Cuomo's Out To Destroy Public Education - Why Aren't The Teachers Unions Trying To Destroy Him Politically?

Temperatures in the Garden State aren't the only thing hitting bottom:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s approval ratings have hit an all-time low, according to a new poll.

In a Rutgers University-Eagleton poll released on Friday, 53 percent of New Jersey voters view Christie unfavorably and just 37 percent hold a favorable view of the governor — down 7 percentage points in two months.

The possible 2016 GOP candidate’s job approval ratings are facing similar blows. Fifty-two percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of the job Christie is doing while 42 percent approve. In December, 48 percent of voters approved of Christie’s job performance.

Those questioned for the poll were able to elaborate on why exactly they hold unfavorable opinions of their governor. When asked, 20 percent cited his “attitude, personality and behavior,” while 15 percent specifically mentioned Bridgegate and 10 percent mentioned his national ambitions to possibly run for president in 2016 as affecting his ability to govern the state.

Christie's pal in NY State, Governor Andrew Cuomo, isn't much better when it comes to job approval - he enjoys a 47% job approval rating (51% disapprove.)

But Cuomo's got a favorability rating of 60%, as measured in the last Siena poll.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Cuomo's numbers after a bruising budget battle over ethics and education reform.

Cuomo's going to try and smear the Legislature as corrupt and unwilling to accept his ethics reforms package even as he himself is corrupt and refuses to put into place any ethics reforms that would affect him (e.g., closing the LLC loophole that allows him to raise money from the same source through multiple shell entities.)

Cuomo's also continuing his war against teachers and public schools, vowing to destroy both.

It's unfortunate that the teachers unions are fighting a half-assed battle against Cuomo, because if they really went at him, running ads like this or this against him, they could drive his numbers down and make him pay a real political price for his war of attrition against public education.

I don't quite get the strategy the unions are using here - Cuomo's out to destroy us, but for some reason, they've decided to only go so far in their pushback against him.

They ought to be running ads like the ones I linked to above, or this one:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is a hypocrite.

Cuomo says he wants to go after tax deadbeats in New York State, taking away driver's licenses of anybody who owes more than $5000 to the state in income tax.

But the governor won't let the tax assessor into his home to assess the improvements that his girlfriend made to their house as detailed in various media reports including on The Today Show, thus saving himself thousands of dollars in extra taxes a year.

Cuomo says he wants to go after corrupt politicians in Albany and has threatened to shut down the government if the Legislature doesn't accept his ethics reforms package wholesale.

But he refuses to accept any ethics reforms that would affect him as governor - including a loophole that allows him to raise campaign donations beyond the legal limit through shell entities created just for that purpose.

Cuomo also says he wants to break the public school system and has vowed to shut down the government if the Legislature doesn't accept 100% of his education reform agenda that promotes charter schools and state takeover of school districts.

But Cuomo has raised millions of dollars from campaign donors who will directly benefit from these education reforms, including from for-profit charter school operators who are licking their lips at the money they will make once Cuomo hands them entire school districts to run.

Governor Andrew Cuomo talks a good game when it comes to tax issues, ethics reform, and public education.

But when you watch what he does on these issues rather just listen to what he says, you see that he is as corrupt and hypocritical as anybody else in the cesspool that is Albany politics.

Cuomo's people already allegedly asked for the "attack" ads the unions are running against him to be pulled, though the unions haven't done so and continue to run them.

That's an indication that running ads against him is doing some damage to him, driving some of his internal numbers down.

But Cuomo's playing for keeps while the teachers unions are playing with kid gloves on, jabbing at him over school funding in ads that are pretty lame without REALLY going at him on issues that could make him cry "Uncle" in a matter of weeks.
 
As I posted yesterday, I suspect the unions aren't really looking to win this fight, that they're putting on a show for their members while selling us out behind the scenes (thus the secret Mulgrew/Magee meeting with Cuomo aides last week.)

It's a shame, too, because with a little work, Cuomo's numbers could be down near Christie's and we could make him regret he ever told a Forbes crowd and the Daily News editorial board that he planned to destroy public schools in his second term.