YOU GOTTA BE IN IT TO WIN IT
September 6, 2002

By Henry J. Stern

    The withdrawal of Andrew Cuomo from the race for the Democratic nomination for Governor is most unusual.  Normally, elections are decided at the polls, by the voters.   This election appears to have been decided by the polls, which indicated a widening lead for State Comptroller Carl McCall.
    This is an unsatisfying and undemocratic way for a political campaign to end.  It is the equivalent of the manager of a baseball team coming out in the seventh inning and saying he does not want to play any more, because the other team is too far ahead.  That is a childish thing to do.  The fans are entitled to a complete game, the players on either side should have the full chance to do their best, and what about ninth-inning rallies.
    It also denigrates McCall’s projected victory, because every Cuomo vote will be seen as a repudiation of McCall’s candidacy, showing that there are people who would not vote for him even if his opponent withdrew. You can’t knock out an empty balloon.  Meanwhile, young Cuomo travels the state, speaking as if he were above the fray.
    New Yorkers have been skeptical of Cuomo’s candidacy for many reasons.  One was his use of endorsements by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Martin Luther King III and Adam Clayton Powell IV.  It looks too much like Louis XIV.
    As for belittling Governor Pataki as a mere coat-holder for Mayor Giuliani at 9-11, which Andrew not only said but expanded upon in later press appearances, it will be remembered along with Jesse Jackson’s unfortunate picturesque description of New York as Hymietown.  That led to Ed Koch saying that Jews would have to be crazy to vote for Jesse Jackson.  Koch’s remark was poorly received, in part because of political propriety, which requires that some truths not be spoken.
    But these episodes are minor compared with the experience of James G. Blaine in 1884.  At an event he attended in his campaign against New York Governor Grover Cleveland for the Presidency, a Protestant minister, one Rev. Burchard, attacked the Democratic Party as the party of  “rum, Romanism and rebellion.”  Blaine did not say those words, he simply heard them without protest, but he was widely denounced for anti-Catholicism. Cleveland narrowly carried New York State and, with it, the election.
     The September 10 primary does not determine who will win the general election, nor does it even settle matters between McCall and Cuomo, because each will remain on the ballot, McCall as the Working Families Party candidate, and Cuomo on the Liberal line.  Now the Liberal Party is small, and not well financed.     Yet, by one of those historical coincidences, a similar situation occurred in the l977 mayoral primary in New York City.  Ed Koch was the Democratic Party candidate, winning the primary and the runoff.  The Liberal Party candidate proceeded to contest the general election, and in an intense campaign, he won 38 per cent of the vote, comparable to Koch’s 52%.  The  Republican nominee, Roy Goodman, and the Conservative, each received 4% (sic).
    That 1977 Liberal Party mayoral candidate, 25 years (or one generation) ago was, of course, Mario Cuomo.  Rather than being rejected by the Democrats for his race against the party nominee, chosen in a contested primary, the senior Cuomo went on to become New York State’s secretary of state, lieutenant governor, and then a three-term governor.
     We have no idea, of course, what will happen in the next eight and a half weeks.  Who can foresee what the candidates will say, wise or foolish.  Who can tell what role the Clintons, McCall’s most recent supporters, will play in the campaign.  I would predict extensive coverage of their activities, overshadowing the candidates.  No election is determined until the votes are counted.  And, as we learned from Florida, even that may be too soon.
    It is possible, although not certain, that the polls will tell us in advance who will win on November 5.  In that case, unable to determine the outcome by their votes, people may use a different calculus.  Who should be rewarded, who should be rebuked ?  Since the next governor will face fiscal disaster in 2003, there may be an incentive to vote for the candidate least likely to be elected, since then you will not be responsible for the tax increases and service cuts that are almost certainly going to take place next year.
    It is almost as much fun watching politics as being in it.  That is, of course, if you have the bug, which, as President Truman said, stops here.

(New York Civic does not support or endorse candidates for public office.  This column is intended for the historic edification of its readers, and no one should intuit any preference or distaste for any particular individual or political party.)

L' shana tova, and best wishes for the new year.
 
 

Henry J. Stern is the director of NYCivic.