The Quinnipiac poll found New Yorkers think the feud between Cuomo and de Blasio is harmful but Cuomo says "Nahh..."
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said people are wrong to think that his ongoing feud with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has had a negative effect on the working relationship between the state and New York City.
Cuomo, a Democrat, was asked by a reporter after an event in Harlem about a Quinnipiac University poll that found 78 percent of voters surveyed believed the officials' bickering has harmed the state. Both men saw their favorability ratings sink in the poll.
“It's irrelevant to me if people think I am winning this feud with the mayor," Cuomo said. "What is relevant is, and where the 78 percent are wrong, is I would never allow a relationship issue with anyone to have anything to do with how I serve the state. I pride myself on being able to work with all sorts of characters in this state."
“Anyone who thinks that the relationship between the state and the city isn't functional is incorrect. We are working. I talk to the mayor regularly, the staffs talk literally on a daily basis. … We're working together, and I don't want anyone to think that I would ever let any personal feelings interfere with the professional responsibility.”
Love that quote - "where 78% are wrong"...
Cuomo's working overtime to stick it to de Blasio again and again and again.
De Blasio's wounded badly by this, but Cuomo's not faring much better.
Where 78% are wrong...
Yeah, that's an argument that's going to work, Andy.
As a teacher, mired in the awfulness of being such in NYS, I found the following partial quote of Cuomo's to be the most politically instructive:
ReplyDelete“It's irrelevant to me if people think I am....."
The man does not care about what people think of him. This isn't new news , but its a moment to reflect with some clarity on the fact that we are dealing with a Governor that in no way is bothered by the will of the people.
To teachers especially, this is abundantly clear but also instructive. Working via established and basic political avenues of engagement....phone calls, letters, the occasional limp and lame rally, threats about how we'll show them in the next election cycle, etc....aren't even remotely smudging the paint, when our desire is to knock the car off the road.
When our elected leaders no longer care about the will of the people, established pathways of political communication are rendered meaningless and bolder, stronger, louder, more legible, and more creative means must be harnessed.