Among the contributors that helped Andrew Cuomo amass a $16 million war chest, one has an outsize importance.

On July 16 of last year, a $4,000 contribution was given to Cuomo 2010 by "The News Corporation," which listed an address as Wayzata, Minnesota.

That's the same name as the New York-based media company owned by Rupert Murdoch, which publishes The New York Post--no passive observer of New York politics, and generally well-disposed on its opinion pages toward Cuomo--and the Wall Street Journal, and also owns the Fox television network.

A spokesman for the New York-based News Corp later confirmed that the $4,000 contribution to Cuomo 2010 was indeed from them