Cuomo Said to Have $16 Million to Oust N.y. Governor Paterson
Cuomo, 51, also a Democrat, has hired five professional fundraisers since January and has set a goal of taking in $20 million by Jan. 15, a person familiar with his plans said. He had amassed more than $10 million in campaign funds as of July, according to the state Board of Elections.
“Twenty million dollars — thats the number that gets you in the door, and it will probably dwarf what Paterson has available,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Manhattan-based political consultant who ran statewide campaigns for H. Carl McCall in the 2006 governors race and for Eliot Spitzer in 1998 in his state attorney general contest.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has decided not to run for governor, according to a person familiar with his plans. That makes it more difficult for Cuomo to argue Paterson should step aside, as White House officials had asked him to. Paterson, 55, was under pressure not to run, partly because polls showed he would lose to Giuliani, an unsuccessful GOP presidential candidate in 2008.
A Nov. 16 Siena Research Institute poll showed Giuliani beating Paterson in a governors race, 56 percent to 33 percent. The poll showed Cuomo would beat Paterson, 75 percent to 16 percent in a primary election. The survey of 800 voters had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Patersons Unpopularity
“I have a hard time seeing Paterson survive a Democratic primary challenge if he had to face one from Cuomo,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a political science professor at Hunter College in Manhattan. “I dont think Patersons unpopularity can turn around that easily.”
The Democrats gubernatorial nominee may affect the success of other politicians on the ticket, including those running for the Legislature, which will determine new boundaries for U.S. congressional districts based on the 2010 census. The next governor will also take the lead in solving the states deficit, now estimated at $10 billion through March 2011, through spending cuts or tax increases.
“Theres a lot at stake nationally here,” said Douglas Muzzio, a professor of urban politics at Baruch College in Manhattan. “A disaster at the top of the ticket could bring some of them down.”
Voters also will pick candidates for two U.S. Senate seats and for the offices of state comptroller and attorney general.
By March
Cuomo, who was a U.S. Housing & Urban Development secretary under President Bill Clinton, intends to announce his candidacy by the end of March, according to two friends who described private conversations with him this month and last and asked not to be identified because the talks were confidential.
In an e-mailed statement released through Richard Bamberger, a spokesman for the attorney generals office, Cuomo declined to discuss his political intentions for 2010.
“The attorney general has been clear that his focus remains doing the best job possible for the people of New York as attorney general,” Bamberger wrote. “Next year is an election year, and hell deal with the politics then.”
Jennifer Bayer, one of Cuomos fundraisers, denied there was a plan to run for governor.
“The only discussion there has ever been is about an attorney general campaign,” she said in an e-mail.
Patersons Funds
Patersons funds total about $5 million, said Richard Fife, his campaign manager. “We will have all the money we will need to win this race.”
The governor began advertising on television in early November, Fife said in a phone interview.