Cynthia Nixon and Andrew Cuomo had their first and only scheduled debate yesterday. Nixon has asked for several more debates, noting numerous topics were not covered, but Cuomo has thus far refused.
Nixon is challenging the two term governor, who is trying to win a third term, as his father Mario Cuomo did. If Nixon wins the primary, it would be an upset of mammoth proportions, signaling that the heir to a political dynasty has lost the confidence of the party rank and file. Nixon continues to trail Cuomo in the polls, but has a large volunteer team working for her and has earned the endorsement of progressive groups such as Indivisible and Daily Kos.
The NY Times summarized the debate and main issues:
Neither candidate fell into the traps the other side tried to lay in advance: She seemed versant on the issues; he didn’t lose his cool or condescend uncomfortably. [...]
It was Ms. Nixon’s first-ever political debate and she delivered cutting lines with comfort and ease. — www.nytimes.com/...
On health-care, the issue that consistently ranks as voters’ top priority, the divide between the candidates was stark, with Nixon firmly in the Medicare-For-All camp, highlighting the precarious financial position most New Yorkers find themselves in when it comes to health expenses:
Cuomo said that it’s unrealistic to try to force Medicare for All, which would cost New York “over $200,000,000 to transition to.”
A Rand study released in 2018, however, shows that single-payer health care would be feasible in the state. Nixon rebutted that most New Yorkers are one injury away from total bankruptcy, and that Medicare for All would be an “overall savings for 98% of New Yorkers,” why is why she said would fight tooth and nail for the transition to universal health care. — www.teenvogue.com/...
Even on issues like homelessness and housing, where the governor demonstrated a command of the topic, Nixon could convincingly make the case that conditions in NY had not improved during his 8 year tenure.
Marijuana
Cynthia’s campaign platform involves a call for full legalization of marijuana. She made strong argument for why marijuana legalization is a racial justice issue, saying “Marijuana has been legal for white people for a long time. It’s time to make it legal for everyone else”. Eight states have fully legalized marijuana, including other progressive bastions such as California and Washington.
In an unintended gaffe, Governor Cuomo neatly illustrated Cynthia Nixon’s point by revealing, for the first time, that he “experimented with marijuana during college”. This revelation is tough to reconcile with Cuomo’s previous characterization of marijuana as a “gateway drug”. If he thinks it’s a gateway drugs, what gateway did it is open for him?
Cuomo’s experience with pot also demonstrates Nixon’s broader point that such “experimentation” carry no repercussions for rich, white and powerful people, or their children. Poor, or black/brown people and their children are rarely as lucky since politicians prioritize policing poor neighborhoods and schools rather than upper class suburbs and colleges.
Cuomo’s debate answer is likely to raise further questions about the governor’s shift on marijuana policy. If he has himself consumed marijuana, why did it require Cynthia Nixon’s challenge to make him admit it should be legalized?
Organized labor
After a year that has seen major teacher’s strikes across the country, the governor’s defense of NY’s Taylor Law (which bans strikes by public employees in NY) will leave some union members cold. Cynthia Nixon has strongly supported the right of teachers and other government workers to strike (with an exception for essential services like police and fire-fighters).
Cuomo, who has been even more dismissive of Nixon than he was of Teachout, portrayed his opponent as a head-in-the-clouds socialist. She couldn’t just “snap her fingers” and enact policies like ethics reform, he said.
“If you allow the public-sector unions to strike, teachers could go on strike,” he said. “There would be no school, children wouldn’t be educated. It would clearly be mayhem.” [...]
Nixon, the candidate of activists who want to dismantle the conservative wing of the state’s Democratic Party, was largely able to deliver that message. Pressed on her plan to bring universal health care to New York, she spent 90 seconds walking through its potential fiscal effect. Asked about making it easier for workers to strike, Nixon said that she would empower people who simply want fair wages and see no other resort.
“Workers don’t want to strike,” she said. “Workers only strike when they have no other recourse.” — www.washingtonpost.com/...
Cuomo’s derisive use of the term “socialist” underscored how out of touch the governor is with the party grassroots, most of whom are cheering on self-described Democratic Socialists running for office across the country.
This divide is sure to remind rank and file union voters of Cuomo’s historically tense relationship with organized labor.
The governor at one point said that he was “never at war with labor,” but had promised during his successful run in 2010 to take on the state’s powerful unions, promising to rein in state workers’ wages and pensions.
In 2014, several major unions — including the New York State United Teachers, the Public Employees Federation, and the A.F.L.-C.I.O. — declined to back his bid for a second term; the P.E.F. endorsed his primary opponent, Zephyr Teachout. — www.nytimes.com/…
MTA and Republican control
Nixon criticized Cuomo's transportation policy for failing to adequately fun New York’s biggest transit network, the MTA which provides bus and subway services in NYC. The governor’s response seems to have been to insist that he has virtually not power at the MTA, leaving it to Nixon to remind the audience that the governor controls the MTA. She claimed he has been raiding its budget “using the MTA as his ATM”. New York’s infrastructure woes are the result of decades of underinvestment after the 70s by successive governments. In a fact-check, the NY Times supported Nixon’s claims:
An investigation by The New York Times found that Mr. Cuomo had, in fact, steered money away from the system — including using $5 million to assist state-run ski resorts struggling after a warm winter. — www.nytimes.com/...
This perception of long-standing woes played into another of Nixon’s debate themes, that Cuomo’s 8-year term has been characterized by lackluster attention to progressive priorities, particularly economic issues. Nixon also hammered home the message that Democrats should expect nothing different from a third Cuomo term.
"I'm not an Albany insider like Gov. Cuomo, but I think that experience doesn't mean that much if you're not actually good at governing," she said, faulting him for the conditions of the subways in New York, Republican control of the state Senate and scandals in the state's economic development sector. — www.timesunion.com/...
Governor Cuomo’s defense for many of Nixon’s criticisms was that his hands were tied by a Republican legislature. In response, Nixon repeatedly pointed out that Republican control of Albany was cemented by the turncoat IDC faction of Democratic legislatures. Governor Cuomo tacitly supported the arrangement where some Democratic legislators caucused with Republicans to hand them control of the legislature. Cuomo also claimed he would have needed more Democrats in Albany to pursue a more liberal agenda. This was neatly undercut by Nixon, who asked the governor why he had approved gerrymandered district maps which cemented GOP control of the NY legislature. In a significant win for Nixon, both metro and upstate newspapers have picked up her criticism of Cuomo’s alliance with the IDC and GOP legislators:
Mr. Cuomo said that he had wanted campaign finance reform and other ethics reforms, but had been stymied by a Republican Senate. While that is technically true, Mr. Cuomo had long tolerated a group of rogue Democrats in that chamber, the Independent Democratic Conference, who collaborated with the Republicans to help them rule the Senate. — www.nytimes.com/...
For Nixon, it was a challenge to a governor she said has fostered continuing inequality among New Yorkers by allowing a group of rogue Democrats called the Independent Democratic Caucus to enable GOP control of the State Senate for several years. Every time Cuomo blamed the Senate for failing to enact the progressive measures Nixon says are essential to the state, she countered with accusations that he has only recently championed a Democratic Senate.
"Why do we have a Republican Senate?" she asked during a spirited exchange over deteriorating subway service in New York City. "Because you empowered the IDC." — buffalonews.com/...
Bizarre attacks
Somewhat bizarrely, Cuomo pointed to an e-mail Nixon had forwarded to Mayor DeBlasio’s office on behalf of a local cafe owner concerned about their lease as an instance of Nixon using her political contacts for friends. If this is the best a governor who presided over an Albany so corrupted by real-estate interests that both the senate leader and assembly speaker are now in jail, we’re truly lost.
In another bizzare claim, Cuomo called his opponent a corporation because she owns an S-Corp in NY.
"You are a corporation," Cuomo said to Nixon, who files taxes as a pass-through corporation. "When you file taxes as a corporation, you are a corporation." He then asked Nixon if she is a corporation. "I am a person," she replied. — www.timesunion.com/...
Nixon’s social media team is already making hay of Cuomo’s strange claim.
Cuomo also strangely attacked Nixon for not releasing her tax returns, though she has released six years of returns. When he ran in 2010, Cuomo did not release any tax returns.
Corruption and Trump
Cuomo punted the question of corruption in his administration, while Nixon repeatedly brought up the governor’s closure of the Moreland commission just as it began to investigate his inner circle. She highlighted the recent conviction of Joseph Percoco, one of Cuomo’s closest aides and friends on corruption charges, saying the governor’s professed ignorance of Percoco’s suggested either incompetence or complicity.
Nixon only touched on corruption charges stemming from the governor's signature upstate economic development program, but zeroed in on the conviction of Joseph Percoco, Cuomo's confidant and friend, on charges connected to the Buffalo Billion. Nixon questioned how the governor could not have detected crimes committed "by his right-hand man who was doing something right under his nose." [...]
She also dismissed Cuomo's attacks on Trump as disingenuous, pointing out that top aides to both men are now headed to jail. — buffalonews.com/...
The criticism that Cuomo has a history of shutting down investigations into his aides and supporters will likely escalate after the revelation that he suspended a Weinstein-related investigation after receiving 25k from the law firm representing Weinstein.
The Governor also tried to portray himself as a stalwart opponent of Donald Trump, an exchange which led both candidates to deliver a couple of the most memorable lines in the debate:
“Know me by my enemies,” Mr. Cuomo said, pointing to the president’s Twitter posts about him. The president has mocked Mr. Cuomo’s remark that America “was never that great,” which Mr. Cuomo later revised.
“No one has stood up to Donald Trump the way I have,” Mr. Cuomo said.
Ms. Nixon dismissed that idea entirely, quipping, “You stood up to him about as well as he stood up to Putin.” — www.nytimes.com/...
As the NY Times pointed out, Governor Cuomo has only recently developed a dislike for Donald Trump. In prior years, they’ve been great pals and Trump has consistently contributed huge sums to Cuomo’s campaigns:
Indeed, the two men have known each other for decades — Mr. Trump even recorded a video for the governor’s 1990 bachelor party — and Mr. Trump has given tens of thousands of dollars to the governor’s political campaigns. Mr. Cuomo has declined to return those donations, saying he wants to use the money to fight the president’s agenda, earning Ms. Nixon’s scorn. — www.nytimes.com/...
Cynthia Nixon had to demonstrate during the debate that she could go toe to toe with the governor. She did that in spades.
It’s doubtful Cuomo will take Cynthia Nixon up on his offer. In 2014, he refused to debate his primary opponent, Zephyr Teachout, refusing to greet her at a parade that year. In a year that has seen numerous female candidates surge against better connected men, Nixon may be able to correct that slight. Oh, and by the way, Zephyr Teachout is now running for NY Attorney General.
— @subirgrewal