ANDREW CUOMO vs. ZEPHYR TEACHOUT
Fordham Law School professor Zephyr Teachout is a long-shot for the governor’s mansion, but one that is gaining more traction than most in her situation. Her bid to unseat Gov. Cuomo is based around the premise that Albany needs an anti-corruption cleansing, and fast. Teachout is challenging the governor’s handling of the Moreland Commission, which he empaneled to probe corruption, then pulled the plug on when it started sniffing around his allies. The one-term incumbent Cuomo, for his part, isn’t doing much campaigning at all. He remarked to reporters at Monday’s West Indian American Day Parade that “the campaign season hasn’t really started yet.”
ANDREW CUOMO
DEMOCRAT, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, and former secretary of housing and urban development in the Clinton administration
Born in Queens, Cuomo ran a failed bid for governor in 2002, then served a term as New York attorney general before election to his current office in 2010. His State University of New York administrators closed and sold Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill.
56, divorced, three daughters
ZEPHYR TEACHOUT
DEMOCRAT, longtime liberal activist, and organizer for the 2004 Howard Dean presidential campaign
Born in Vermont, Teachout still owns a house in the verdant New England state.
42, single, no children
THE CAMPAIGN
Teachout initially sought the Working Families Party nomination, but when the party backed Cuomo, she vowed to fight on in the primary. Cuomo has publicly ignored Teachout, but he was worried enough about her campaign to challenge her New York residency in court, and his allies attacked her for debating Republican candidate Rob Astorino on WNYC when Cuomo refused.
A gubernatorial candidate must live in the state for at least five years, and Cuomo’s camp said Teachout, who says she moved to the city in 2009, was actually living all over the Northeast. But multiple courts ruled in Teachout’s favor.
The New York Times endorsed Teachout’s running mate Tim Wu, but did not offer an endorsement to either Teachout or Cuomo, saying Cuomo is ethically challenged but Teachout lacks the experience and the substantive political platform it wants to see.
