Yet another unfavorite son, Opinion by George Fiala

I guess it’s time for my Andrew Cuomo stories, at least those from my eleven years at the Star-Revue.

Actually, let me start off with something I can say about his Dad, someone who I respected as America’s conscience, especially from his days as an analyst of the worst of the Bush years. It’s true that today he is criticized for the growth of the NY prison system, something I place in the category of nobody’s perfect.

Years before I began the Star-Revue, I was a staffer at the Brooklyn Phoenix, a noted downtown Brooklyn weekly paper that chronicled the rebirth of Brownstone Brooklyn.

Every spring, our fearless publisher, Mike Armstrong, took his large staff to the Spring Convention of the NY State Press Association, held in Albany, where we always won a lot of business and editorial awards.

At each convention, we were greeted by the current governor, in those years it was Mario Cuomo.

Father Cuomo always impressed with his eloquence and sincerity. He appeared both pretty smart and pretty cool, at least to me.

After his speech, he took as many questions as this disparate group of publishers could offer. The Press Association included weekly newspapers from all over the state, encompassing both dense urban cities and rural farmland. I couldn’t believe how much he knew about every subject – ranging from city transportation issues to farm supports.

I would have been happy to have voted for him for President, but for whatever reason he chose not to run, although he did think about it.

Andrew, his son, who he loved, has been anything but his dad. Instead of personable and knowledgable, I would call him crafty and vengeful.

My experience with him began with the Long Island College Hospital.

For over 150 years, Cobble Hill had a world-class hospital called LICH. One day word filtered down from Albany that LICH, which had been taken over by the state under the previous governor, David Patterson, was to be closed, replaced by luxury residential towers to be built by the Fortis Property Group, a private real estate developer.

At the time I didn’t think that Andrew could get away with closing such a storied, and needed institution. LICH served health needs for downtown Brooklyn, including Red Hook. We ran a series of stories trying to understand his motivations. I found that the godfather to one of his daughters had an interest in making the state more friendly to for-profit hospitals. While these are common in red states like Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, they are heavily restricted in blue states such as Vermont, Connecticut, and New York. One of Andrew’s close friends, the godfather, was Jeffrey Sachs, a healthcare lobbyist whose clients included LICH competitor Brooklyn Hospital.

Cuomo was undoubtedly already thinking of a presidential run in 2016 and closing a money-losing hospital would both serve his conservative creds as well as helping out his buddy.

To do his dirty work he enlisted Carl McCall, who he had appointed head of the SUNY Downstate Medical System, which ran LICH. McCall was a respected African-American leader who at one time led an unsuccessful fight to save Sydenham Hospital in Harlem. At various times he was a State Senator, president of the NYC Board of Education, and NY State Comptroller. In 2002 he was seen to have a good chance to defeat George Pataki and become the Governor.

He was not expected to have a primary race, but then Andrew Cuomo entered the race. It was a bitterly fought primary, in which McCall was polling ahead when just a few days before the election, Cuomo, not wanting to lose, withdrew. The NY Times characterized it thusly at the time:

“It was a spectacular humiliation for a man who had entered the race in defiance of party leaders, and had proceeded to act the role of rebellious outsider. In the end, his decision to leave the race was a first step toward making peace with those same party leaders.”

McCall blamed his subsequent defea to Pataki on Cuomo, saying that the primary race depleted him of resources that he needed in the November race. For years after his antipathy toward Cuomo was quite public.

After his defeat, McCall returned to the private sector for his income, setting up a hedge fund.

In 2006, Cuomo ran for and won the race for  NYS Attorney General. Already planning a 2010 gubernatorial race, Cuomo knew that he needed Black support, meaning Carl McCall.

As Attorney General, Cuomo investigated the NYS Pension system for corruption. In 2009, subpoenas were sent to a number of firms who had done business with the State. One of those was Convent Capital, McCall’s firm.

Convent was never charged, and shortly after, McCall was publicly supporting Cuomo, who became governor in 2010.

The next year, Cuomo made McCall the  Chairman of SUNY Downstate, and a short time later LICH was given the axe.

Just about every local politician joined the Cobble Hill protests to save the hospital. At one of those, I asked Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who had served on the Cuomo transition team, whether she had tried to reason with Andrew. She told me that he was refusing to take her calls, or anybody’s else’s on the matter.

The Cobble Hill Association found a lawyer to fight the closing – Jim Walden, of the firm Gibson Dunn. Under his guidance, a community plan was crafted to try and maintain a hospital on the site. The plan ultimatelyfailed, the state got it’s way, and the lofty towers are currently under construction. By the way, Eric Adams, who during this period transferred from State Senator to Borough President, did all he could to enable the governor.

That was my introduction to Mario’s son.

PS – Last week Cuomo’s legal team held a press conference responding to the Attorney General’s report, and my eyes widened when I saw who the lawyers were. One of the mouthpieces was a lawyer representing the firm of Walden, Macht & Haran, LLP, the law firm set up by Jim Walden right after his work with LICH.

Epilogue: Just as I finished writing this, Cuomo took to the airwaves to announce his resignation.

But not before he, the great proponent of women’s rights, who set up the Women’s Equality Party in 2014, so voters would mix them up with the WFP and hopefully deprive them of their ballot position next time, claimed he was unaware of how women’s rights had changed. Then, after saying that the state is bigger than him, he listed all of what he considers his great achievements as governor.

Instead of resigning, he said he would ‘step aside’, but granted himself two more weeks in power, probably to get some last minute favors done for those he thinks might get him elected President in 2024.