Was Andrew Cuomo The Brainchild Behind The Homophobic Campaign Signs Back During The Koch/Cuomo Race?

Remember the famous "Vote For Cuomo, Not The Homo" campaign signs back from the Ed Koch/Mario Cuomo NYC mayoral race in 1977?

The Cuomo campaign denied having anything to do with those signs, but Andrew Cuomo gets awfully defensive when he is asked if he was the "driving force" behind them. Here's a story about that from back when Little Andy was running for attorney general:

Who knew events for Democratics hopefuls for attorney general could get so vicious? At a meeting of the Stonewall Democrats club (yes, they are gay), not only did other candidates storm the stage to speak when only Andrew Cuomo, the fundraising frontrunner, was scheduled to speak, an interesting part of NYC political history emerged. From the NY Times:

Mr. Cuomo also tightened up a bit when an audience member suggested that Mr. Cuomo was a "driving force" behind an infamous 1977 campaign poster that read, "Vote for Cuomo, not the homo," seen during the mayoral race between his father, Mario M. Cuomo, and Edward I. Koch. (Mr. Koch has said in the past that he is a heterosexual.)

Cuomo, for his part, denied having anything to do with the posters and called it an "ugly, cheap" rumor, and, according to the Daily News, calls Koch "crazy" over this debate. The Politicker notes Koch said they were hung "up and down" Queens Boulevard.

Why does any of this matter some 33 years later?

Well, Kristen Davis, the madam running as a third party candidate for governor, is blanketing the city with "Vote Homo, Not Cuomo" campaign ads, referencing the Koch/Cuomo controversy.

And that got me thinking - how come Little Andy gets so defensive when asked about those signs?

Everybody knows Little Andy was his father's "political enforcer" - the guy who played hardball with rivals, the press, and others - so that Sanctimonious Mario could seem to stay above it all.

The 20-year old worked for his father on the 1977 campaign.

Putting up "Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo" signs sounds like just the kind of thing some aggressive 20 year old politico would think is a good idea.

Now a lot has happened since then and Little Andy claims to back gay rights these days, so perhaps none of this means anything.

But I still say Little Andy's inability to come clean with the truth, along with his defensiveness on the subject and his core belief that the ends always justify the means, speak to a character deficiency that does NOT bode well for the four years he'll be running this state.