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Home Front: Politix
Andrew Cuomo: From Horror on the Hudson to Democrats' chosen son
2009-09-28
Puff piece on the heir apparent...
Andrew Mark Cuomo was born one of five children to Mario and Matilda Cuomo in Holliswood, Queens, and attended St. Gerard's School and Archbishop Molloy High School. He graduated from Fordham University in 1979 and Albany Law School in 1982.

While working at a gas station, he developed a love of cars that still exists - a 1975 blue Corvette he rebuilt in college remains a prized possession.

"It was a dirty campaign, no question," Koch said. "I've called him [Andrew] on it, and he's apologized for not having done enough to stop it."
In 1977, he ran his father's failed mayoral campaign, which was marred by tawdry tactics. "It was a dirty campaign, no question," Koch said. "I've called him [Andrew] on it, and he's apologized for not having done enough to stop it."

Cuomo helped get his father elected governor in 1982, and served as his top adviser, earning $1 a year.

In 1984, he left for the DA's office, then quit the next year to join the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone & Miller. One of the partners, Lucille Falcone, was close to Cuomo and was a fund-raiser for Gov. Cuomo.

In 1988, he left to work full-time for HELP, a nonprofit group he created to build housing for the homeless. "HELP was a bridge between where he was and where he was going," said Robert Hayes, a top advocate for the city's homeless in the 1980s. "There were skeptics when he came into the world of helping the homeless, bad stories about his law firm," Hayes said. "But he brought brashness and muscle into his work, and when he reached out to me I found him instantly to be an ally I wanted." Hayes believes that since then, "He has softened dramatically."

Cuomo advised David Dinkins when Dinkins beat Rudy Giuliani for mayor in 1989, and there was mudslinging in that race too.

That same year, Cuomo and a colleague drove a Winnebago camper throughout the nation to explore homelessness, from Baltimore to Tucson.

In 1990, he became engaged to Kerry Kennedy - a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy - in a union dubbed the merger of two American political dynasties.
In 1990, he became engaged to Kerry Kennedy - a daughter of Robert F. Kennedy - in a union dubbed the merger of two American political dynasties.

Dinkins and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. were at his bachelor party at the East Side Irish bar where Cuomo regularly hung out with reporters and public relations execs. Their marriage provided such fodder as the fact that the Kennedy-Cuomo household was furnished with Porthault bed sheets that cost $20,000 a set.

The marriage produced three daughters the couple doted on. "He is totally devoted to them," said Lawsky, who said Cuomo was leaving his office that afternoon to watch Cara in a field hockey game.

Cuomo was former President Bill Clinton's secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Cuomo was former President Bill Clinton's secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cynics have said HELP was a springboard to the federal post, but even if Cuomo's motives were Machiavellian, "he produced good works," Hayes said.

In 2002, Cuomo became a political pariah after he took on Carl McCall, the state controller who was seeking to become New York's first black governor. In a major misstep, he criticized then-Gov. George Pataki by saying Pataki simply "held [Rudy Giuliani's] coat" after the 9/11 attacks. Cuomo quit the race five months later.

Then, in June 2003, Cuomo discovered his wife was having an affair with a playboy polo player named Bruce Colley.
Then, in June 2003, Cuomo discovered his wife was having an affair with a playboy polo player named Bruce Colley. Kennedy issued a bland statement that they were separating, saying it was "amicable," but Cuomo's lawyer told the press he "was betrayed and saddened by his wife's conduct during their marriage."

There was a media frenzy about the other man that kept the tabloids sizzling all summer. "He went through tough times, personally and in his career," Lawsky said. "He was staring into the abyss."

That's when Cuomo hooked up with a group seeking to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws.
That's when Cuomo hooked up with a group seeking to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws. "Andrew took the Rockefeller movement to a new level," said Randy Credico, a political comedian and co-founder of Mothers of the New York Disappeared. "He played a major role in their eventual changes, which is one reason why he is so popular in the black and Latino community.

"He has evolved tremendously. He's Italian, like me, and we have major tempers, and they flared on strategy ...But it's night and day; he's calm, cool and collected."

Cuomo rebuilt his relationships with political leaders, many of whom endorsed him for attorney general in 2006.
Even his wife's former lover, Colley, said he was a great candidate.
Even his wife's former lover, Colley, said he was a great candidate.

He has found companionship with Sandra Lee, a striking blond on the Food Network, for the last four years. He finds solitude fishing on his small boat off the Hamptons.
He's spent the last year getting back to the basics of politics: visiting every corner of the state to attend fairs and fund-raisers and meet hundreds of key state and local elected officials. "Now he has success on his own," Sheinkopf said. "He's made a name for himself by staying out of politics," and by making cases on less-sexy topics of student loans and pension fraud.

He has found companionship with Sandra Lee, a striking blond on the Food Network, for the last four years. He finds solitude fishing on his small boat off the Hamptons.

But he couldn't hold back a smile last Monday when Obama paid homage to Cuomo's old rep when, tongue-in-cheek, he introduced him as the "shy and retiring" attorney general.
Posted by:Fred

#4  He finds solitude fishing on his small boat off the Hamptons.


And now he wants to be captain of the Titanic.
Posted by: DoDo   2009-09-28 18:40  

#3  "He has found companionship with Sandra Lee, a striking blond on the Food Network"

I'll never look at Semi-Homemade the same way again....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-09-28 16:05  

#2  I, for one, just sympathize like crazy with a poor fellow whose wife took up with a polo player and spends his time in dignified silence on his boat off the Hamptons with nothing but a few bottles of Tattinger '69 and a blond named Sandra for company.

Reminds me how tough life can be. I should thank Dog ever day my life didn't turn out like his.
Posted by: Fred   2009-09-28 15:29  

#1  sadly, that is a puff piece.
Posted by: Jumbo Slinerong5015   2009-09-28 11:54  

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