuomo; put a ring on it already.
I don't get it. If ny wants to show the real way forward for the country and ny, write in Elliot spitzer. He paid for sex. So what? He took on the crooks in the special interest lobby and made them squeal. If democrats can support the clintons, surely it's time to rehabilitate spitzer.
7
The most interesting thing about this primary from a non-resident viewpoint was the Governor's denial of any "presidential ambitions", which was surprising and unnecessary too, given that he was always going to crush Ms. Nixon. Of course, such political vows are frequently withdrawn if the time is right, but Mr. Cuomo would have been a strong contender in a wide-open Democratic field in 2020 as a sitting governor with proof of accomplishment, as opposed to the grandstanders who might run that are currently sitting in the Congress. Could he have denied interest in a presidential run just because he was always knew he could bypass that? I guess we'll see!
1
@David Godinez. And as a non-resident, you get it wrong about Cuomo being a "strong contender" for President. He'll go the way of Giuliani, whose infamy was as a soon-divorcee who threw his exe's stuff on the sidewalk before declaring himself "America''s Mayor."
Cuomo "accomplished" nothing that wouldn't have been politically obvious for even the most middle-of-the road Dem. After this undeserved third term, he's done, and we'll be glad of that.
I'm glad Cuomo won. I can't believe people were even supporting Nixon, it was a joke. She was too focused on policy and failed to explain why she was actually qualified to be governor. She was clearly naive. Her campaign initiatives were not well-thought – her head seemed to be above the clouds. One doesn't get a magic wand once elected Governor.
Her career has been Miranda on Sex in the City – electing her into office would have been the equivalent of shoving someone who doesn't know how to swim into a pool. Sure, she's a life long New Yorker and graduated from Barnard, but she was clearly the unfit candidate.
Cuomo gets things done. Let's see what comes of his reelection.
5
Kudos to Nixon, who had a respectable showing of support. Running for governor as her first political office aspiration was punching quite a bit above her weight, esp in NY. Doubtless she has learned valuable lessons. I hope one of them is to first run for a lower office, gain experience and reputation, and then try for governor again. It will be interesting to see if she pursues a political career. She might have more success in another state.
3
Thank you NY.
We voted for some one who gets the job done, over some one who likes bagels (and who doesn’t? just had mine)
Now, the real take away from last night, is that this is what happens when insurgent Liberal democrats run against a real adversary.
Last night was a preview of what’s to come for them insurgents and their blue wave.
The Ocasio-Cortez, Julia Salazar and such had such easy runs, that despite having spent time in jail for identity theft and lawsuits for adultery, Julia Salazar still won. Just wait until she faces a real race, it will be a show.
Maybe the DEMS establishment has finally woken up, and will now concentrate on devastating them too. The DNC knows very well that every one Socialist, is one less vote when it matters. Liberals might feel all happy happy joy joy about them, but when push comes to shove, those 5 will be the reason why the DEMS loose a fight in the senate. They are not there to be part of the team, they are there to be their own team.
This happened before, when the Tea Party became a thorn for the GOP, and ensured the DEMS ran wild for 8 years. Do you really think the core of the DNC will allow this mess on their turf?
The lie was that ‘liberal young voters are energized’, that’s the lie that was parroted by the media. The reality is a few districts in blue Brooklyn thought they represented the country; they do not. Watch the DNC come after them full force from now on.
3
@AutumLeaff I guess you missed the news that left-of-center voters dissolved the disastrous IDC (save for always-stuck Staten Island)--something Cuomo claimed he did himself. But when isn't he claiming victory for the efforts of others?
Ms Nixon might have gotten my vote, & that of thousands of other Union IATSE workers, had she not announced her intention to repeal the tax credit which keeps film & television work in New York. Without those credit, studios will pick up their things & leave for someplace cheaper- it happened in Louisiana & it would happen here.
A shame a former film worker would want to isolate herself from so many union votes.
2
I'm chagrined to say that I hadn't heard that about Ms. Nixon. I voted for her but in this instance perhaps it's all to the good that she didn't win.
@Beth Please. With so much film production for "New York-based" films and TV series being done in places like Vancouver, this is far beyond any "proposed" New York State-based tax laws.
Hm, was it really so easy? I think the more interesting and more important story is the show of support for Ms. Nixon. Someone ran around madly trying to put everyone in their pocket including some newspaper people it seems. The voice of the voters can be heard above all of that!
3
In one of the "bluest" states, the entire hard left team, running in a race among Democrats only lost all the top posts. I suggest the lesson to be drawn is that the electorate is not made up of celebrities, hipsters, the chattering classes, hard left activists or bourgeoise Marxist light.
Those of us in the pragmatic, get things done, form coalitions, work where possible across the aisle, center-left still represent more of the electorate and the people's business. We're seeking all people, of all races, classes, gender identities, religious and not, immigrant or native born, and with no group demonized.
Will the hard Left do self-examination? Nah, they'd rather marinate in self-righteousness.
4
After reading about all the corruption, NYCHA, the subway, the lousy public schools and everything else that ills New York run by Democrats - as an Independent, this is one New York primary I was more than happy at not being able to vote. My conscience rests easy not having voted for any of them.
3
@Mr. Slater I actually feel quite the opposite. As an Independent, I was very upset to not be able to vote because I wanted to vote for Nixon. I ride the subway and I feel like that ALONE should be a reason to get rid of Cuomo. Anyone who rides the subway should hate him, even if they know nothing else about him-- and believe me, there is plenty else there to hate (the mailers that went out this week are just the tip of the iceberg). I really hope Nixon stays on the ballot under Working Families so that those of us who were not allowed to participate yesterday have a chance to voice our support for her and our staunch rejection of Cuomo's corruption!!!
3
To all of you who dumped on Cynthia Nixon because of a lack of experience: I see how well your current governor Cuomo has done in his past 2 terms with all of his experience! Beware what you wish for, because you're going to get 4 more years of "the same"!
3
@Majortrout,
Just in case you missed it. The past 2 Cuomo terms have given us- marriage equality, paid family leave, rise in minimum wage, free college tuition at city/state schools, universal Pre-K, new LGA airport, Tappan zee replacement, Koskiusco bridge upgrade and I'm sure I missed a few things. You can be forgiven I guess being in Canada.
7
The Democrats new found love of Socialism is the fastest way to re-elect Trump. In the past people focused on Ralph Nader diluting a centrist agenda (which may have cost Gore the election). This new trend is far more dangerous and threatens to actually put up a candidate that is Socialist. Thankfully, the citizens of NY rejected Nixon. The dislike of Democrats is so strong on the right that even today I fear the swing voters actually go to the poll for Trump unless a blue dog Dem gets on the ticket and the hard left starts acting like Republicans and votes for the center-left candidate
5
@Chris The current state actually says otherwise. Trump is toast.
2
In a sense this was always about who would be the lesser evil and the voters have chosen correctly, I think. Call me cynical and pessimistic if you like, but after seeing your president's performance, I have lost a good deal of faith in on-the-job training. First show us what you have done so far and then apply for the post, is my current line. In an ideal world, American voters would have adopted this philosophy two years ago. Six bankruptcies and no bank will touch you with a bargepole, did you say? Continue with the reality show.
The most encouraging trend for the Dems would undoubtedly be the huge increase in turnout. Here is hoping that this enthusiasm extends beyond the primaries and to all other states as well. Never was Congress more needed to act as a check on an impetuous president than now.
1
Cuomo won easily and the DINO's in the Senate got slammed at the ballot box. A great day for New York Democrats.
1
Now that the smoke has cleared, I hope Nixon gets the help she needs. The level of delusion she exhibited was concerning. Her belief that an inexperienced actor can run a state this size was a extreme side effect of her narcissism.
7
Mr. Cuomo is the sort of pragmatic, effective, no holds barred politician that we need in 2020 to run against Donald Trump. We do not need a policy wonk with their head in the clouds. We do not need someone who embraces, "When they go low, we go high." I take Mr. Cuomo at his word that he plans to serve out his term if elected as governor, but let us keep him in mind at least as a role model of how to campaign against our current goofball in chief.
3
@PETER EBENSTEIN MD is it pragmatic to go on vacation with $ needed to repair a transit system on which millions rely?
1
If Nixon truly cares about serving the public, she will run for a much smaller office and then learn the ropes by working hard if she is elected. She might even learn that she was wildly overconfident to the point of hubris to think she could run an enormous and complex state without ever having any executive or managerial experience of any kind, in either the public or private realms. I say this as a fan of her actual professional work as an actor, but also as someone who is ungodly tired of people thinking that running the government is a no-brainer.
473
@Nelle Engoron The experienced people running it into the ground is the apparent no-brainer.
9
@Nelle Engoron
I'm getting tired of this argument about experience, especially when it relies implicitly on a false equivalency between Trump and Nixon.
The main reason why the Trump presidency is such a disaster is because Trump himself is one of the most despicable human beings in the country one can think of. If Trump were a decent person and had surrounded himself with good people, his inexperience would not have been that much of an issue.
I personally do not want any of Cuomo's "experience" in backroom deals.
16
@Nelle Engoron
like Trump did?
anyhow, I am not sure you have the experience to even judge whether or not her inexperience is such a negative thing you portray it as. How do you even know that? You don't know!
I guess you must think that having a politician who is experienced in corruption is the better.
Cuomo is so clearly corrupt, it blows my mind how anyone could trust him to run the state. His abolishment of the Moreland commission was such a massive violation of the public trust that it should have landed him in prison.
I guess all of the special interests, public unions and property developers that have bought him off are enough to get him elected. What a shame. What a sham of a government.
4
I hope Ms. Nixon and her supporters will now show the grace and class of supporting the Democratic ticket. No time for grudges or hurt feelings. The stakes are too high.
Not everyone I voted for yesterday won, but I will enthusiastically vote for them now that they are the nominee of my party.
Perhaps Ms. Nixon will seek elected office again, at a more appropriate level. She is a compelling candidate and would have much to offer.
5
Saw Ms. Nixon in 'Hurlyburly' in NYC in 1984. Good actress but no match for a crooked politician and Trump-hater in Andrew Cuomo.
Two and a half million more people turned out than there were for the last primary. Corporate Democrats need to hear the base gearing up to roar.
1
@Naples,
That being said..Nixon, Williams and Teachout all lost. Lesson...even with big turnout somewhat centrist Dems held the line
3
@Naples Someone else mentioned this too...I am confused...MSM clearly wants us to think there was a "big turnout..." but some folks here are reporting 25% or less of all elligible Dems...fewer than 1/4 of elligible people is not "big" at all!
I think the one positive thing that Trump has given us is “Beware of the Amateur.” Statements like “What have you got to lose?” should be followed with “EVERYTHING!”
Wouldn’t it be great if one of the criterion for running for higher office would be a degree in Statesmanship?
Cuomo may not be a perfect human being, but he certainly has seen how things get done by observing his father Mario. Nothing in the Universel beats Experience!
Hillary was probably the most experienced candidate ever to run for president according to O’bama. I actually believe that! Her presidency might have been boring, but given the choice between boring and chaotic, what would you choose? Good for you citizens of NY.
3
Corrupt Cuomo won - sad reality check in today's political climate.
4
To all those criticising Nixon's lack of experience:
Just what exactly has all this "competent" governance from the Establishment gotten us?
30+ million Americans still don't have health insurance. Medical bankruptcies are still a thing. The 1% now own more than the bottom 90%. Americans now owe over $1.5 Trillion in student loan debt. And we're in Year 17 of the neverending war on terror.
These Establishment politicians are only "competent" at serving Wall Street, Big Pharma, Silicon Valley, the Koch Brothers, and the Military Industrial Complex.
How do you think we got Trump? Because both parties were doing such a bang-up job of helping We The People??
So enjoy another "competent" term from Cuomo.
5
@G.Janeiro Look at what incompetent governance has gotten us:
Children ripped from their parents
Defunding of the ACA
Wealth transfer from the middle class to the wealthy
Literal felons appointed to positions
I'll take competent governance over criminal traitors any day of the week.
4
@G.Janeiro,
Cuomo got us (NYers) gun control, marriage equality, minimum wage hike, paid family leave and new LGA and Tappan zee replacement. He is not perfect but he does accomplish things. Real things.
3
@John Marshall Well, the reason we got trump is because the democratic party abandoned the working class and middle class and poor 40 years ago and trump ran on a populist vote and did not mean it. So you can thank your competent corrupt democrats for that fiasco, which means the natives are still going to be restless and to them anything was better than the status quo.
The people of New York have spoken and want more of the same.
3
New York gave us Clinton, Trump and Cuomo. Please keep your politicians home.
2
@JSD No they haven't. Only about 1/4 of registered Democrats have spoken. I can't wait until November, when the rest of Nixon's supporters have a say.
1
I can only hope that the rest of the Hollywood elite will take a lesson from this defeat. Playing a character on stage does not in any way qualify you for a real job. If you want to involve yourself in politics, start with your city council and go from there.
5
Cynthia Nixon exposed the now defunct IDC for what it was. Thank you. You made a real contribution to New York State politics.
5
Cuomo has to spend 10 times more money than Nixon. He didn’t “easily” beat her as the headline states.
5
Next step for Ms. Nixon: run for City Council.
6
I am disappointed by this news. I struggled mightily with who to vote for, and ended up voting for Ms Nixon.
Yes, she was inexperienced. But I also believed that she is smart enough to surround herself with intelligent people and has a desire to learn what she needs to to get the job done. That, to me, is what distinguishes her inexperience with Trump's. Being further left than Mr Cuomo was also a plus.
Mr Cuomo, on the surface, has done a lot of things I agree with. He is no doubt an adept politician and effective when he so desires. But he surrounds himself with a number of corrupt people, as we have seen with the number of his confidants falling down. He is arrogant. I cannot imagine he will ever do anything to fix corruption in Albany, because he is part of the corruption in Albany. He epitomizes pay-to-play politics and backroom dealings.
At the end of the day, I think Mr Cuomo's vision for the state will continue to bring positive change. I just wish he weren't so sleazy.
5
I could not find a reason to vote for Nixon. I wondered especially how she would handle the tax issues we are facing in New York, something Cuomo is already aggressively tackling. The only thing I know about her is she was on a TV show I never watched - something she shares in common with our president. On the other hand, I've seen Letitia James emerge from neighborhood politician to someone who has built her career toward statewide recognition. This just isn't a good time to roll the political dice and amp up the reality TV show we are stuck in with Trump.
4
This is the reason this once wonderful country is such a mess now. It boggles my mind that New Yorkers would want to re-elect a proven thief and con-artist like Cuomo. He is nothing but a democratic version of trump. He has been ripping-off N.Y. for years, especially the transit department by funneling the money seriously needed for repairs to the subway lines and replacing trains to fatten the wallets of his crooked buddies and himself. He has been helping his corrupt corporate friends to toss people out of rent controlled apartments so they can make them smaller and charge 3-4 Times the monthly rent. All part of a scheme to rid most of the state, especially the city, of everyone who isn’t rich. When are people going to wake-up and see the truth that is staring them right in front of their faces? You people know that a change is needed but you don’t do anything to implement it.
13
I hope this acts as a wake up call to Gov. Cuomo. The fact that an unqualified person got over 1/3 of the votes and won Albany County and the majority of counties surrounding the State Capital says a lot. Cuomo needs to take on the responsibility for the course correction on corruption in state politics, fixing mass transit and figuring out a way for NYS residents to not suffer unfairly due to the Trump tax "cuts".
5
this is too bad and a missed opportunity for all of us in NY. Cuomo must go.
he loves cutting ribbons, but hates fixing things that are broken. new subway station? "I'm in charge"... subways are falling apart? "it's DeBlasio's fault". reforming the corrupt port authority? "the attempted changes to improve oversight just weren't strong enough, so I vetoed it....and haven't done anything since". new bridge with tax payer dollars to be named? "cannot think of a single other person than my dad...who just coincidentally has practically the sa"M"e name as I..."
nope. this feckless government employee needs to be shown the door.
7
Once again, New Yorkers will have to hold their noses and vote for Cuomo, the least worst candidate for governor.
3
How can anyone at this point even remotely make the argument Nixon challenged Cuomo? She lost by over 30%, that's a gigantic margin.
Not only was Nixon not a threat to Cuomo, she was soundly rejected by the vast and overwhelming majority of New York Democrats (those people supposedly vociferously supporting her over Cuomo).
What people need to realize is, the fringe is very loud, but relatively small in number. No one, in terms of numbers, was actually supporting Nixon, but they were loud.
When you look at what Cuomo has done for NY, his accomplishments tick nearly every major box for even the most liberal Democrats (1) marriage equality; (2) strictest gun control in the nation; (3) challenging Trump at every turn; (4) free college tuition for public schools; (5) will legalize cannabis in the next 12 - 18 months; (6) Not only has been the first governor in a long time to pay attention to Upstate, but has invested around $30 billion into Upstate revitalization, etc.
The last thing New York needed was a mirror image of the incompetence manifested at the federal level. As much as people hate to acknowledge today, experience matters and Nixon had none.
14
What you're ignoring is that Nixon supported all those things, but more as well, and without the corruption.
You probably are not a subway rider.
2
@Jerry Engelbach
Supporting is very different than accomplishing.
She can say she supports anything she wants. She has no actual accomplishments beyond being an actress.
Cuomo on the other hand not only supported those things, but for the first time in NY's history, got them done.
In my book, actions speak louder than words, and Cynthia Nixon trades in words.
Why do so many voters completely ignore actual experience in governing when voting for such a lofty complex position as governor( or president)? In what other area of life would people even think of doing this? Would any large company even think of hiring a CEO with no experience in business? Would any Hollywood studio entrust a blockbuster movie to someone who never produced a film? Would anyone entrust a hospital to a movie star, or a nuclear power plant to an artist? And yet tens of millions voted in Trump to be the CEO of America and an actress with zero political experience to run a state with 20 million people! That is not to say that our professional politicians are all good, but the answer is not to find rank amateurs to fill such high positions but to cultivate better leaders through the ranks.
11
Andrew Cuomo, while no Mario, is a generally competent liberal and experienced pair of hands at the helm of the state. Ms Nixon was a bad candidate for a lot of reasons. Fundamentally, other than being a celebrity and having a loud voice she has no hands on experience in running anything, much less a state the size of and complex nature of New York. It's easy to be on the outside shouting and lobbying for but that can only get results when she is dealing with her PA. Being a governor, a county executive or mayor (and usually even president) requires a pretty wide skill set, including management, people, legal, fiscal and political. Being a celeb is not really a good qualification and lets hope actors keep to what they are good at and stop using their high visibility position to pretend they can help people in their daily lives. That is what governors and mayors of whatever political tries to do (Arnie and Jessie aside). Seldom do celeb actors have those skills. It's not just about nice speeches, its about execution and results.
4
I am so glad Nixon lost!
I would have respected her if she honestly ran on the issues.
That includes analyzing exactly how she would pay for her programs.
She is just another Left Winger who SHRIEKS anyone to the "left" of a moderate -- is corrupt. ( I am a liberal, for the record.)
This continues the trend where the far LEFT operates to help the FAR right:
Remember when Ralph Nader INSISTED Al Gore was just as "corrupt" as George Bush. Yeah, old Al talked to some businesses. Obviously global warming was not an important issue to Ralph Nader!
Bernie Sanders played the same "game" until the primary was over, and then he could not recover from the IMAGE he earlier created of "evil" Hillary. I regularly saw Bernie supporters refer to the same falsehoods that the right wingers used on Hillary.
Here is an illustration of why the FAR left just feed into the strategists of the Republican Party:
During the primary between Hillary and Bernie Sanders, MSN conducted a statistical poll asking Bernie supporters, if they were aware his plan called for a person making $50K to pay another $6K in taxes?
Roughly 80% did not know this, and 2/3s replied this was unacceptable to them,
Get it? Republicans LOVED Bernie when he was running. All they would have to do -- if he won the primary -- is run ads communicating how Bernie wanted to raise everyone's taxes -- a lot!
It would be the same with Ms. Nixon. Republicans LOVE Left wingers.
12
@Thoughtful Republicans love left-wingers so much that they would have lost to Bernie had the election not been rigged by the DNC. Every pollster (including Trump's has confirmed this)
While I’m glad cuomo won we should thank Nixon. Nixon did say many truthful things and held her own in the debate. Cuomo needed someone to routinely call him out and to push him further. She may have lost but she also won. I would like to see her in a lesser role in gvt to start. While I don’t agree with her policies it’s entirelly possible that as people get into politics and see how things actually work (hello nyc curruption) they may change their stances and policies to actually get things accomplished. Hopefully she will run again but not for this role. Moving forward can we please leave the identity politics behind and run as equals? I don’t care what your race sex or religion is. Please stick with platforms based on policy. That was the one thing that truly turned me off. It’s devisive language that does not speak to all Americans. We cannot help how we were born, but we are all Americans.
8
I held my nose and voted for Cuomo. I hope the rebuke of the IDC will shake him up. Nixon rarely spoke about matters outside of NYC, or really outside of Manhattan so I just could not vote for her.
4
Age and treachery will always win out over youth and inexperience.
9
Most states have already had a woman governor, some two or three. Supposedly Liberal New York and California may be the last bastions of all male governors. And California, with Hispanics the largest ethnic group has never had a governor who wasn’t a White male.
1
@Rick Maybe people vote for the best candidate rather than making the selection based on race, ethnicity, and gender?
8
Ummmm don’t we vote for the best candidate despite age, sex, religious affiliation? Appointing folks because we’ve Never had a non-white male is a very dangerous thing.
2
No, actually, a lot of people vote for the wrong candidate because of prejudice against the other candidate's race, ethnicity, or gender.
2
And so the majority of New York Democrats have chosen the corrupt establishment figure over the inexperienced Nixon. I cannot help but wonder, however, how Cuomo’s experiences as a door mat for corporate interests and specialist at petty revenge politics have prepared him for the twin emergencies of the US’s moribund democracy and the global climate crisis?
5
"'He won ugly,' said Bradley Tusk, who served as campaign manager for former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg."
Indeed. I voted for Cuomo because of the mess in Washington and the need to maintain a strong--if imperfect--Democratic party. Nixon, whose tenacity and intelligence impressed me, does not yet have the political heft to make a difference in today's nasty political climate.
I lost all faith in Cuomo after he disbanded the Moreland Commission when the investigation began veering in his direction. I accepted that most politicians are corrupt in some way--more or less--and it's been a bitter pill to swallow. And hearing about the smear tactics his campaign used against his opponent only added to my disappointment.
So I held my nose and filled in his little circle on the ballot.
5
... and corruption in Albany shall continue.
8
“Corrupt Cuomo” wins, but the headlines and stories saying he won “easily” belie the fact that Cynthia Nixon won a slightly larger share of the vote than Zephyr Teachput did — 35% vs. 34% — whose performance was considered a rebuke to Cuomo.
Add in those who held their noses while voting for Cuomo — and most Republicans — and you quickly realize a substantial portion of the NY electorate disapproves of “Corporate Clintonista Cuomo”!
As to 2020, he’s toast. The country would never go for a corrupt, technocratic New Yorker! He’s nearly as bad as Trump!
4
@Stephanie Bradley No, he is not.
1
@Stephanie Bradley
Clintonista?
Gee thanks for your “Still-smarting-from-Bernie’s-loss” perspective from the reddest of the red states South Carolina. Bless you’re heart. Maybe SC could put forward a better Dem for 2020?? I Doubt it.
2
Many of these comments reference Cuomo's experience over Nixon being a political novice. What a bunch of nonsense when you consider the following:
Elliot Spitzer: Prostitution scandal
Eric Schneiderman: Domestic violence and abuse
Dean Skelos: Corruption
Sheldon Silver: Corruption
And these are only the most senior and egregious examples of NYS pols where their 'experience' outweighed their ability to govern and conduct themselves in an ethical and responsible manner.
Cuomo is cut from the same cloth, having been a 'player' in Albany since his father's administration - that's 30+ years in the swamp of Albany.
Voter for better government in NYS come November. Vote for Marc Molinaro.
4
@Common Sense No thank you, no Common Sense. I wouldn't vote for Molinaro or any Republican if my life depended on it and it does! Better government, run by corrupt Republicans, are you kidding? Republicans are the worst and your president and the Republicans prove this every single day with their corruption, lack of ethics, lack of morals, abuse of power, spitting on the Constitution and compulsive lying. Yet, you think a Republican running NY State would be better. Stop drinking the kool-aid and get your head out of the sand.
1
you left put the important context that the “unqualified lesbian” remark was made by a lesbian who is someone who really paid her dues working in NY politics. She (Quinn) was not being negative about Cynthia being a lesbian but remarking on her thought that Nixon was exploiting her niche and celeb fame rather than working up the ranks. All true.
9
@honeybluestar And where is Quinn now? Chief Cuomo Bootlicker doesn't require a majority vote of the electorate, lucky for her.
Quinn has always been divisive and spiteful. As our CM she got little done for constituents, but negotiated getting the Speaker role and gladly pocketed those developer dollars that swung her a swank apartment irreversible sprawl in Chelsea. Oh--and a third term for Bloomberg!
How she became the arbiter for "qualified" candidates still baffles. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
Why did Nixon win in the Albany area?
3
@J Ballard
Albany County results:
12,767 Nixon
12,519 Cuomo
A whopping 248 vote difference!
That’s a virtual tie
1
Cuomo is an excellent politician. I'm expecting that he will take some lessons from this primary. I hope he will begin to implement reform measures the state sorely needs. I also hope that he does a better job addressing the economic problems of rural communities.
If this is seen only as a conflict between "progressives" and the establishment, New York will not move forward. If Cuomo allows corruption to continue to breed in his executive departments and in the legislature, we will be in even bigger trouble.
3
@Betsy S Keep hoping! He should have addressed those things in the first two terms; giving him a third will do nothing but give him a "reason" to believe he's more popular than he actually is. Moreland Commission, anyone?
Thankfully. We don't need anymore amateurs in office, that is what got us in the mess we are currently in.
5
Big surprise: Established pol with two terms of experience as governor defeats opponent with minuscule political and governing experience.
The great majority of voters saw that Ms. Nixon's Democratic Socialist policies are utterly impractical and unaffordable.
3
"Pigs in Blankets" -I couldn't think of a better way to describe Cuomo if I tried. Personally, I totally resent the fact that even after the failures of the 911 system after 9-11 he uses New Yorkers' cell phone fees withheld for the 911 system for other purposes- and he has no reservations about it! He uses New Yorkers' tax money as his personal piggy bank. Witness his giving the Crystal Run Healthcare System a $25.4 million grant in exchange for a $400,000. campaign contribution. There is no transparency to his administration-when the Moreland Commission tried to investigate it-he shut it down-without any explanation. No doubt Molinaro will lose in November but at least he's a decent/honest guy who has his constituents' best interests at heart.
2
Ethics reform down the tube again. Cuomo believes in ethics reforms like disavowing anti-semitic flyers when confronted and denying anti gay slogans for his father.
6
@Mello Char
Just how does Mr Cuomos father's comments affect the current Mr Cuomos administration?
It's up to Andrew Cuomo to deliver on his campaign promises not Mario Cuomo (I am not great at spelling).
I don't see one affecting the other. I learned early in life that to make progress there is always a compromise.
1
Any talk of a Presidential run for Cuomo is pure fantasy. He is a New York creature and could not survive politically anywhere else in the country.
6
@Jack Robinson,
Well Trump made it to the WH...straight from Trump Tower in NYC.
I voted for Nixon this time, Teachout last time. That said, I’d like to see Cuomo run against Trump. Seriously, and not being at all sarcastic, to defeat Trump we need a ruthless tactician who will stop at nothing to win.
1
@Paul S. Then get behind Bloomberg. Cuomo won't play outside of the state.
Cuomo should take as much pride in his victory as the Yankees would in beating a Little League team 6 to 4. The real winners in this race are the RBNY and Wall Street, Cuomo's true constituency. The losers are anyone not earning $10 million a year, who find this city increasingly unbearable.
8
A great victory for political corruption in a big fat Democratic state. What a model for the nation.
10
My electoral choices were batterred by the avalanche of corporate money that bulldozed Cynthia Nixon, Teachout and J Williams.
If the people knew the truth, they would have voted differently.
It's no coincidence that staunch liberals and leftists tend to be brighter . Those who know more vote left.
We know that Cuomo has been an agent of the super rich as evidencd by his special "millionaires" tax cut.
We know that his 15 dollar minimum wage is being oversold because its delayed implementation, and the ravages of inflation, will reduce its real value.
And we know that Cuomo's morality is contemptible. I despised him ever since he worked in HUD. When he was in Washington, his agency brought suit against a landlord who had allegedly abused tenants. In violation of the ethical rules attorneys are pledged to abide by, Cuomo dropped the suit and then took a job from the defendant realtor at a salary of one million a year
But most people don't know what's going on. Most people are insulated from the dirt which is swept under the rug, at the end of page 23 of the NY Times in a very small column.
Most people simply have heard Cuomo's incessant commercials on the Boob Tube. And the voters, ignorant, incurious and smug, let their boob tubes tell them how to vote at the polls.
8
@David Gottfried
In just a matter of weeks before the primary, Cuomo raised over $8 MILLION dollars while Nixon raised slightly over $400 thousand mainly through individual donations to her campaign.
In the case of Cuomo, of course, those that gave him those funds will expect nothing in return and are doing it out of the "goodness of their heart".
I guess you will never learn America. Clearly, you continue to choose so-called experienced, corrupt politicians over those un-corrupted less experienced ones. I guess the election of Trump and why he got elected has still not registered yet.
4
From the state which gave us Donald Trump, New York Democrats vote for the status quo. Life is good. No need to make any changes. Sorry about your subway.
5
@Neildsmith Says someone from Kansas.
@Neildsmith We didn't "give" you Trump. New Yorkers have known for decades he's nothing but a reality show huckster and bloviating tabloid fodder. And we long ago learned to ignore him, didn't give him any consideration as a political candidate. It's your KC friends and neighbors who crowned him. Enjoy!
He would have won without being so ugly and mean, WHY did he do it?
“The final margin in the primary belied the ferocity of the campaign, which began with the charge that Ms. Nixon was an “unqualified lesbian” by a top surrogate for Mr. Cuomo and ended with a mailer accusing her of silence on anti-Semitism. Mr. Cuomo called it “inappropriate” but did not apologize.
3
NY politics is so corrupt that Cuomo is the perfect candidate to fight for the interests of the people. Still, he has no interest in ending the power of LLCs to fund elections, nor does he want to stop the "three men in a room" that characterizes NY legislation. Maybe we get the government we deserve.
2
The WFP needs to come out big for Cuomo for governor, and Cynthia Nixon -- who I admire and who I voted for -- needs to lead the way.
2
Successful leaders write their own scripts and don't make their living reading those written by others.
Governing is real, not some Hollywood fantasy.
We're living a national nightmare watching a reality show in the White House.
We didn't need to watch one in Albany.
13
@Didier
Well said , Mr. Cuomo has very good record and as I have said before Ms. Nixon should withdraw her name and support Mr. Cuomo.
7
Didier, that’s the very problem we’ve been facing in NY for many years!
It’s a cesspool of corruption — following a corporate, power-hungry script — and Cuomo is the head of it all!
Remember that he’s the one who pushed for and even said “go ahead and investigate me”, but as soon as the commission started its work in earnest and looking at him and his aides, he SHUT IT DOWN!
What a shame more people didn’t realize it’s time for Corrupt Cuomo to go. His father, a real liberal and a good thinker, would be embarrassed by him!
4
Cuomo, the bully and regressive politician who allowed the IDC and the 'three men in a room' to all flourish during his past eight years of misrule, has been an absolute disaster for the working men and women of NYS. While he himself may not be corrupt, he has surrounded himself with venal grifters and grafters, bringing NYS governance to levels not seen since the days of the Gilded Age.
Just like the Bushes and the Kennedys, Cuomo's a scion of a political family, a 2nd rate one at that, who's sense of entitlement is only exceeded by his self-importance. (How unseemly to name a bridge after his own father!)
Cuomo is a carbon copy of Trump - without any success other than through his connections.
Cuomo needs to go.
Come November, vote for change in NYS. Vote for Marc Molinaro.
4
@Agent Provocateur,
Without any successes? Ok we'll just ignore paid family leave, gay marriage, gun laws, min. wage hike, new LGA, new bridge, free college tuition at city/state schools, universal pre-K etc, etc
@Greenfield
1. Paid family leave. For who and how? This is one of those Democratic chimeras that looks good on paper - and electioneering fliers - but is not working in the real world.
2. Gay marriage. Wow, how hard is it to jump on a bandwagon, especially 6-18 months after many other states had already taken action. That's not being a leader, its being a follower.
3. Gun Law. Go upstate and see how popular the 'Safe Act' is. This is more excessive government intervention.
4. Minimum wage hike. See my response to 2.
5. New LGA, new bridge. Its easy to spend other people money. When throwing it around like water, its inevitable some will be success - those you cited - while others are boondoggles - the 2nd Ave subway and Eastside Access. Where is Cuomo on labor reforms on practices that makes NYS and NYC one of the most expensive construction markets in the world?
5. Free tuition. See response to 1.
6. Pre-K. Cuomo only did this after being shamed into it by deBlasio - so he should now get credit?!
Anymore of Cuomo's successes - like the Buffalo Billions or the SUNY rigged bids - that you want to go on about?
Cuomo won because he wasn’t running against a viable candidate. Period. Whatever her opinions, Nixon is simply unqualified for the job. You don’t get to skip the line and become Governor of NY because you’re gay and were in Sex In The City. You’re serious about politics? Start at the bottom and learn how things work - councilwoman, ombudsman, etc.
20
Ms. Nixon was ambitious for a newbie to run for Governorship and Mr. Cuomo defeated her fair and square.
Now Ms. Nixon should withdraw her name and allow Mr. Cuomo to run for the Governorship, there is so much at stake.
Now, if Ms. Cynthia Nixon having no previous record in political field all are promises . If serious should run for smaller but important positions and prove herself to be worthy to remain in political field.
7
Congrats Andrew Cuomo! Big night for Dems.
1
Let’s be honest - “progressive” was just a part Ms. Nixon was auditioning for. Her real colors are as a wealthy plutocrat who files her taxes as an S-Corp to dodge her fair share taxes - despite her big talk about “taxing the rich.”
Nixon is a corrupt fraud with no real experience or achievements as compared to Cuomo who may be corrupt but who at least has real experience and doesn’t misrepresent what he really stands for.
13
I’m assuming you know all of this because you are her accountant. Because, let’s really be honest here, unless you are, your comment is merely conjecture at best.
5
After the debacle that is Trump, I think Americans are leery of outsiders. To that, add an unrealistic list of programs without a plan to pay for it except for taxing high earning wagers.
I mean.
I live in NJ and I wanted to vote.
4
@chen. Not a NewYorker but here's my 2 cents after following this election in NYT.
All humans are flawed but Cuomo seems a bit more flawed then most. He seems like a Tammany Hall Big Party Boss type. A skilled political power player but not a decent person. I thought the same about LBJ.
It was inevitable Nixon would lose this one for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was inexperience.
But wouldn't it be nice if in future the Dems could put up a skilled, savvy, experienced politician who wasn't a crook as well.
10
Getting rather tired of writers saying Nixon was too inexperienced in politics to run the State government! Trump had no political experience and look at the swell job he is doing ruining the Federal government!
1
I don’t think anyone except hardcore Trump fans would find that to be evidence in favor of electing more politically inexperienced actors to high ranking positions in government. She should consider City Council or other introductory positions.
2
@Raindrop
I think you missed the sarcasm here...
What I want to know is, did Cuomo learn anything from this experience, and if he did, how will he change, or apply what he learned? Cynthia Nixon had no business running for governor, but I'm hoping she at least gave Cuomo pause. This formidable politician could be a force of nature if he answered the call to be bigger and better than what he is.
3
It was 40% of primary voters, which isn’t saying much. She had a strong campaign with 20 year olds, who tend to vote without having a full understanding of the issues or what can actually be accomplished. Her campaign was like Bernie’s, big on promises that could never be delivered. If she wants to show she’s serious about politics she should run for office again, although this time maybe something a little more realistic for someone with no experience other than being an actor. Celebrity politicians are getting really tiring.
7
Good. No more amateurs.
You want to be a politician? Learn the ropes: run for school board or city council. Then move on to the state legislature. Still interested? Consider a higher office.
Why do we hire amateurs to run government, when we would never hire an amateur to do anything else half as as important?
15
I voted for all 3 losers (Nixon, W, T), but can live with winners. IMHO, ideology or right ideas are more important than experience.You can always find bureaucrats and operatives to implement ideas- Just as Republicans have managed to implement all of his (theirs) worst ideas! In any case, Nixon has already made a difference by shifting the ground a bit to the left. Thank you, Cynthia.
6
No edit button- so just clarifying. "Just as Republicans have managed to implement all of Trump's (and theirs) worst ideas"
1
Like Hillary, Nixon's ego will apparently not allow for an acceptance of reality. Nor will the screamers who supported her, the NYT included. Yet, thanks to Trump, the public realized that being a well known actor is not enough nor is being a woman, being gay, or raising two Jewish children. None of these things in and of themselves is a qualification for a job as complex as running New York.
Just as the public elected the horror Trump as a rejection of Hillary's persona, so they did with Nixon. That doesn't stop one from wishing her well in private life.
Reality is not always what one wants to see.
1
Alas, Albany will remain the same unethical mess as it always has . James will be Cuomo's puppet as Attorney General if she is elected with the proof being in the robocall she did against Jessica Ramos in favor of her IDC opponent. She will do nothing to end the corruption and ethical abuses in Albany.
It is interesting Cuomo once again lost the Greater Capital Region, the core of State government employees, as he did to Teachout in 2014.
6
I know, NY is just one state. But this pretty much gives us a micro looks at why the electoral system is tainted. A quasi criminal like Cuomo gets 80% of the vote? A really qualified candidate like Zepher Teachout can't get over 20% of the vote. The system is as polluted as the misinformed voters who are showing up. Money points the way to the capitol building, no matter state or national. Stick a fork in it, this turkey of a country is done.
4
@Paul Zephyr Teachout was not "real qualified" by any means. She has never worked as a litigator. I'm in-house and am not even qualified to apply for positions in the AG's office because I'm not a litigator. Why should it be different for the person heading that office? I am so glad she lost. All three of her opponents were far superior candidates, which was obvious if you watched the debates. I wish Ms. Eve had won, but am fine with Ms. James.
3
@Paul
Keep the fork in your mouth where it belongs! You’re the one who is misinformed.
Cuomo won by such a wide margin because of his record and also because Nixon was such a poor candidate and totally unqualified for the job.
Teachout is a law professor who got her law degree in North Carolina but never bothered to get admitted to the bar in New York until the other AG candidates challenged her this summer. So she just did that less than a month ago. That was a political mistake, and she’s also lost every office she’s ever ran for. She lost this one to a much better candidate, Tish James, who earned her stripes in public service, not in an ivory tower.
The electoral system works just fine. The Dems made their choice in NY like it or not.
2
"Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took a decisive step toward a third term on Thursday, quelling a liberal rebellion by turning aside the insurgent challenge of Cynthia Nixon to claim the Democratic nomination in New York."
A "liberal rebellion"? Now Andrew Cuomo isn't a liberal?
How about: "Andrew M. Cuomo, a savvy, accomplished, progressive governor, handily defeated a TV actress with overweening ambition and no experience in governance on any level"?
3
It's beyond disappointing that our choices this primary were between a wildly corrupt, self-serving incumbent whose entire inner circle has been carted off in handcuffs....and a celebrity with no government experience whatsoever.
The most refreshing aspect of the 2018 primary season is that political dynasties and "safe" incumbents across the country were not automatically coronated to continue business-as-usual. Courageous people came from every corner to step up and represent their fellow citizens.
Sadly, this trend did not extend to the New York gubernatorial race. Where were the small town mayors, city council members, business owners, union leaders, and public servants to step up and take on the stench of Cuomo's pay-to-play Albany? Why were these two our only options?
Let's hope that the new, energized State Senators reign in Cuomo's antics. Let's hope that the sobering reality that 34% of state Democrats would rather have a Sex and the City actress than the incumbent keep him from even dreaming of a national office. And let's hope that the energy that has brought so many fresh, determined, diverse faces to politics extends to the 2020 elections and beyond.
6
Lord, can somebody please give Cynthia Nixon a script she can actually read?
2
Another win for the establishment Democrats, who'll dole out some social reform now and then when their backs are against the wall to distract our attention from the fact that their primary agenda is to cater to elites
7
On the positive side, Cynthia Nixon cast into relief the shortcomings of Cuomo the governor. We dodged a bullet: enough with the actors, celebrities, reality show hosts in politics! A president needs experience dealing with legislatures.
As for Cuomo, hopefully, if he has further political ambitions (and he probably does), either for a fourth term or as Joe Biden's VP in 2020, he will have to correct them. The IDC is gone, so he'll have to "triangulate" differently. And how long until Di Blasio declares for president, and he can deal with a mayor whose ego is not bigger than the five boroughs.
4
Aside from the last few years, I was a lifelong NYer. I think the choices for governor were abysmal but I never would have voted for Cuomo.
4
The world of politics and the world of the theatrical arts certainly have things in common, but the differences are more substantial than the similarities. Still, a comparison might fairly illustrate the presumptuous nature of Ms. Nixon's bid for this state's highest elective office.
Suppose Ms. Nixon were casting a production of "Evita" and someone came to audition for the extremely demanding title role, and, when asked about her background and qualifications, the auditionee replied that she'd never performed onstage except in a karaoke bar but believed she was ready to be a star on Broadway.
What do you suppose Ms. Nixon would tell that auditionee?
That's what the voters told Ms. Nixon on Thursday.
23
False analogy.
Political leaders have experts to advise them.
An actor is on his/her own.
In addition, an audition is exactly how an aspiring actor gets a job.
1
Democrats don’t have time for experimentalists trying to see if they like politics. Yes, Cuomo has his warts, but he also has a lot of battle scars, experience, and political ability. We Democrats need those qualities if we ever hope to wrest control back from the GOP. Starry-eyed people with good intentions are not going to cut it.
32
@Kam Dog
You guys have been saying this for decades, and you keep losing 2/3 of all elections. You completely miss what leadership is, how it works, and that the people follow leaders that that actually fight for their principles.
The People consistently elect those that fight for tax cuts for the rich over those that sacrifice their principles to get elected.
Americans don't for for lesser. Americans would rather vote for the Greater Evil than the lesser evil.
If the Democratic Party stopped sacrificing its principles to compromise with a part that never compromises, then workers would have a Party that they believed actually fights for them.
Leadership begins with values and principles. Once you sacrifice those, you agree just followers, following the Republican Party right, right off the cliff.
Your principles are your power. You cannot lead or win elections without them.
Get realistic and fight for the American worker. They are 60% of the population.
Fight for the Greater Good to Win!
2
I agree with the result of the primary. In general I have a problem when actors come into politics. I think they should stick to acting.
19
@adda g.
Unfortunately, that battle was lost in 1980.
2
Reagan had been Governor of California.
Nixon should know from looking at our current POTUS that in politics starting at the top is a recipe for disaster. The Governorship is not the training ground needed to learn the administrative duties and lead lawmakers.
As the relative of a small-town politician I witnessed first hand that nothing is easy about governing even when you are smart, astute and a quick learner. And, being an excellent actor is not sufficient to excel in the field, although it might help I guess.
Time will tell if Nixon has it in her heart to be a leader. If so, I suggest she run for a smaller office and learn the ropes, gather some palmares and build credibility.
30
@Samuel
You should learn by looking at our current Potus that putting corporate donors above workers is destroying our country.
1
Nixon's campaign was way too negative, and the criticism all directed towards Democrats.
I don't think I've actually ever heard say a single bad word about a Republican, which is really bizarre.
13
Now Cuomo has to win over the Nixon-voting Bernie types. Too many Bernie supporters stayed home or voted for Jill Stein in 2016. This won't matter in the NY governor's race, but if he has national aspirations, Cuomo will have to find the correct narrative and array of policies to capture the votes of the purists on the left wing of the party. Stridency, idealism and perfectionism can be the enemy of the doable good.
6
As admirable as Nixon’s intentions, on the job training for big jobs like this is not what is needed. Get some experience with city council or state representative. Learn something about the workings of government by actually working in it. It’s easy to sit back and be a know it all critic. We have a classic example of this in the White House. And it’s not working.
25
A sad day for NY in my opinion. I was born in NY more than 50 years ago and grew up in the city. I say it's a sad day because once again, too many people are just not thinking for themselves. To elect clearly corrupt Cuomo over Nixon is voting against your own best interests. This too during a time where we need the most progressive challengers we can muster.
I hope Nixon finds another way to take her audacity and commitment to progressive values and runs for it. We need her and others like her. It's time to end the corruption and let the people have a shot. Cuomo unfortunately took this one, but the fight is far from over.
Peace
12
Four more years of brazen corruption, perhaps the worst in the nation at the state level. Four more years of band-aids, as NYC's infrastructure descends to third world status. Well done, New York.
18
Have never seen such a massive $$$ ad campaign for any candidate for any office as Andy put on just for this primary. It was wall to wall saturation media.
Politics in America follows the Golden Rule:
If you've got the Gold, you get to Rule.
9
Messy, difficult, embattled, and hopefully passion filled. Exactly the cost of democracy.
We all move forward, anti-fracking, corruption charged, gay marriage approved, maybe marijuana legalized, mass transit tie to and tied ups, tax burdened, gun toting regulating, but hopefully well educated New Yorkers.
Don't give up, stay informed, and continue to vote!
16
Where Nixon won, hands down
Tompkins County
Home of Ithaca College and Cornell University.
6
I can still remember an innocent time when voters would reject candidates they deemed corrupt. As we’ve seen with the US President and now the governorship, those days are over. Even in my own gated community, evidence of mismanagement and hints of corruption are now met with a shrug. At one recent meeting, homeowners were handed a financial report showing a plunge in our reserves that could lead to massive increases in our dues and assessments. Only a small handful of residents expressed outrage, while a larger group actually gave the responsible parties a standing ovation. Has the world gone mad?
Nixon may have been a novice, but at least she was honest. Someone, perhaps a psychologist, has to explain to me why people would vote for a politician who has done relatively little for the state, except to cultivate a reputation for dishonesty and opportunism.
Tonight, New Yorkers have decided Cuomo may be a crook, but he’s our crook. Think about that in the days ahead as you ride over the state’s rutted roads and crumbling bridges (except for the one named after his father, of course) in one of the highest-taxed states in the nation.
15
How do you know Nixon is "honest?" She has never had to show what "honesty" means to her.
3
We assume that people are honest, unless they show otherwise — as Cuomo has.
2
Why can’t the “progressives” in the party and in the media admit that Nixon was a terrible candidate, ran a pitiful campaign and now seems to be a sore loser?
29
@Vicki
Because a lot of them are really Republicans pretending to be Nixon supporters.
1
Maybe because she won a damn good campaign with many excellent ideas, on one-tenth of Cuomo's budget.
1
@Vicki
I was disappointed with her debate performance.
But I would rather have someone that believes in the right things and fights for what she believes, then centrist Democrats who believe whatever their biggest donors tell them to believe.
Our Nation is being sold to the highest bidder and you guys are still arguing over who is the better salesman.
2
Cuomo is flawed like all politicians, but he gets things done. Do you think Bernie Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and all the other crazies are going to get anything done if Democrats retake Congress? No, it’s going to be scheming old time liberals like Pelosi and Schumer. All these socialists forgot how LBJ twisted arms and handed out goodies to get the Civil Rights Act passed. They don’t even remember how Cuomo pushed marriage equality through a solid Republican majority State Senate several years ago.
Even if Democrats gain control of the State Senate, upstate Democrats aren’t going to vote lockstep with NYC Democrats. Even suburban districts (with high property taxes) have Democrats who are often socially liberal but fiscal moderates or conservatives. Cuomo understands that and can navigate the numerous constituencies. Nixon was just a joke, completely out of touch with reality.
38
The only scheming Schumer and Pelosi do is how to slow-walk any progressive agenda. That's what they're paid to do by their plutocratic backers and that's why they remain in power. Hillary would have been more of the same, under the charming sobriquet of "incrementalism".
7
@Chen
"Scheming old time liberals". I was beginning to believe that Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, et.al. should hang it up and make way for fresh faces but now that Dianne Feinstein had that ace up her sleeve, I've re-thought my position. We definitely need scheming old time liberals to fight the current administration.
2
@Chen
Bernie Sanders gets things done. The reason that we know the Federal Reserve have away $2 trillion ($6,000 per citizen) to global banks, is that Bernie Sanders forced the first public audit of the Federal Reserve. Bernie regularly facilitates important legislation (that is summarily ignored by neoliberal media).
Cuomo supported Democrats that voted with Republicans. How does that help?
Everything the Clintons ever actually implemented was Republican policy:
NAFTA
Deregulating investment banks.
Legalizing derivatives.
Three strikes leading tip mass incarceration.
Ending welfare as we know it.
Expanding the drug war.
Assassinating kadhafi and turning Libya into a failed state.
Promoting fracking and the export of fracked gas.
Voting for the Iraq War
I'm not voting for a Republican, even if they have a D in front of their name.
If you want to win elections, represent the working people of this country instead of trying to get Republicans to vote for Democrats.
5
I think the people of New York deserve a better governor than a publicity seeking actress who is not a lawyer, but just played one on TV.
28
@JulieB
"I think the people of New York deserve a better governor than a publicity seeking actress who is not a lawyer, but just played one on TV."
Sure, like a dirty pol corrupt to the core. It is important to reflect New York values. Just like Trump.
A real beacon for the world.
2
Give me a break. I don't care what you think about Nixon's "qualifications". Cuomo? Really?
OK, he's had his share of opportunities from his family's legacy and can certainly check off a few boxes, but I'm sick and tired of the ridiculos infighting and posturing with our city's mayor, the subway neglect and so many other things.
Hey, let's talk about the subway, shall we? Do you take the New York City subway? Give me a break... I'm done with the lack of progress and same ol' same ol'. Hey Cuomo! Get something. Anything done!
8
@Checkered Flag
Tappan Zee Bridge
Broad MTA subway makeover/maintenance
Goethals Bridge
Kosciuszko Bridge
I am no Cuomo fan, but credit where it's due.
2
The Tapanzee Bridge is a boondoggle.
What MTA makeover? The cosmetic surgery that is the Second Avenue Subway, which serves but a handful of people while millions still suffer from the lack of maintenance on the rest of the system.
1
Too bad, Cuomo is still hopelessly corrupt, not to mention a bully.
30
"Mr. Cuomo stumbled across the finish line in the final days, dogged by questions of the timing of a bridge opening and the mailer that incorrectly sought to link Ms. Nixon to anti-Semitism. But it didn’t matter."
"Incorrectly"? Is that how you're going to label it? Not even suggesting that it might have been intentional by the Cuomo campaign? I guess that would make your endorsement troubling.
20
@Chrissy
Yes, and he's "a merciless tactician with little regard for diplomacy"-- not to mention the truth.
4
Merely a silly sideshow. Nixon was inexperienced, unqualified by any measure, and surprisingly unlikeable. She is now demonstrably unelectable. Can she now please fade back into “Whatever happened to . . . “ obscurity?
26
Politics is the art of sausage being made, to paraphrase John Godfrey Saxe. Its better to have a Democrat who can get things done and then wash his hands than elect a purist who is in over her head.
30
@Khal Spencer
Yes being "realistic" about politics has been such a great strategy for the Democrats that they are losing 2/3 of all elections.
Republicans never sacrifice their principles (tax cuts for the rich) and they win.
3
I voted for Nixon because we need a new face with bold ideas, and who is not waist-deep in corruption and cronyism. Albany is absolutely rotten.
13
The dirty ad campaign run by Cuomo against Trump day and night should show every decent folk how dirty New York politics is.
8
I am all for voting in Democratic Socialists on the Democratic party ticket. I believe those are the people who will implement real change in our country!
No more Cuomo-ist Democrats!
Vote for change, vote in Democratic Socialists!
16
The GOP subversive strategy of rooting for a Nixon win and begging for a Democratic Socialist revolt within the party failed miserably. Note the number and tenor of the out-of-state comments (including “human from home”).
1
de Blasio must be throwing an absolute tantrum this very instant. Glad to see his moronic plans will continue to be foiled in Albany. We have come to far in this city to let know nothing leftists take us back to the 1970s. This is coming from a guy born and raised in this City and who voted Democrat in every election since Dinkins. A Nixon victory would have been a disaster.
32
@B Guess you don't like having a working subway system.
1
@B
Republicans don't compromise. The last time the Republicans compromised was in the 1980s.
Because they don't compromise, we each face a choice: right or left.
The right bases their politics on fear and promotes hate, greed, and violence.
The left bases its politics on courage, and promotes love, sharing and peace.
Pick a side. The center establishment is discredited and losing because they keep favoring global corporations at the expense of the American worker, and the Tea Party has purged every moderate from the GOP.
The only Republicans left are those that have spent decades saying our "government is the enemy," and that we should "drown it in a bathtub." They fully support a pathological liar attacking the rule of law and the Constitution because he encourages them to Be Worst.
Our very Constitution is at risk, but you guys keep bringing cupcakes to a civil war and attacking your natural allies instead of your enemies.
All of you that think that it is better to compromise with the Party of Trump than to compromise with the natural base of your own party need to go join the Party of Trump.
Republicans proudly say, "compromise is evil and a sign of weakness." They will not compromise. They will win or they will lose. Those who are begging for compromise from those who refuse to compromise are chasing away your own voters.
2
How did a Republican win the Democratic primary????
17
Politics are mean, contradicting, and dirty. But not without compromise, rationale, relevance and some semblance of soul. Cuomo gets that. Idealism is nice. Especially when in theater -- hence a wonderful, smart, caring actress, Nixon wanting to break into the broken, reality TV stage of governing -- headlined by malignant moron in cheif Trump. But it is time to get back to reality, and the crude reality of governing, in a complex state, nation and world.
Ms. Nixon work your way up and in.
If you sincerely chose to leave acting for public life, you will be as successful, but as in thespian life, not overnight.
Mr. Cuomo, please work for your state, and by all means go for the national cancer, and try to take the GOP malignancy of Trump down.
29
Disgusting. Expect years of further corruption and graft out of Albany. Congratulations New Yorkers, you deserve him.
11
My sincere sympathy to the New Yorkers, who are destined to be governed by the Democrats, even if not of the leftist radical persuation.
2
Cuomo's clumsy attack on Nixon as an anti-Semite and his shabby defense of such sliming disqualifies him as the person to take on Trump. Democrats can do better and must.
123
@Pat Choate
The Marquess of Queensberry rules don't apply in today's political fight. Give me somebody who is willing to use the knife hidden in his boot and juke it. while it's in the gut.
5
@Pat ChoateThat's funny because such behavior is exactly the equivalent of what a Trump like clone would do. Taking the high ground does not equate to victory in 2018 or 2020.
1
@Pat Choate
If you want a "fight fire with fire" candidate, he is your guy
I also wouldn't rule out that that mailer came from a Republican operative embedded in the Cuomo campaign - if you read the Kavanaugh letters, you would know that this is absolutely something Republicans aren't above doing.
In looking at the maps, it is interesting to note that the area that went for Nixon is right around Albany--the epicenter of corruption. The people most familiar with Cuomo voted against him.
35
@Boggle
So let’s do the math, Boggle. Even though that’s not a strong subject for Nixon supporters.
Albany County votes totals:
12,767 Nixon
12,519 Cuomo
That’s a 248 vote lead, or a virtual tie my friend. And if you look at biggest counties abutting Albany (Saratoga, Schenectady and Rensselaer), those votes totals are:
13,733 Nixon
12,023 Cuomo
That’s only a 1,710 vote difference.
1
Clearly, this election just confirms that for the sake of familiarity and fear of change and actually accomplishing something that could actually benefit the voters and not the donors, the election of Andrew Como shows that people continue to be willing to put up with the "status quo" and like this excuse for a President, amazingly, blatant corruption in their politicians. The same applies to the other Cuomo shills in the State of New York. I guess you will be waiting another 75 years for universal healthcare.
You have just further confirmed my belief America that you have an extremely large and disproportionate number of " very stupid people" in the country.
14
@Deus. Yep, you nailed it. Lucky you in Canada!
2
@Deus
Yes exactly.
Cuomo made these big ads where he promised to STOP TRUMP (from making abortion illegal in NY). The probability of abortion being illegal in NY is close to zero, so what was he really promising? Nothing.
Good. Cuomo is a complex, complicated and not always admirable political figure but when he decides to get something done, something forward looking, he gets it done.
Ms. Nixon might have lowered her sights and run for, oh say City Council, but her declaring for governor? Sheer arrogant effrontery.
Nixon needed to be soundly, clearly and decisively defeated to send this message -- you can believe what you want, you can think you are right about policy matters you know little about except slogans; but if you want to hold serious high political office then you need experience in politics that goes beyond writing checks and you need experience in government.
She had and has none of that and had no business running. Now she knows it.
Expect by June that Cuomo will have found exigencies that he will change his Shermanesque non-candidacy for president. He wants to win this third term decisively because he has every intention of running for president. His pledge not to gives him breathing space to let two dozen other presumptive presidential candidates start to crash and burn.
Politics is transitional and transactional and Cuomo is ever in transition as he effectively transacts political and public business.
You may not like him but he gets done what he sets out to do. He set out to destroy Nixon to make his point. He's done it.
Yep, gets done what he sets out to do -- a lot has been good. The bad? That he transfers to others.
So? So that's politics
136
@Carl Zeitz Did you ever say Al Franken was arrogant? Ronald Reagan? Or is it just women who run?
Why didn't anyone with experience challenge corrupt Cuomo? You should be thanking Nixon for filling the void and holding his feet to the fire. He had two terms--time to step aside.
5
@Carl Zeitz "but if you want to hold serious high political office then you need experience in politics that goes beyond writing checks and you need experience in government." ..... Hmmm, let's see Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Donald Trump political victories would say otherwise.
Ronald Reagan was a disaster for California and the country. Al Franken is smart and ran for the US Senate and was successful as such until a New York "progressive" woman who is now a senator ran him off. And he is not arrogant.
2
LBJ, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama lost elections, but used the lessons to score future victories.
Ms. Nixon, this is just the start!
24
@J L S Maybe Ms. Nixon should apply her life lessons from her acting career. She just didn't win an Emmy out of the blue, she had to be Mozart's maid first.
Perhaps she should run for city council, state assembly, school board, etc.
We have seen in Minnesota, California, and the White House that neophytes seeking high office can't cut the cheese.
22
Did you mean cant cut the mustard? : )
7
Congratulations Nixon. Others here are saying that you need to start small and work your way up. But they don't realize that your first job was playing Patsy opponent for the Cuomo family. At this point, you will be rewarded with other gigs. Keep on pluggin' away, and you two can be a Roman Senator someday.
2
Several commentators have noted Nixon's lack of experience "running any government agency or let alone in business."
Keep worshipping politicians and CEOs and we'll keep getting the same disaster we have now, people who are money-grubbing, short-sighted handlers.
If you had listened to Nixon with an open mind, you would have heard that in fact she led a successful movement to prevent Cuomo from taking EVEN MORE money from already underfunded public schools. They achieved and continue to achieve impressive and important policy victories. Quite a feat when gov't is this corrupt. If she could do that out of office, imagine what she could have done in office if given a chance.
It speaks a lot to a person's values when they consider only business and political leadership to be worthy experience. Are you saying she needed to be a corrupt real estate developer (Trump--and the people who have bought and paid for our corrupt governor) and get a back-room deal (ahem, Tish James) to be sullied enough to be voted into office?
Cuomo has an abundance of experience to continue presiding over crumbling public schools and building condos for millionaires that can cast a tall shadow over them.
18
@Jordan D
When she would be overseeing an economy and comstituency akin to a small country, yes, she does need political and business experience. She can go run a summer camp first if you think theatre arts and well intentioned ideas are the kobayah answer to our states and countries maladies.
This was a tough one. Cuomo was corrupt but is a seasoned politician who can get into the mud and stand up to the likes of Trump. Nixon was well-meaning but utterly without experience, and while she would have galvanized young people and brought fresh ideas, she could also have been a disaster when facing a veteran hidebound Republican. Sometimes you have to take a hit to win in the long term.
16
@Ashutosh
The Democratic Party keeps taking hits to win long term, and keeps losing.
This has been going on for 25 years, with Democrats picking "safe" candidates that lose 2/3 elections. (Hint, the safe candidate is supposed to win.)
Meanwhile, Republicans keep picking far right fire breathers and winning.
Your strategy is like Supply Side Economics, a failed theory that never dies, because the global rich keep it alive.
20 million people in New York and fewer than 1.5 million people bother to vote
Disgraceful. I was really rooting for Zephyr Teachout. She would have been outstanding
21
@Deirdre How many of them are registered Democrats? Also, Cuomo was a slam dunk. Everyone knew he was going to win. He's a Cuomo.
Tonight I feel the same as when Giuliani was reelected, how were people so ill-informed to make such an awful choice?
11
@michael
exactly.
4
@michael
They were given an awful choice.
1
It is not that Cuomo does not *drastically need opposition.
It is that Cuomo needs *qualified opposition.
Trump has made manifest the pitiful canard that *ZERO experience qualifies *any person for *any job.
Janitors and ditch diggers become *much more efficient
with *experience. There is NO occupation that does *not !
So much for taking an unqualified "newbie" to a gunfight !
13
That's your opinion. I think she did an admirable job of calling him out.and she will get better. He did it with cash, that's his only option. And lies
3
@Monti Markell
Of *course that is my opinion, Monti, that's why these are *called "the opinion pages". But thank
you for the *bulletin.
Clearly "calling him out" was *not enough to so much as come close to winning an election. Nixon needs EXPERIENCE in politics. Right now, she is a wonderful actress who has never so much as run a campaign to successfully get herself elected Dog Catcher, and yet she considers herself ready to "start at the top" in the field of State Politics.
Even in theater, actors start out in bit roles first. We don't usually have a completely inexperienced unknown who has never so much as been cast in a school play, suddenly starring on Broadway.
Hopefully *you have the time to wait for Nixon to "get better." In the meantime, neither Nixon nor *I are getting any younger.
"Mr. Cuomo had marshaled the support of nearly all of the state’s most powerful Democratic brokers — elected officials, party leaders, labor unions and wealthy real estate interests", basically all the big money....Not to mention the Times' obvious bias for the corrupt candidate, rationalizing corruption as experience and equating integrity with incompetence. Nice work guys. Way to forward the corporatist agenda against average working people.
16
@trebor
Looking at his TV ads, most of Andy's voters must have thought he was running against the unpopular Trump, not Cynthia Nixon.
7
Such a petty, unlikable man. A small politician, especially when compared to his father. And yet, I would take the Democrat from Queens over the Republican from Queens any day of the week...
17
Next week, and after November, pundits will say, "Why didn't people show up at the polls?" For my part, I'll reply, "No, I was there. I voted in the contests in which I felt I had a voice. I just didn't affirm my vote in certain cases."
New York is a swollen bastion of political liberalism. Travel through other parts of the country and you'll find swaths of land bleeding with conservatism. Every county, city and state feels like a malfunctioning organ in an ailing body politic.
In such a dynamic, I suggest that the choice to not vote can sometimes be a vote!
3
This is NY business. But from Chicago, its good to see pragmatism win over a left agenda that, IMHO, middle America does not support. The bigger issue for all of us is to vote this November!
10
So glad Nixon lost!
I'm sooooo tired of politicians espousing BRAINLESS platitudes --
Oh I don't have to worry about the actual $$ amounts -- Surely there is plenty of money to raise taxes.
Hello Ms. Nixon, NY already has some of the highest taxes in the state.
Oh, I know, that is another FAIRY tale of yours we don't have to balance reality.
Which is why I saw your left wing types rush to embrace Trump over Hillary . He too was promising impossible fantasies.
Which is why there is not so much difference between the FAR left and the FAR right.
15
@Thoughtful
and you know what you are saying how?
experience?
Until we have a progressive with some power to affect things you will sadly never know what the possibilities are.
You are spouting newspeak, black is white, two plus two equals five, left is the same as right...
Please do a little better than knee jerk comparisons
7
@Thoughtful I wish you had a clue how far off base
you are. If you ever wake up to what progressives really
are you will kick yourself. They do have very practical plans to get universal health care and all the other things they try to offer you. they live in the opposite of fairy land. The will not take corporate bribes and serve corporations needs and rich people's needs. Like how our tax dollars go to support the workers of Amazon and Walmart, so they do not have to pay their workers a living wage, it is called corporate welfare. So unless you are very wealthy or own a corporation, Progressives who look out for the workers and regular people are your best bet.
6
@Thoughtful
No one on the far left embraced Trump.
Those Bernie voters that switched to Trump were independents, the "moderates" you have been trying to win for decades.
You refuse to understand that they don't want the centrist establishment candidates that you keep trying to sell them.
They wanted Bernie, but you thought Hillary was the "safe" candidate.
Safe candidates don't lose, by definition, which means you were mistaken.
Learn from your mistakes.
Excuse me, Governor Cuomo has "marshalled" just over 920K votes last count (the most he's ever won in a primary and well over double the votes he got in his previous primary in 2014.)
The people of New York STATE have spoken, and I capitalize the word state because Cynthia Nixon didn't get the word out to the ENTIRE state. All she cared about was NYC or cared about NYC wayyyy more than the entire state and you can't win the state on the city alone, and the results show.
So you can spare us the "Cuomo was renominated by the political machine" nonsense.
38
You say that Nixon didn’t get the word out to the rest of the state besides NYC and that the people of NYS have spoken but have you looked at the county to county breakdown of the Governor primary election results?
It seems as though Cynthia Nixon actually performed better in Upstate than she did in the city metropolitan area (NYC, Long Island, Westchester, Rockland, etc.) where she earned, with the exception of Manhattan, a low 20-30something percent of the vote. Go up the Hudson to the Hudson Valley and you’ll see that Nixon lost Ulster County by 1-2%. Go further up the Hudson into the Capital Region, aka the Albany area where many State workers live and work under the Cuomo administration, and that’s where she garnered her best results, winning Albany County and all of its neighboring counties. If you look at places further up north and out west, Cynthia Nixon lost but won more than 40% of the vote. That’s not too bad for someone with little administrative experience and not too stellar for Cuomo.
There are clear political divisions in the Democratic Party across NY. Look no further than the results of the NYS Attorney General race where Tish James (Cuomo’s pick) only topped her opponents in the NYC area but lost to a progressive favorite in Zephyr Teachout in upstate places like Albany, the Hudson Valley, parts of the North Country, and to Congressman Maloney out in Western and Central NY.
Cuomo & his Democratic allies should be concerned about their future success..
@BX from the GOP:
Nixon won Albany County by only 248 votes out of 25,286, or about 1 percent. And she won by 1,710 votes out of 25,756 in the three largest neighboring counties next to Albany, or about 3 percent.
A number of the wonderful and beautiful upstate rural counties have very small populations, and traditionally tend to vote more Republican, so citing winning percentages in those districts can be
deceiving.
Given the chaos in the White House, I think it’s the Republican Party that should be concerned about their success in this state.
US VOTERS ARE NO DOUBT EXTREMELY AVOIDANT OF Bringing another entertainer into the realm of politics, posing as a leader. Ms. Nixon, no doubt, has some talent and overall seems to be a decent, sincere and capable person. But a political pro she ain't. The failed actor who now is destroying the US along with the whole planet has made people run the other way away from bringing actors into politics. Too bad they did not have the same qualms about Ronnie Ray Gun. He was a good enough C grade actor to get people to buy his con. Ray Gun was charming and, while narcissistic, was civilized. Still the war on the middle class and the 99% to the benefit of the 1% has gutted the US. What's trickled down is the toxic filth from Trump who has rigged the tax system so that the largest transfer of wealth in US history from the 99% to the 1% to the the tune of between $1.6 and $2.2 trillion in the next 10 years. When such a transfer of wealth rips off the 99% it's called a major economic breakthrough (breakdown for the 99% more like). When it's a transfer from the 1% to the 99%, it's called social engineering. What's in a name? A lie by any other name is just a pile of filth.
19
I thought in NY you cannot withdraw your name from the ballot but this article implies that Cynthia Nixon can withdraw her name from the Working Families Party party line. Does the author read the NYT or know anything about NY election law? I hope Cynthia Nixon will stay steadfast and campaign vigorously for the governorship. In a general election when many more millions more will vote, she will have a better chance to end the corrupt Cuomo administration. And maybe something will be done to improve the NYC subway system, something that the "experienced" Cuomo failed to do in his eight years as governor.
9
Let’s understand this line of thought. The ultra left candidate who’s only job was as an actor will perform better with the far more conservative general electorate than the more progressive democratic voters? Hogwash.
7
"Ruthless tactician" sounds worse than "deplorable l demagogue."
2
@Alan J. Shaw
Sorry, I misquoted. What chance would an incompetent deranged con man have against a "merciless tactician'?
Sad news for New Yorkers, hoping NYS corruption would end
12
The media chose to focus on Ms. Nixon's choice of bagel and her wife, not her ideas. That was no accident. Considering she had no political experience, Cuomo shouldn't pat himself on the back that 40% of Democrats preferred a total novice to him.New Yorker's can expect nothing from Cuomo's third term. He didn't give us campaign finance reform in the first two, you won't see it in the third. He shut down the anti-corruption commission when it found corruption in his dealings with real estate interests, expect more of the same. The subway was robbed to fund his pet pay to play projects, expect that to continue. Why do people worship political dynasties even when they perform as abysmally as this?
381
worship dynasties?! what America do you live in? Jeb Bush was not chosen to be GOP candidate because of a bush Dynasty. Hillary Clinton was not chosen as our president because nobody wanted to continue a Clinton Dynasty. there's no dynasties going on in America currently.
8
@muse
The populace chose Clinton.
Without the EC Trump would not be president.
@Arthur
Her campaign was nothing but an endless procession of complaints about the governor - a completely negative, solution free suicide mission.
Sadly, she'll probably be teaming up with Republicans to continue attacking him through November.
I wonder when all her fans catch on to her ruse.
2
Cuomo is truly awful and I hated voting for him. A vote for Nixon would have been the only thing worse. She reminded me of Trump: both entertainers with lots of great sounding platitudes that are worse than impossible and wouldn't come close to fixing the problems because of a complete lack of understanding of how governance works.
We can't beat Trump's fantasies with our own fantasies. We can't just live in our own dream world that's opposite to his and pretend it's morally superior. The country depends on competent governance, probably more so now than any time since the Second World War.
300
@Robert
Trump is nothing like Cynthia Nixon!
They cannot be compared.
Cynthia Nixon has been politically active for a long time, contributing to my country.
I don't think you understand that at every turn these experienced politicians are selling out the people to the corporations. Trump even more so.
Not so Cynthia Nixon.
What you call experience, I call corruption.
Oh well. So many people never learn.
9
The weird thing is that you centrist Democrats likely believe you are hard nosed realists. You aren’t. You just kicked a huge own goal by nominating a corrupt, lying bully for governor. Two years before you intend to beat a corrupt, lying bully in the presidential race. You will lose, and blame anyone but yourselves. The rest of us all over the world will have to live with the continued consequences of your political ineptitude.
2
@Robert
Competent? Clearly, when it comes to New York, you set the bar extremely low.
1
So glad Cuomo won - I'm so tired of this notion that expertise and know-how don't matter. Celebrity is wonderful - and it makes you look appealing on tv - but it is not experience and knowledge of government and civics. Trump is the epitome of this disaster. But it comes from the same rejection that experience gained over time and hard work matters. Glad to see New Yorkers reject this fallacy.
240
@Dana, you can't imagine how depressed I'd be right now if Nixon won. People have so little respect and knowledge of the magnitude of a governorship, that they think anyone can do it. Hey, I'm in my 50s, I've been in the insurance industry my whole adult life, maybe I should run for governor??? Politics and running a state government is hard, grueling work--leave it to the professionals.
12
@Dana - though, I mostly *agree*, knowledge itself can serve good and bad. "pragmatism" and "experience" too often stands for amorality, also, expertise too often fails to see the peaple behind numbers. so, knowledge and expertise needs control, the bigger is, the more.
1
@Dana
How silly, Cuomo has neither expertise or know how, he is a political hack who panders to anyone who can help advance his career
2
If only we'd had a real challenger. In one corner we had a naive newcomer who hasn't held a single political position but seemed to think becoming chief executive of our state was a good place to start. In the other corner we had a bully whose corruption will catch up with him some day.
12
Cuomo is a sensible, pragmatic centrist. This victory is a rare bright spot in our hyper-partisan age.
Tax and spend progressive liberalism is not the answer to any problems.
20
@Mmm
as opposed to tax and give to the rich and corporations trillions of dollars of middle class America's money.
Progressive liberalism puts money where it will serve the people and the economy most, infrastructure and education, where it will create a more balanced society. I guess that is terrifying.
5
How do you have any idea where so called progressive liberals would put tax payer money?
1
@Mmm
"Tax and Spend liberalism is not the answer to any problems."
The Constitution begs to differ. The Constitution starts by listing our goals as a nation: "...establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." These things require spending, so Article I specifically gives Congress the power to tax and regulate trade (not labor) to pay for these things.
Democrats keep losing because they refuse to proudly tell the People that the Constitution says tax the rich (traders) to spend on everyone (general welfare).
Have you noticed that every centrist lost in the last election? The establishment center has completely discredited itself by substituting the wants of global billionaires for the needs of most people.
Republicans are brilliantly using that anger at the establishment center to continue to push the wants of global billionaires (that is what populism actually is) while he Democratic party continues to push centrist candidates with no principles.
Republicans are winning because they have one principle that they never veer from: tax cuts for the rich.
Principles aren't a liability. Principles are the source of your power. Principles are what voters desire and vote for. They are so desperate for principles that they vote for the fake principles of the Republicans over the Party that thinks that sacrificing principles wins elections.
1
Cuomo needs to be held accountable for the subway, refusing to release money for NYC public schools and his corruption. I voted for Cynthia Nixon and will now vote for Molinari in the general election. And yes I’m a Democrat.
14
Regardless of what you think of Cuomo, Nixon was not remotely close to being qualified to serve as the governor of a large state.
69
@Father Of Two So you feel that Molinari will better represent NY and the values that are important to you? Or are you just stamping your feet and being petulant because your candidate lost? Because that is the kind of attitude that gave us President Trump.
25
@Father Of Two. Let me get this straight -- in 2016 this country elected a has-been media celebrity to an office he was totally incompetent for, largely because Democrats didn't care for the Democratic candidate and sat out the election our voted for vanity candidates.
And you want to elect another has-been media celebrity to the Governorship of probably the country's most important Democratic states, an office SHE was totally incompetent for, and now her supporters are so mad the Party was smart enough to reject her as the Democratic candidate that you're going to throw away your vote on a vanity candidate AGAIN?
There is no Democrat, at least running for national or statewide office, who could be as harmful to the needs and goals of the people as ANY Republican would be. When will we ever learn?
29
The returns make it absolutely clear that if New York held a consolidated state/federal primary as most every other state does, that Ocasio Cortex would have been defeated overwhelmingly and never heard from again so everyone should now put her underwhelming win in perspective.
That she won owes to the fact that the Bronx and Queens machines, which drove the vote out in the state primary were comatose in the New York federal primary. That's not to say the machines are nice folks or have the public interest at heart, just that when they have a reason to produce votes, they produce them.
9
@Carl Zeitz - Well, in that case, watch out in November - because Joe Crowley is still on the ballot! You don't think they'd....
4
And yet somehow incumbent machine candidates in the Tony and Brooklyn went down today in State Senate races. How did that happen then?
1
I liked Nixon; she has good ideas, but it was clear months ago that people were not going to cast a vote for another inexperienced minor celebrity.
My father told me that, many years ago, after Barry Goldwater lost, the Republicans got together and concocted a plan to take over the country from the ground up. The idea was to run Republicans for every office, from dog catcher to school board to city council, and then to move on to capturing state legislatures and, eventually, the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. The woman (yes, it was a woman who authored the plan, but my dad couldn't recall her name) said that it would take decades to achieve. The party adopted the program and has been pursuing its goals ever since. They have now achieved everything they set out to do nearly sixty years ago.
During that time, the Democrats came out every four years and voted for president, and then went back to ignoring politics.
We need to take back the country by running Democrats for every office. Ms. Nixon should shelve her pride and go get elected to city council. And encourage other Dems to run for other offices. It will take time, but we slept while the Republicans were building the Empire. They own us now, until we fight back with everything we have.
200
@Allison
Yes, Ms Nixon would make a great NYC councilwoman. And, yes, her ignorance of and ostentatious lack of interest in the rest of the state made her candidacy offensive to many of us. Too bad, then, that the NYT has not addressed her apparently strong showing in the Capital Region.
8
@Allison
The one factor missing from your father's recollection of 'history' (which sounds like a plot from "The Simpsons" - go find it and have a good laugh!) -
the Republicans ran based on good ideas and better plans for governance than the regressive Democrats!
@Allison
That wouldn't have happened if the Democratic Party had actively opposed the Republican mission, instead of begging for compromise at every turn while Republicans gave Dems the back out their hand.
The Democratic "centrists" took on all of the Republican lies as accepted fact. They embraced Supply Side Economics, slashing the social safety net, and aggressive policing and foreign policy.
In turn the Republicans insulted them and investigated them, and broke all tradition and even laws to steal elections, and Supreme Court Seats.
Meanwhile, the working people of America, the 60% of the population that actually creates the wealth through hard work, saw that the two parties were too busy courting corporate cash to represent their interests and stopped voting.
Then, instead of promising the people what they need, the Democratic Party whines that no one votes for them.
The Lesser Evil cannot win. Lesser is bad. Evil is worse.
To win, the Democratic Party has to fight for workers, not compromise with the Party of Trump, which is happy to follow a pathological liar and con-man, because he gives them permission to Be Worst.
Fight for the Greater Good to win. Fight for the General Welfare and quote the Constitution while you do it.
2
One of the most common adjectives used to describe NY State government is "dysfunctional". And, based on today's election, the Democratic State Machine, and its rank and file like it that way.
As a registered Democrat, voting for "the Party" in NY State just makes me feel as "dirty" as if I were voting Republican.
So, today I just handed in a blank ballot. "Excelsior?"
5
Would you feel cleaner if a Republican won?
That’s what happens when progressives only support their ‘purity’ candidate.
Sometimes it’s not so bad to hold your nose and vote for the candidate, party machine or not, who satisfies at least some of your goals.
71
@David G.
The Tea Party only supports candidates that take the positions they support, and the Republican Party follows their lead.
The Democrats attack their own base and keep compromising with Republicans (who never compromise).
Which party is whining?
Seriously, when was the last time the Republicans actually compromised their goals to reach across the isle to work with Democrats? Wasn't that Reagan and Tip O'Neill, 30 years ago?
Who do you think is going to vote for a party that prostrates itself before the Party of Trump?
1
The most tangible impact of the Cuomo administration in my life has been its management of the MTA.
No surprise I voted Nixon.
It's too bad she lost. But a 30-something percent haul for someone "with no experience" in her first election of any kind is really not bad. Cuomo was running scared the last few weeks and she really pushed him to the left. He won this round, but candidates like Cynthia are the future.
39
And Nixon would have fixed your subway system how and with what?
2
Connie,
Strange question.
It presumes that the subway system cannot be fixed, so Cuomo is justified in letting it rot.
But Nixon had a comprehensive plan for all her proporsals. All you had to do was to go to her web site.
I get sick of lesser evil voters trying to justify themselves by claiming that progressive candidates don't have a plan. The result is that they vote to do nothing.
1
@John R A cinnamon raisin bagel could get 33% of the vote. In any election 1/3 can be counted on to be contrarians, witness the Trump base, shrinking daily toward that level. In politics, 33% is zero.
1
The flier accusing Cynthia Nixon of being anti-Semitic clearly worked, and similar tactics will be used in 2020 to lure Jewish Democrats into actually re-electing Donald Trump. (Look at all the good things he's done for Israel, they'll say.) No dirty trick will be beneath him.
22
@Mark Lebow
No, they did not work. Which is why Cuoma said they were wrong and he didn't agree with it.
Hello? Can you please actually refer to the facts.
6
Thoughtful,
Any decent person would "not agree with it."
Cuomo should have vehemently denounced it.
He's an expedient politician, all right.
2
@Mark Lebow
Cynthia Nixon was clearly unqualified. And, it was not only Jewish Democrats who could see this.
Ms. Nixon was the ultimate empty suit. A real gubernatorial candidate travels across every corner of the state for months, studies and learns state and local issues, publishes thorough position papers and is lethally-prepared for debate. Cynthia Nixon did none of that. Progressives, find that kind of candidate next time, not someone who wanders off the studio set and onto the big stage -- and governor of New York is the biggest of stages.
96
@JTS
Exactly. When she was asked on Joe Scarlborough how she was gonna PAY for her programs...
She went straight to fantasy -- surely we can raise taxes a little more.
Taxes would have to be raised a LOT, to meet her fantasies.
I didn't like Sanders, but I appreciated his campaign did try to calculate the numbers.
The result was a person making $50K was going to pay an additional $6K in taxes.
Where I had problems with Sanders, was when an independent MSN poll talked to his supporters, fully 2/3s -- when told the REAL numbers -- said they couldn't agree to this.
Paying attention, Ms. Nixon???? All you are is a SPOILER. Because republicans would only be too happy to show your POOR MATH skills!
2
Cuomo is the real empty suit. Talks a lot of talk. Walking? Only when pushed by progressives...
3
That is a disappointing result. I hope Cynthia Nixon continues to work to find a way to help her state and/or the country to move the country to the left where it needs to be.
31
I'll hold my nose and vote for Cuomo in the general. He may be a corrupt so-and-so, but at least he's our corrupt so-and-so.
17
@HKGuy I feel exactly the same way, except this time I may not vote for Governor at all. I can't believe I'm saying that when I know how badly we all need to lean blue, but honestly I think he's scum and couldn't care less about NYC, despite the fact that 60% of NY state income tax comes out of our pockets. I don't know if it's humanly possible to pinch my nose that hard.
It’s really a shame that this paper continues to limit Cuomos flaws to a pragmatic centrist approach. These could be his strengths. His flaws are his tendency toward cronyism and tolerance for corruption. This paper has reported frequently on both but seems to forget this each election season.
70
The race was ugly. Cuomo definitely reeks in a multitude of ways. But to say he won because of fundraising, or the nasty elements of his campaign, is inaccurate and insulting to the voters. I also disagree with the notion that this victory is an indication of his winning prowess overall. It just points to his opponent. Nixon has some good ideas and seems intelligent but she has NO leadership experience, in politics or even in business. And she was unable to explain how she would implement and pay for her ideas. The voters of NY didn’t need multiple Cuomo campaign fliers and robocalls to see these deficits. I am no fan of Cuomo myself, but I voted for him.
180
@R Singer Actually, she did explain how to pay for her programs. And, I can’t say I believe career politicians would have my best interests at heart at this point. What she said frightened him into sleazy politics. He, obviously, can’t lead NY to a better quality of living. And, it’s not clear that he wants to. Best we’ll get is status quo.
18
@Richard Mays
No she said she would only have to raise taxes on the wealthy a little.
PURE fantasy. Same as we see with Trump supporters.
3
@R Singer It's not at all inaccurate nor is it insulting to the voters. The turnout rate was abysmal as always. Truth is, between apathy, and labyrinthine restrictions around voting, the number of active partipating voters is so-small that funding, advertising, and endorsements are literal game changers. The only reason why the polls failed in regional elections is because the voter turnout was slightly higher among groups that almost never turn out to vote than the polls could've accounted for.
If voter turnout was anywhere near even 60% then you'd have a point. However, when it is so low, literally every little factor can and will change the outcome.
1
I'm glad. It's bad enough having someone in the White House who has no idea what he's doing. Can't we just have a governor who knows how to govern and not have the State too careening like a rudderless ship? The answer, thankfully, is, yes we can.
47
An experienced, qualified candidate beat a know-nothing, loud-mouthed celebrity? Boy, I wish that had happened in November 2016.
207
False equivalence.
3
Dear New Yorkers: Cuomo is the greater evil. Re-electing him in November will not only be bad for New York, it will blunt the criticism of Trump’s corruption, by providing the right an equally corrupt, bullying foil. In this case it is better to have a minor Republican elected. The only rational decision will be to vote for the Green Party candidate.
11
@Christian Haesemeyer
We heard the same exact argument about Hillary Clinton in our recent presidential election.
I wonder how many more hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of human beings will die prematurely, even in places as far off as coastal Australia, as a result of having the environmental denier, Donald Trump, as president?
29
Same thing can be said about Bernie Sanders and Hilary Clinton.
If you’re going to vote for the Green Party, your time would be better spent watching tv or baking a cake.
22
Cuomo's a lot like Trump, saying and doing whatever he wants because no one holds him accountable. The snake returns to Albany.
31
So much for the "Progressive Wave" that was supposedly sweeping the nation...
Can't wait for the excuses to start...
"The DNC rigged the primary"
"His method of campaigning was ______(fill in the blank) so I will never vote for him in NY or in a National Election."
"He completely turned me off with his campaign so now I won't vote in the General Election." ( you likely weren't going to vote no matter the outcome but...)
The bottom line is the Democrats would do well to jettison the Left Wing Fringe from the party
(not that Cuomo is anywhere near the center of the political spectrum)
Elections in America are generally won in the middle...
43
@Java Junkie
As someone who considers himself a progressive, it's pretty obvious why Cuomo won. He has experience in government. She doesn't. If she wins a smaller seat and gets political experience, then runs for governor? It will be a completely different ball game.
1
@Java Junkie That’s the dilemma of the Democratic Party. The establishment is corrupt and morally bankrupt, and the Left is a bunch of loonies. Many of the commenters praise Cuomo’s experience and know how, but that’s the problem. I’m familiar with it because I’m from Chicago. In the dog fight to succeed Rahm Emanuel a Cuomo-type politician will probably emerge the winner, and deals will be made. Does anything change?
Ed,
"The Left is a bunch of loonies"?
The Democratic Party is supposed to BE the left.
My, how far to the right we have moved.
2
She really was naive without a cohesive plan. Sex and the City will not get an actress elected. You actually need a plan.
168
@Ralph Petrillo Which other politicians have run on policy and had plans? She had more than I can remember from HRC.
2
@Ralph Petrillo
From an outsider from the Midwest, your simple and eloquent post seemed to really nail it. Bravo!
1
@Nick
And things never panned out for HRC when she ran for president either time. With all due respect Nick, I think Mr. Petrillo is spot on with his comment.
The Empire strikes back. The Rebellion has been crushed. The corporate owned Democratic Party won, the people’s Democratic Party lost - again.
Cuomo can now start making his plans for his Presidential run.
19
A Cynthia Nixon win would have moved the state in the right direction. A missed opportunity IMO.
One thing we don’t know is are vote counts honest and accurate in all our elections. The vote is the bedrock of a democracy, yet the vote-counting process has been outsourced to a handful of extreme rightwing companies that tabulate our votes with proprietary software. Democratic elections require transparent vote counting.
Jonathan Simon says that the process of counting votes is no different than the “man behind the curtain.” If we gave our ballots to a man wearing a magician's costume and a pin for his preferred candidate, he then goes behind the curtain to tally the votes, he comes out and says I’ve counted the ballots, shredded them and announces the winner would you trust the result?
Election Theft in the 21st Century with Jonathan Simon https://tinyurl.com/ydz3jcvj
Germany, Ireland, Norway, and the Netherlands went back to hand counting after realizing the vulnerabilities with computerized voting.
German Court Rules E-Voting Unconstitutional https://tinyurl.com/za778ju
The high court upheld the “basic principle of the public nature of democratic elections” and ruled that the “vote count must be something the public can authenticate without any specialized expertise.”
Europe Rejects Digital Voting Machines https://tinyurl.com/yczjwo64
“A privatized, secret ballot count must be viewed as a violation of our civil rights.” — Victoria Collier, “How to Rig an Election”
24
Many states do not allow ex-felons to vote, yet the article below points out that voting machine companies have convicted felons running our elections.
Three shockers:
In 1996, Chuck Hagel ran for a Senate seat in Nebraska two weeks after leaving his position as chairman of a voting machine company called American Information Systems at the time (now ES&S). Hagel went from being far behind to winning by 15 points in an upset against Ben Nelson, a popular governor who won in a landslide two years earlier. AIS counted the votes. Charlie Matulka, Hagel’s opponent in his reelection race, asked “Is this the fox guarding the henhouse?”
In 2002, two popular Georgia incumbents, Senator Max Cleland and Governor Roy Barnes, went from large leads to losing to their Republican opponents, major upsets that defied all polls. In his autobiography, Cleland maintained that e-voting machines were “ripe for fraud.”
Harper’s Magazine: How to Rig an Election — The G.O.P. Aims to Paint the Country Red https://tinyurl.com/y9xx63f6
“In the month leading up to the [Georgia] election, Diebold employees led by Bob Urosevich applied an uncertified software patch to 5,000 machines. ‘We were told that it was intended to fix the clock, which it didn’t do,’ Diebold whistleblower Chris Hood recounted in Rolling Stone. ‘We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that the president would be involved at that level.’”
5
@RLS I can't speak for the whole country but NYS uses paper ballots. Every election, machines are opened and paper ballots are hand-counted to audit the accuracy of the electronic recorders. Every audit is handled beginning to end by a Republican and a Democrat. I have confidence in NYS's vote counts.
1
The Times has done an admirable job of holding Mr. Cuomo to high standards and noting his all too frequent lapses in judgment and principle. Although its editorial board endorsed Mr. Cuomo, with the exception of one column by Jim Dwyer, its political reporters and columnists utterly failed to press Ms. Nixon or educate readers on how exactly she would achieve or finance her vast array of expensive promises.
It should not have been left to Mr. Dwyer to point out she would be doubling the state's already massive budget or to the Daily News to uncover that she had not learned what the state's existing income tax rates were before proposing substantial tax increases.
Mr. Cuomo is ruthless--and thus well-suited to defending New Yorkers from Trump, McConnell and their lackeys.
61
@DSM14
The most expensive thing that Nixon wanted to do is universal healthcare. Even Cuomo said that in the long run universal healthcare is cheaper and better than what we have, but it would mean a $200 billion investment to get it done. NY can't invest in saving money with better healthcare?'A state full of banks and billionaires can't find $200 billion?
This is the defeatist attitude that gives Republicans elections.
2
@McGloin I would like to see better, broader healthcare, but you seem to fail to grasp how much $200 billion is; that Ms. Nixon proposed raising taxes on those making $300,000--who are not poor, but far from billionaires given NY's cost of living; or that the people you think can finance this will simply move to NJ or CT--here in NJ there was mass movement to PA and FL after a much smaller tax increase.
I voted for Nixon, even though I knew she wouldn't win. I hope she isn't discouraged. A lot of people voted for her! I applaud her for her effort, her moxie, and her point of view. I hope she will remain a voice in progressive New York State politics and run again.
64
@Round the Bend
So glad she lost. I have a finance background, and it really bothers me to see the PIE IN THE SKY fantasies...
you know, like we also see on the far right.
3
Thank you to Cynthia Nixon for having the courage to run against Cuomo. In doing so, she also helped energize voters for other important races, notably the effort to get rid of IDC fake democrats in the state senate.
I hope that she runs again for another office, we need her voice and her audacity.
165
@Eric
Here is the problem, pal.
sanders actually spelled out the math to raise taxes.
A person making $50K would pay an additional $6K under his plan.
Just one problem -- he didn't do a good job communicating that to his own supporters. When an MSN pollster called up Sanders supporters and were told this -- fully 2/3s said this was acceptable.
get the formula. If Sanders had won, we can be assured the Republicans would not be SHY to communicate this to the Left base.
OK?
1
Who decides who is a fake Democrat? You?
My definition of a real Democrat is a centrist pragmatic candidate.
My idea of a fake Democrat is Cynthia Nixon and her progressive followers.
8
@Thoughtful
IF Sanders had won : there would be somewhat of an equal distribution of wealth
although the bankers and the grifters would have given him a hard time .
Some of us wanted that to ,"honestly ",
play out .There will always remain a certain
knowledge, ( DNC ,Wasserman , Wikileaks )
that we were cheated .
Under the NY governors - including both Cuomos - NY has gone from first to fourth in population with people leaving in droves because of taxes. It costs more to educate a child thru primary and secondary school in NYS than any other state and twice the national average. School taxes make up 75% of property taxes and 39% of NYS properties are not taxed at all. Many of those are religious or educational and some of those buy the governor with promised block votes while they game the system and have others support them. Indictments in Albany are commonplace. Cuomo dumps on Washington about such things as the SALT limit rather than get his own state in order.
Because of the high taxes, property values go down making it hard to sell and move. Our county alone has lost IBM, Union Carbide. International Paper and Georgia Pacific while gaining non paying religious institutions. I shall not vote for Andrew Cuomo.
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@Gerard F
I'm guessing you weren't voting in the Democratic primary.
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@Gerard F: Property, and school, taxes are local, not state.
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@Gerard F
Er, and you didn't notice Ms. Nixon wanted to raise taxes more?
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I hope and believe Nixon should run on the Working Families Party ticket. She is an eloquent spokesperson for the Progressive platform. Continuing to speak to the electorate about needed changes and to highlight Cuomo’s corruption is an end unto itself. Cuomo cannot be trusted, regardless of his prowess in the smoke filled back rooms. Without applied pressure he has no incentive to govern any differently; which means more stubborn, vane, recalcitrance (not to mention mediocrity). Next he’ll be telling us how much he’s protecting us from Trump while taking money from the same donors. Nixon’s campaign was about more than numbers, although numbers defeated her. If there had been anything approaching equal time in mainstream media exposure this result could have been different. What she says makes sense, what he says is obscure. And you know the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over again yet expecting a different outcome. BTW, Jesse Ventura won a governorship with little experience. Let’s hope Cynthia Nixon’s appetite is whetted for the fight. People need to continue to hear that there’s another way for the State to do business. She could give NY, as opposition leader, more than he’ll likely want to accomplish in his “victory lap.”
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The comedy is ended.
On a related note, a few years ago I received an impassioned email from Bill Lipton, head of the Working Families Party, warning that if insufficient votes were cast on the party's line in the next election, it would be at risk of losing its place on the ballot.
From that moment on, I pulled the lever in every election where I had the opportunity to for a Democratic candidate running on the Working Families Party line. In literally every single election.
Bill Lipton has stated that he has no intention of playing the spoiler in this 2018 Gubernatorial election. Let's all hope that he proves himself a man of his word.
I urge Ms. Nixon to stay involved in politics, and to run for a position a few rungs down from Governor - like, for instance, the position of Public Advocate for New York City. A previous Public Advocate was recently elected Mayor of NY - so it is not a dead end position, but rather an ideal way to familiarize oneself with the complexities of governing.
Andrew Cuomo is not his father. You can accuse him of being a mean, vindictive SOB. But maybe that's exactly what we will need with a uniquely ignorant, mean, and vindictive SOB occupying the Oval Office.
We live in a less than best of all possible worlds. I deal with it. I hope others can as well.
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@Matthew Carnicelli That is exactly what will be needed to defeat Trump.
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@Matthew Carnicelli
You can't beat Trump with another Trump.
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Now we just have to hope the Bernie Bros don’t elect the Republican out of spite like they did with Trump.
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Bernie, as you know, endorsed and campaigned for Hillary in the general election. I am one of the people you refer to as a Bernie Bro, and—like almost everyone else I know who supported Bernie in the primary—I ultimately voted for Clinton. I did have a few friends who ended up voting for Jill Stein. The pernicious myth that Clinton lost because disaffected Bernie supporters voted for Trump is part of what’s preventing the Democratic Party from undergoing a process of honest self assessment and a policy of genuine reform.
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FYI, number of ‘08 Clinton voters who voted for McCain outnumbers Bernie voters who voted for Trump about 5 to 1
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@Mike
More voters went from Hillary Clinton to John McCain in 2008 than went from Sanders to Trump in 2016; about 13 percent of Trump’s 2016 voters also voted for Barack Obama in 2012. And here's some more context: about 13% of all Trump voters cast a ballot for Obama in 2012.
We just have to hope that you learn some facts before posting false nonsense.
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Cynthia Nixon should be commended for her courage to undertake the thankless job of raising important public issues in what would otherwise have been a coronation.
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...and arguably was one anyway.
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@Learned Sceptic
I got ticked off at Nixon's style. Can't STAND her now.
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Just look at the accompanying photo.
Where were the other challengers? Is that what the establishment machine in New York has become?
Leaving it to a brave individual with no office-holding experience?
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@srwdm Exactly! I've been saying that all along to those attacking Nixon for having the gumption to run with little experience. Where were the experienced politicos to take on Cuomo's corrupt machine?
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@Susan
So far as I know, there are no superdelegates at the state level.
This was a plebiscite by other means and a sign of how unremarkably facile it is to undermine small-d democracy, provided that the elites agree on a common front. There were to be no mistakes like the 2016 democratic presidential primary, and there were not.
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We have to be better than this. This is the same kind of language Trump supporters use, completely incapable of imagining that decent people actually just disagree with them and so it must be a big conspiracy. Nixon didn't lose because of "the machine", she lost because lots of people - like me - fundamentally didn't believe she was qualified for the job. As much as I dislike Cuomo (and it's a *lot*), it ended up being an easy choice. Please don't insult your political friends' motives or intelligence; we're all in this together.
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@Robert
"This is the same kind of language Trump supporters use"
Yes, I saw the same in the last Presidential election. the far LEFT actually borrowed from the same falsehoods that the far right used.
Ralph Nader used to claim there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush. Guess he never heard of global warming?
Sadly, I saw Ms. Nixon playing this same game.
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@Thoughtful
Ralph Nader never played a game . The man
is and has been responsible for not only keeping us alive (seat belts ) but also educating some to understand what our civic rights SHOULD be .By the way , when the florida votes were tallied ,Gore would NOt have won .
CNN's Chris
CNN's Chris Cuomo, Governor Andrew Cuomo's brother, today and tonight on CNN has been wearing both a hat and shirt bearing unmistakably the Cuomo name. I am a Democrat, but I am also a former broadcast journalist. On the day when his brother was running in a primary election, this is inexcusable. I have always liked Chris Cuomo, but a journalist should be impartial, and CNN should fire him.
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They should fire Cuomo for being a hack...
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@Mark C. Ottesen. Well. he should at least get a strong warning.
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At least in this case, apparently relevant experience is (once again?) more important than celebrity. Maybe a glimmer of political hope going forward.
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@Ted Yes, his experience ruining the New York subway system is essential. Experience got us where we are in this country and it isn't pretty.
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@Ted
comparing her to Trump? bad comparison. so wrong.
@Thinking Forget equivalences, and forget any assumed comparisons to Trump. The fact is Cynthia Nixon is a celebrity who has never been elected to any government position. So presuming being able to convince a majority of Democrats that she has the ability to run New York State - with zero relevant experience - turned out to be too much of a presumption.
I'm ashamed to say "I told you so". My own projections that Mario's boy would clobber Miranda Hobbes doesn't qualify even as a prediction, the outcome was so inevitable.
Cuomo is almost universally accepted as one of our most effective American politicians. Given the lamentable state of the Republican Party in New York, particularly in the city, he will have no problem in November, either.
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Luettgen,
Cynthia Nixon (that's her name) won a sizable percent of the vote—a remarkable performance from an impassioned and articulate individual who cares.
And as people are saying, "He won ugly".
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@srwdm She won virtually the same percentage that Zephyr Rain Teachout won 4 years ago. If losing by 2-1 represents a remarkable performance, I would hate to see what you deem an unremarkable one.
@Richard Luettgen Maybe, but he better not step out of NY or he'll get his keister handed to him. He is neck and neck with a favorability rating similar to Hillary's. Dismal.
He won but those of us out of state will remember how he won. We don't need Andrew Cuomo in national politics.
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@Joel Geier Those of us in state will remember as well. This country most definitely does not need Andrew Cuomo in national politics.
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@Joel Geier Probably will be a Democratic candidate for president in 2020. Will win against Mr. Trump.
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Yeah who wants a successful governor of a major state who raised the minimum-wage, enacted gay marriage before the Supreme Court decision, is described by the NRA as their worst enemy, banned fracking, defends immigrants, enacted free college tuition, passed paid sick leave laws, etc. Really the self styled “progressives” on this message board live in some alternate reality.
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