Published: September 24, 2016
Publication: New York Post
By Aaron Short and Kirstan Conley
Disaffected Democrats furious with Gov. Cuomo after nine of his friends and donors were ensnared in a sprawling federal corruption scandal last week say they plan to run him out of office.
More than four dozen progressive leaders met in Albany on Saturday to launch a statewide organization aimed at moving the Democratic Party leftward and building support for a candidate to oppose Cuomo in 2018.
“Taking over the Democratic Party and pushing Cuomo out the door is a major reason we are pushing this forward today,” said attorney Arthur Schwartz, who organized the powwow.
Cuomo said he was unaware of the bribery scheme unfolding around him and “saddened and profoundly disappointed” by the allegations.
But Schwartz says the charges were not a surprise.
“The governor runs a one-man ship, with intimidation and fear at the center,” said Schwartz, a Greenwich Village Democratic Party leader and Bernie Sanders delegate. “Undemocratic rule engenders corruption. It is time for the governor and his cronies to go.”
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi wasn’t impressed.
“This is a failed assembly candidate who doesn’t know what he’s talking about and who doesn’t speak for anyone but himself,” he said.”Governor Cuomo passed the nation’s first $15 min wage law and the country’s strongest paid family leave legislation–accomplishments Senator Sanders himself hailed and urged the nation to follow.”