Cuomo: Proud to be a 'career politician'

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is "proud" to be a "career politician," he told about 200 Democratic Party loyalists gathered to hear him endorse embattled state Sen. Brian X. Foley in downtown Patchogue Saturday.

The endorsement, Cuomo's first for the closely divided Senate, was held at the same spot where Foley's father, former Legis. John J. Foley, once rallied with Cuomo's father, Mario, at the very same point on Main Street in another governor's race 28 years ago.

"I also come from a family of career politicians, I'm proud to say - people who are dedicated to public service, they are dedicated to helping," Cuomo said.

The endorsement comes as polls show Cuomo with a wide lead over his first-time candidate opponent, Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino. Some surveys have shown voters think Cuomo's experience as an Albany insider would make him more effective than Paladino.

But Foley's Republican opponent, attorney Lee Zeldin, has capitalized on anti-incumbent anger and unrest over Foley's vote for an MTA payroll tax. Zeldin was running neck-and-neck with Foley in a recent Siena poll.

Placard-waving Zeldin partisans, including one in a squirrel costume, crowded the streets outside during the event, and a Zeldin campaign bus cruised past Foley's campaign office during the rally. "Foley Tax Hikes are Nuts," the squirrel's sign read.

"You hear the term these days, 'career politicians,' " Foley's sister, Patricia Kuhn of Sayville, said in introducing Cuomo, loading the phrase with contempt. A better way to describe her brother, Kuhn said, was with the phrase their mother used to use about their father: "He was a true public servant."

But Cuomo wasn't embarrassed by the term.

"Career politician," Cuomo said. "Meaning: They believe in it, and they stick with it, and they learn about it, and they develop their skill over time.

"My father and your father were good friends and career politicians together," Cuomo told the Blue Point Democrat. "I would say they did pretty well and they left a good legacy."