Cuomo had a secret re-election ‘pact’ with Republicans
The state’s most powerful Republican secretly worked for months to help Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo win re-election — in exchange for Cuomo’s promise not to aid Senate Democrats in their Long Island races, a top New York GOP leader has charged.
We here at GraniteGrok get excoriated all the time by Establishment Republicans for supporting the NH GOP Platform, our Constitutions, and the values espoused therein. Clearly there have been Republicans that we have not supported, but we would not do what this Republican did – or Doug Scammon (short version: conspired with Democrats to become the NH Speaker of the House years ago). This disturbing story out of NY continues (reformatted, emphasis mine):
“Former state Republican Party Executive Director Michael Lawler — who managed Rob Astorino’s ill-fated gubernatorial run against Cuomo — told The Post that he learned of the alleged bombshell deal between Senate GOP leader Dean Skelos and Cuomo just days ago, after suspecting for months that it existed. “Dean Skelos clearly was working against Rob’s campaign — he and the governor cut a deal,’’ seethed Lawler, a protégé of GOP Chairman Ed Cox. The Nassau County-based Skelos and his aides “fight for nothing, stand for nothing except staying in power,’’ Lawler charged.
Establishment Republicans – nothing else but Power is where its at….a Win for them, so it seems, is the attitude all over. But given this story, I’m not even sure that this Dean Skelos even rises to that low bar.
Lawler said he found out about the alleged Skelos-Cuomo arrangement from a top political aide to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, a Republican and Skelos ally who, in a serious setback to Astorino, endorsed Cuomo last month.
Gosh, I am just so surprised – this happens elsewhere and not just in NH?? Gobsmacked, I am. Double-crossed, he was – shades, again, of the NH Speaker of the House race??
“We heard rumblings that Mangano was going to [endorse Cuomo], and I reached out to his folks and was told ‘absolutely not,’ that Mangano would endorse Astorino, although he would then let Cuomo use a video of him praising the governor,’’ Lawler said. “But after Mangano actually endorsed Cuomo in a video on TV, I called Mangano’s guy and said, ‘What the f–k?’ He said, ‘When this is over, give me a call. “So I called him a few days ago, and he said, ‘A deal was cut for Mangano to endorse Cuomo in exchange for Cuomo staying out of the Senate races on Long Island,’ ’’ Lawler continued. “I asked him, ‘Who cut the deal?’ And he said, ‘People higher than me.’ “I said, ‘Dean?’ And he responded, ‘That would be a pretty good guess.’ ”
So, a double-double cross – shades of “the fix is in” and in the case, both ways! What is Cuomo trying to do – do to his Party what Obama did at the national level (er, destroy it, even in that deep blue state)?
Both GOP and Democratic sources had been speculating on the possibility for a while, noting that in the lead-up to last week’s election, Cuomo had been doing little to help his party win a majority in the Senate. If the governor made any appearance on behalf of a Democratic candidate on Long Island, it was a token in-and-out visit, with no follow-up and virtually no financial support, observers said. The GOP rout of Long Island Senate seats included Jack Martins’ win over Adam Haber, Tom Croci over Adrienne Esposito and Kemp Hannon over Ethan Irwin.
Sure, it’s politics, but this sure is (if true) an absolute proof that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Worse, for all of the verbal nonsense about business folks being corrupt and “greedy”, they have proven the point that politicians ARE GREEDIER than the capitalists they hate (except for their campaign donations, of course).
Lawler said he and others in Astorino’s camp saw repeated additional evidence that Skelos — a key Cuomo political ally on such controversial measures as gay marriage and the anti-gun Safe Act — wanted the governor re-elected. “We asked Dean numerous times to hold press conferences with Rob in Nassau in reference to Cuomo’s Moreland Commission scandal, in reference to Rob’s tax, jobs and education plans, on Cuomo’s taking $37.5 million from Sandy victims for his Start-Up NY ads,’’ Lawler said. “And each time, Dean or his people either refused our request or they just didn’t respond,’’ Lawler said.
Skelos spokeswoman Kelly Cummings called Lawler’s charges “totally false,’’ insisting that “Skelos supported Astorino’’ and contending that Mangano’s decision to back Cuomo “was his own.” A Cuomo spokesman also dismissed any deal between his boss and Skelos as a “delusion,” adding, “It’s wrong on the facts.” But Lawler noted that ironically, Skelos would likely become leader of the new Republican-led Senate because Astorino’s presence at the top of the ticket helped three upstate GOP challengers defeat Democratic incumbents. “The only reason Republicans will have a majority is because of Rob Astorino, who outperformed the governor in key areas including Monroe County and the Capital District, where we won,’’ Lawler said. “Senate Republicans worked against Rob tactically, but if it wasn’t for Rob providing a strong top of the ticket in these areas, those same Senate Republicans would not have won the majority,’’ he said.
And Senate Republican incumbents worked HARD against “the outsiders” in the primary here in NH (and gave piddling amounts of support to a number of first time runners in the General Election). And then they wonder why the activist base turns away their support from them? It is clear, from what I saw here in NH and from this story, the base has the RIGHT to both disparage and DISTRUST their leaders. The base doesn’t expect to win all the time but they expect a level playing field. It is clear that there is none.
Once again, I feel vindicated for wanting individuals to change their perception of the “voting paradigm” – it is the ONLY serious tool we have to hold those who believe they matter but not us, that winning for themselves is what the Party is for – and that they can take us for granted because of their “where else will they go?” attitude. “We OWN their votes – because PARTY!”
Instead, we all should value our votes as one of our most precious attributes in being American and NH Citizens (even as the Elite don’t care – look how little the NH GOP has fought the Voter Fraud issue highlighted by a small handful of volunteers). They run roughshod over our values, for what are values when compared to Power? Is it time for us, the base, to show for whom the Party really exists for? I will say that our John Stark for Governor and John Langdon was first done as a lark – but the more I thought and pondered about it, it showed the differences between the Party bosses and the base.
Imagine what might happen if we really got serious about this over the next two years?
I remember being told that if the TEA Party did section off from the GOP that we would never win here in – ever. I thought about that, and thought about how often razor thin margins determined the wins or loses in a lot of NH districts – that we only had to convince 0.5 to 1.5% of the vote. That gave rise to “we might not win, but you will surely lose”. Now this cycle, it is clear this was in play (yes, of course, it didn’t help that the two hand picked candidates so dissed the base and ran away from their values that it didn’t take much convincing.
You brought us upon yourselves. Perhaps a new game has started.
