Molinaro cites Mario Cuomo's defeat in bid for upset in governor's race

COLONIE – Gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro invoked a legendary political upset and asked voters Sunday to put “party politics aside” once more and oust another Cuomo from office on Election Day.

Molinaro, the Republican candidate challenging Democrat Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, touted himself as a candidate more focused on being a “problem solver” than a partisan ideologue.

He told supporters at a rally here they can stun the political world as George Pataki did in 1994 when he defeated then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, the current governor's father.

Pataki, then a little-known Republican state senator, “told you to believe again,” Molinaro said. “He told you and I tell you today to believe in yourselves … You can finally give us a state we can believe in again and a state government we can trust again.”

About 200 supporters gathered at a hotel ballroom, one of about 20 stops Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, will make during a final barnstorm of the state before Election Day on Tuesday. Other Molinaro campaigners bashed the incumbent as “Angry Andy” and urged voters to “rescue us from another Cuomo.”

“In 1994, we showed another Cuomo the door,” Assemb. Chris Tague (R-Schoharie) said. “Let’s do the same!”

Molinaro has been trailing Cuomo by more than 20 percentage points in most polls throughout the race. However, a new Siena College survey published Sunday reported Cuomo’s lead is down to 13 points.

Molinaro urged the crowd to talk to the “server at the diner, the fellow at the gas station, the cashier at the grocery store” over the final two days of the campaign.

“Tell them if they vote their interests, if they vote their community, if they put party politics aside and focus on the future, the problem solvers will win on Nov. 6,” the Republican said. “They have been telling you we can’t win. But I’ll tell you this: We can win.”

Sporting a lapel pin of the cartoon character “Underdog,” Molinaro said: “The underdog always wins. The underdog always works harder.”

The Cuomo campaign didn’t  comment Sunday, noting the governor was slated to hold his own campaign rally in Hauppauge later in the afternoon. At that rally, Cuomo did not mention the governor's race or Molinaro but focused on Democratic themes in general and other races.

Molinaro, 43, a former state assemblyman and a village mayor at 19, has sought to cast himself as an “everyman” who doesn’t focus on partisan politics. On the campaign trail, he frequently tells the story of growing up on food stamps and attending community college, and contends he’s in tune with struggles of “ordinary New Yorkers.” It is part of his effort to overcome Democrats’ better than 2-to-1 enrollment advantage in New York and Cuomo’s fundraising dominance.

Cuomo has tried to paint Molinaro as an “acolyte” of Republican President Donald Trump and tag him with some of the same labels that make Trump unpopular in New York: Anti-abortion rights, anti-gay and lesbian rights, and anti-gun control. A Cuomo campaign aide downplayed any correlation with the Republicans' 1994 upset, saying circumstances now are very different.

 "Pataki was pro-choice, pro-assault weapons ban and outraised Mario Cuomo in a Republican wave year. Otherwise, exactly the same," Abbey Collins said. 

Supporters Sunday focused on Molinaro and the state’s finances and economy.

“I think he truly cares about upstate,” said Stephanie Herrick of Castleton, just southeast of Albany across the Hudson River. “He’ll rein in spending and control taxes.”