On the steps of City Hall this afternoon, Andrew Cuomo unveiled a hokey-but-sly flier positioning him as the heir to Eliot Spitzer without actually mentioning Spitzer’s name.
His new literature features an old-fashioned shoe sizer in front of two black shoes and reads, “New York Democrats have taken measurements to fill some very big shoes.” Different versions of the fliers have been published targeting Democrats in Western New York, the Capital Region and Central New York. The New York City version includes Charlie Rangel, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson and Ed Koch — who, for those of you who may not know, is a former shoe salesman.
At the press conference, former AG candidate Charlie King was back at Cuomo’s side, intercepting tough questions and acting like a surrogate. It was King who stepped in when Cuomo was asked about Mark Green’s demand, made earlier in the day, for Cuomo to return $800,000 contributed by Andrew Farkas.
“Take the microphone,’ said Cuomo, who then stood by as King attacked Green as a negative campaigner and criticized contributions made by Green’s brother Stephen, a real estate developer who has business with the state.
When Cuomo was finally forced to respond to the substance of the Farkas question, he said the following.
“It’s a silly last minute, distortion,” he said. “There was a case at HUD 10 years ago, it was a case by the Dept of Justice…So obviously there is no situation by which, imaginable that I should return the money…The US Department of Justice brought the case.”
–Jason Horowitz
