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Cuomo touted as a better Senate pick than Kennedy

BY ELIZABETH MOORE | john.valenti@newsday.com

7:21 PM EST, January 11, 2009

Well, what about Andrew Cuomo?

With Caroline Kennedy stumbling in her debut performance as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's replacement-in-waiting, some are asking why Gov. David A. Paterson wouldn't pick New York's attorney general for Clinton's seat after she is named secretary of state.

After all, a new poll this week found Cuomo far more popular than Kennedy, following her widely panned interviews and "listening tour," and a stronger candidate in a contest with Republican Rep. Peter King.

Most Democrats willing to make a prediction still bet on Kennedy. But as the one person on everyone's short list who has studiously played it cool in public, even as others hired consultants and met mayors, Cuomo has his fans.

"Smart people are saying, 'why not?' " contends veteran operative Hank Sheinkopf. He will only rate Cuomo's chances "not impossible," but thinks he's worth a second look because of the boost he could give Paterson in 2010, when he must win statewide for the first time since taking over from the disgraced Eliot Spitzer.

Cuomo, says Scheinkopf, "has proven he can win statewide races. She's never done any such thing. The governor needs less risk - he needs to win."

Most local Democrats agree Cuomo is the only one of the bunch of the possible candidates with stature to rival Kennedy's. More cynical observers note appointing him would relieve Paterson of a potential primary rival, a concern given the state's fiscal peril.

The scion of three-term former Gov. Mario Cuomo got his start in politics as an enforcer for his father, communicating the governor's wishes in a style Democrats recall with resentment decades later.

Appointed as secretary of housing and urban development by President Bill Clinton, Cuomo took over an agency so scandal-ridden it was eyed for elimination, and "was able to pull HUD out of its funk," recalls former Nassau housing commissioner Donald Campbell, a Republican.

Cuomo entered the glamour stratosphere when he married Caroline Kennedy's cousin Kerry, a dynastic merger the wags called "Cuomolot." But when he returned to New York in 2002 seeking to beat party favorite Carl McCall for the governorship, Cuomo found his renown came with a double edge. After a series of tactless jabs at McCall and former Gov. George Pataki, Cuomo's early lead in polls and fundraising plummeted, and he dropped out before the primary.

His marriage ended the following year after he learned his wife was having an affair.

But a kinder, gentler Andrew Cuomo has emerged since his election as attorney general in 2006, one who has won higher marks for playing well with others and has turned his trademark intensity toward meat-and-potatoes local cases as well as the kind of innovative national reforms Eliot Spitzer perfected. Those include initiatives to clean up the student loan business, combat child pornography on the Internet and tighten mortgage lending. Polls indicate voters like what they see.

But Paterson's compelling reasons to pass on Cuomo have little to do with his record.

Appointee glut: Come January, three top statewide offices - governor, comptroller and U.S. senator - will be held by someone not elected to that job. Appointing Cuomo to Clinton's seat would create yet another vacancy, setting off yet another political scramble.

"This is all about what helps the ticket in 2010," said Nassau Democratic leader Jay Jacobs. "And as of today, Andrew Cuomo is on the ticket."

Demographics: Cuomo has the misfortune to be a white guy from Manhattan at a time when upstaters are grumbling that too much power is centered in the city - and Clinton's trailblazing tenure has made it politically difficult to replace her with a man.

Long memories: Buffalo's Democratic Assemb. Sam Hoyt, a friend, calls Cuomo "a changed man," who turned his setbacks into growth experiences. Others worry that this may not matter.

"I think Andrew has done a great job in the last three or four years changing people's view of him as aggressive and ruthless," said another friend. "But I always think in the back of their minds people are a little concerned, 'is this the real Andrew we're seeing now?' "

Supposing Paterson were willing to ignore Kennedy's friendship with Obama and the billions this might help unlock for New York, would he really want to pick her cousin's ex?

"That would be like a double slap at the Kennedys," notes one Democrat.