Cuomo Wins Primary, Loses Overall War

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo beat Zephyr Teachout in the Democratic Primary today but managed to lose the political war in the bargain.

Cuomo, with a war chest of over $35 million dollars, with widespread union and political machine support, with campaign ads running and campaign mail filling mail boxes, should have beaten the underfunded Teachout by a wide margin.

Instead, Cuomo won the primary with a little more than 61% of the vote (with 92% of the vote counted as of 11:50 PM.)

To put that into some context, Eliot Spitzer won his primary in 2006 with 81% of the vote.

Teachout won 30 out of New York's 62 counties.

Cuomo engineered a Working Families Party endorsement back in the spring with the help of his union buddies like Randi Weingarten and Michael Mulgrew and his politician buddies like Bill de Blasio, and that's the one thing that's going to save him in the near-term.

Had Teachout gotten the WFP nod and taken even half of what she got tonight, Cuomo would've had to sweat out a battle against GOP opponent Rob Astorino and faced the probable prospect of winning re-election with less than 50% of the overall vote.

But the unions heads did their dirty work and threatened WFP with dissolution if they gave the nod to Teachout, so really, Cuomo won re-election that May weekend when he got the WFP ballot line.

You can see from the primary totals that there is widespread dislike of the loathsome Cuomo within the Democratic Party.

Yes, turnout was low in this primary.

Part of the reason for that is, most people don't actually care enough to come out and vote for Cuomo in a primary.

Had Teachout had even a tenth of the money Cuomo had and been able to run ads on TV, you can bet this primary would've been even closer.

Cuomo spent about $65 per vote, Teachout $1.50 per vote.

In a recent poll, 88% of Dems didn't know enough about her to have an opinion - that's why having little money really hurt her in this primary.

But the political system in this country is rigged for the Big Money candidates because the people who own this country - the 1% - want it that way.

Because they know if there's an even field, candidates like Zephyr Teachout can beat corrupt politicians like Andrew Cuomo.

But the campaign finance angle is a story for another day.

The story for tonight is, Andrew Cuomo won his primary but lost his future political career.

Cuomo wants to run for president, but if he can't get a lot more than 61% of the vote in a Democratic Primary in his home state, you can bet he can't win even one Democratic Primary in a race for the White House.

In addition, Cuomo has been diminished this election cycle for his treatment of his opponent, Zephyr Teachout, and has been exposed as a weak, cowardly man who couldn't even acknowledge her at a Labor Day Parade.

Cuomo may have won the primary battle tonight, but he lost the overall war.

And he knows it - that's why he stayed home tonight rather than having a big victory party with lots of fan fare.