Astorino: Cuomo At Center Of Albany Corruption

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I've covered this story many times - Sheriff Andy Cuomo claims he rode into Albany to clean up the corruption but nobody - nobody - is dirtier than Cuomo in Albany.

The Astorino campaign hammered that point home yesterday:

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo received $2.7 million in donations since 2010 from companies that have received a combined $7.2 billion in state contracts, his Republican opponent charged Wednesday.

Rob Astorino's campaign released a 100-page document detailing companies that gave money to Cuomo while also having business before the state.

Astorino said the numbers show that Cuomo not only didn't crack down on Albany's pay-to-play culture like he promised, but took it to historic new levels.

"This perfectly illustrates Mr. Cuomo's modus operandi," Astorino, the Westchester County executive, said. "He promises to do what the voters most want; then when the camera lights go dark he turns around and does the exact opposite. Mr. Cuomo has played New York reformers for fools, whether they be from the political left, right or center.

Back on September 4th when the Daily News reported that Cuomo took $1.25 million from companies that won state development grants, I posted the following:

 Sheriff Andy Cuomo likes to make believe like he rode into Albany to clean up the corruption in the state capital.

Nothing like taking a bunch of money from donors, then handing them millions of dollars in state grants for cleaning up Albany, eh?

Kinda like taking money from REBNY, then handing out $35 million in tax breaks to the real estate industry.

Or taking a couple of million from overseas gambling consortia, then expanding legalized gambling around the state.

Or taking $800K from charter school operators, then forcing NYC to pay charter school rents in perpetuity.

Or taking hundreds of thousands from Hollywood producers, then handing out millions in tax breaks to the film industry that essentially pays them to make movies in NY.

Or shutting down his Committee To Save New York PAC so that he didn't have to reveal the donors.

Quite frankly, Sheriff Andy Cuomo needs his own sheriff to police his activity. 

Astorino is going to try and hammer this corruption point home, but unfortunately the corrupt Cuomo has so much money in his campaign war chest that there's little chance the message will cut through all the negative ads Cuomo's been running about Astorino.

About the only way the public's really going to learn about Cuomo's corruption is if the US attorney investigating Cuomo over the Moreland mess indicts him.