Gov. Andrew Cuomo was ceremonially sworn in for a third term on Tuesday at Ellis Island, in a speech that was both nationally focused and concerned with an ambitious agenda in New York. Here are three takeaways from the address as Cuomo begins term three:
Trump Remains A Punching Bag
There was a time, not long ago, that Cuomo was hesitant in attacking Trump by name, choosing instead to criticize Republicans in Washington writ large. That change last year as the campaign season heated up and Trump’s approval rating in New York, especially with Democrats, was abysmally low. Trump will remain a convenient foil for Cuomo through 2019 as he now as no real Republican opponents here at home. Senate Republicans are out of power in Albany and Democrats control all branches of the Legislature. And now Cuomo is playing nice with his fellow Democrat and rival, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, an alliance forged out of a shared support for the Amazon deal in Long Island City. Trump remains an especially useful opponent given that he appears to understand the politics surrounding Cuomo’s rhetoric. Cuomo met with the president at the end of last year to discuss funding for the Gateway Tunnel project. Asked about Cuomo’s criticism, Trump reportedly brushed it off.
Cuomo Has Problems With Fellow Democrats
Yes, the feud with de Blasio has been switched from “kill” to “get along.” But in the Legislature itself, there are brewing problems for the governor. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins both skipped the inauguration ceremony. Heastie has remained vocally dissatisfied with the strings attached to the legislative pay raise that includes caps on outside income, an end to stipends for most leadership posts and future phase ins are tied to on-time budget approvals. Heastie’s spokesman during the governor’s address went as far as to provide running criticisms of Cuomo on Twitter. And both Stewart-Cousins and Heastie have signaled they are ready to work in an alliance, perhaps similar to the partnership of Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver, when it comes to dealing with the hard-nosed Cuomo. As for the governor, he is pointing to his mandate, a landslide third term win in November, as well as the menu of bills that unite Democrats. One party rule can be viciously personal (just see the last time it happened in Albany 10 years ago), but Cuomo is counting on business overriding personal imperatives.
Cuomo Is Thinking Nationally
He may not be running for president, but Cuomo increasingly sees himself as someone with a national platform. The governor dislikes traveling out of the state and avoids the Sunday political chat shows. But he is now one of the longest tenured governors in the country, with prominent leadership roles at the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association. His address spoke to the national unease at the moment and the social upheaval of the last decade. If the $10 billion budget gap he faced in 2011 was an acute challenge, the “social depression” in 2019 is a more obtuse and complicated thing to tackle. Cuomo wants the center, such as it is, to hold in New York state government. Cuomo’s critics have compared him to Trump at times, but really where the two men differ is on a philosophy about government and order. Trump seems to revel in chaos. Cuomo shuns it.