Andrew Cuomo Legacy: Builder & Destroyer

Andrew Cuomo’s sleaziness, mendacity, and entitlement created so many scandals that the one that actually brought his downfall — repeatedly groping women in and around the office — was not nearly the most important among them. But Cuomo can also take credit for some major accomplishments, and he was New York’s most consequential governor in generations. When he was widely regarded as young, green, and trading on his father’s three terms as governor, Cuomo flamed out spectacularly in his first bid to succeed Mario as the suzerain of Albany in 2002, when he was outclassed by the much more senior fellow Democrat Carl McCall. McCall, who would have been the first black governor of New York, went on to lose (as Cuomo’s father, Mario, had) to Republican George Pataki while Cuomo regrouped and paid his dues. First, in 2006, he was elected state attorney general, succeeding Eliot Spitzer when Spitzer became governor. After a comical series of scandals that took out first Spitzer (in 2008), then Spitzer’s lieutenant governor and successor David Paterson (who declined to run for election after finishing Spitzer’s term), Cuomo had no serious competition when he finally ran again in 2010.

It was when he was running for reelection in 2014 that his famous, weird, but often fortuitous feud with New York City mayor Bill de Blasio began; after the two appeared to be allies for that year, which was de Blasio’s first in office, Cuomo turned bitterly against de Blasio. Cuomo blocked de Blasio’s plan to increase taxes on the richest New Yorkers in order to fund pre-K. He opposed de Blasio’s push for a $15 minimum wage. He nixed de Blasio’s plan to mandate a five-cent charge on plastic bags. Later he reversed himself on all of these positions, proving his principles were flexible. But most thrilling, Cuomo ardently backed charter schools, which Governor Pataki had created in the state in 1998 with an eye on improving the woeful state of public schools in New York City. De Blasio would have crushed the charters if he could have; Cuomo vastly expanded them, and today more than 100,000 of New York City’s roughly 1.1 million public-school pupils are enrolled in charters.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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Andrew Cuomo

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Andrew Cuomo’s sleaziness, mendacity, and entitlement created so many scandals that the one that actually brought his downfall — repeatedly groping women in and around the office — was not nearly the most important among them. But Cuomo can also take credit for some major accomplishments, and he was New York’s most consequential governor in generations. When he was widely regarded as young, green, and trading on his father’s three terms as governor, Cuomo flamed out spectacularly in his first bid to succeed Mario as the suzerain of Albany in 2002, when he was outclassed by the much more senior fellow Democrat Carl McCall. McCall, who would have been the first black governor of New York, went on to lose (as Cuomo’s father, Mario, had) to Republican George Pataki while Cuomo regrouped and paid his dues. First, in 2006, he was elected state attorney general, succeeding Eliot Spitzer when Spitzer became governor. After a comical series of scandals that took out first Spitzer (in 2008), then Spitzer’s lieutenant governor and successor David Paterson (who declined to run for election after finishing Spitzer’s term), Cuomo had no serious competition when he finally ran again in 2010.

It was when he was running for reelection in 2014 that his famous, weird, but often fortuitous feud with New York City mayor Bill de Blasio began; after the two appeared to be allies for that year, which was de Blasio’s first in office, Cuomo turned bitterly against de Blasio. Cuomo blocked de Blasio’s plan to increase taxes on the richest New Yorkers in order to fund pre-K. He opposed de Blasio’s push for a $15 minimum wage. He nixed de Blasio’s plan to mandate a five-cent charge on plastic bags. Later he reversed himself on all of these positions, proving his principles were flexible. But most thrilling, Cuomo ardently backed charter schools, which Governor Pataki had created in the state in 1998 with an eye on improving the woeful state of public schools in New York City. De Blasio would have crushed the charters if he could have; Cuomo vastly expanded them, and today more than 100,000 of New York City’s roughly 1.1 million public-school pupils are enrolled in charters.