Ken Lovett of the Daily News reports the following:
ALBANY — Business bigwigs — some with ties to Gov. Cuomo — have begun discussing the possibility of bankrolling an early effort to go after Mayor de Blasio in hopes of further weakening him in advance of the 2017 elections, sources say.
Home Depot founder Ken Langone, who once headed a “Republicans for Cuomo” effort, had private preliminary discussions last week about the idea of putting together a group to help raise money and coordinate a public campaign designed to chip away at the mayor, sources said.
...
The idea is to capitalize on de Blasio’s weaknesses early enough to make it easier for a challenger to come forward, several said.
Langone, in discussions with several business cronies, offered to immediately pony up a significant amount of money toward the effort if the others do the same, one insider said.
Besides Langone, who did not return a call for comment, others mentioned as potentially getting involved in the effort are billionaire Paul Singer, a big-time Republican donor who helped Cuomo in the effort to legalize gay marriage in 2011, and Tudor Investment Corp. founder Paul Tudor Jones.
Several hedge-fund backers of the pro-charter school movement — which has had close ties to Cuomo — like Dan Loeb have also been mentioned as possibly being part of the effort. Singer, Jones and Loeb could not be reached for comment.
I'll remind readers that when Eva Moskowitz was at odds with Bill de Blasio over the DOE's rejection of three Success Academy co-locations, it was Andrew Cuomo himself who suggested to Moskowitz she hold a big Albany rally that he would speak at in order to weaken de Blasio.
Considering the ties the names mentioned in the Lovett column have to Cuomo, it's reasonable to think Cuomo's got a hand in this latest effort as well.
Make no mistake, the charter school shills want City Hall back 100% in their corner and they're going to do everything they can to ensure that happens.
Looks like that may be happening with Cuomo's help.
While watching the Republican debates I unconsciously kept looking for Cuomo. I finally said to myself Cuomo will be debating these guys in 4 years and remembered the guy is a Democrat! The guy has no ethics.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, Cuomo will be in prison long before that!
ReplyDeleteNo more shopping at Home Depot!
ReplyDeleteNope - Home Depot should be off the list of shopping destinations for teachers.
DeleteI actually hope they try to do this. It will draw them out further into the open and ultimately lead to their demise. Bill deBlasio should not be underestimated and neither should the machine he controls. NYSUT and the UFT should both be behind him as a counterweight to Cuomo and John Flanagan. The mayor has an important soapbox and it sure would be wonderful if he used it to support public education and public school teachers.
ReplyDelete