Reflections about a Genuine New York Governor

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I began my career as a capital reporter in 1978 while I was a college student at the University at Albany, known as SUNYA then. My first interview was March of that year with Governor Nelson Rockefeller, at the ribbon-cutting of the completion of the Empire State Plaza.

Moving into his third floor office adjacent to the state Senate chamber, the following year was Lt. Governor Mario Cuomo. Lisa Vecchio, Cuomo’s niece, worked with me in the newsroom at the college radio station, WCDB. Lisa often talked to me about her uncle who wanted to achieve greater heights in politics. So as a young intrepid reporter I did everything I could to get close to the relatively-unknown Mario Cuomo.

One of Cuomo’s top assistants in his Lt. Governor’s office was Linda Fischer. I bonded with Linda and we became quick friends and gave me unprecedented access to the governor. I didn’t know Cuomo’s son, Andrew came along with the package. Andrew was in law school and lived with his father in the penthouse of the now-defunct Wellington Hotel on State Street in the shadows of the State Capitol in Albany.

As time moved on it became apparent that Lt. Governor Mario Cuomo wanted to unseat the man who brought him to the table, Governor Hugh Carey. Cuomo was frustrated as he felt his talents were being underutilized by Carey.

One night in 1982, Cuomo was in his office with his secretary. The two encountered a bat late at night. The governor picked up whatever was nearest to him, a baseball bat, and swung for the bat. Reporters said Cuomo had bats in his belfry and was getting batty working for Carey. The jokes were endless.

However, something more sinister and illegal was occurring at the same time. Cuomo’s chief of staff, William Cabin, was caught padding the Lt. Governor’s state payroll with six of the 39 employees who never existed. Cuomo called a news conference in the Senate lobby and announced Cabin was “caught, canned and convicted” of the crimes he committed. It was always mind-boggling how Cuomo, who paid attention to every detail did not know about six employees he signed payroll vouchers for but never heard from them and never saw any work production from these six.

Cuomo was in a heated battle for his political life against New York City Mayor Ed Koch for the Democratic Party primary in September 1982. Koch was defeating Cuomo in every poll until an article in Playboy quoted Koch with disparaging remarks towards upstate New York residents. At that point the tide had changed. Cuomo’s political team was only focused on beating Koch and all but ignored his general election opponent Republican Lew Lehrman, who I also covered on the stump. I had an endless amount of energy then.

When Cuomo upset Koch and won the primary, Cuomo’s team was looking for Lehrman’s speeches to learn how to counter his arguments. I was approached by Linda Fischer to turn over my cassette tapes of Lehrman’s speeches. I asked if Linda could arrange for me to get a job with the Cuomo administration. I turned over to Linda nine tapes of Lehrman’s speeches. She gave them to the campaign team, which was led by Andrew Cuomo. While the job never materialized, Mario Cuomo did a lot for my career as a journalist.

I would always remember the banter and repartee we shared during his 12 years in office. More on these and other remembrances in other posts on this website.