Gun Politics New York

From the NY Post, “Cuomo seeks Republicans to back his re-election“:

“Gov. Cuomo is making another pitch Monday for Republican heavy hitters to back his re-election campaign.  Home Depot founder Ken Langone is hosting a “Republicans for Cuomo” event at the Harvard Club at 8:30 a.m. Cuomo will address the well-heeled Wall Street and real-estate titans and field questions.  David Malpass, who ran in the 2010 Republican US Senate primary, also was involved in planning the breakfast, sources said.  Cuomo attended a similar event last month …”

Several thoughts come to mind when I read this:

1. Why does Cuomo need Republicans?  Democrats outnumber them roughly 2-1 in the state.  This is more evidence that Cuomo has problems with Democrats.
2. I think of Al D’Amato when I read “Republican heavy hitters.”  Fuck him.
3. David Malpass is one of the candidates offered up as cannon-fodder against Kirsten Gillibrand, who D’Amato was trying to protect, back in 2010. Fuck him too.
4. I think Cuomo is scared of Rob Astorino.  He invested a lot of political capital last year trying to defeat Astorino’s re-election bid which the media promptly forgot about when Astorino cruised to re-election in majority Democrat Westchester county.

Several former mayors (Jerry Jennings, David Roefaro and Matt Ryan) who were members of MAIG go on the attack against Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik who bailed out when it became a liability to his future aspirations:

“… We were surprised and disappointed to see in a recent OpEd Poughkeepsie Mayor John Tkazyik blatantly mischaracterize the important goals of Mayors Against Illegal Guns …”

That’s only because Tkazyik still thinks he has a chance to move up the political food chain while you guys’ careers are over.

“… The coalition’s top legislative priority is requiring background checks on all gun sales …”

Anyone can use Google to prove it is so much more than that.

“… The fact is Mayors Against Illegal Guns believes that the Second Amendment goes hand in hand with keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and other dangerous people …”

This tells me “their” op-ed was ghost-written by a MAIG staffer.

“…  the vast majority of the American people — 90 percent — support our coalition’s push to close the loopholes in the background check system …”

Nobody is buying that lie which is why their bill crashed and burned in Congress last year.

“… Perhaps Mayor Tkazyik had the wool pulled over his eyes by the gun lobby …”

Perhaps he’s upset that he didn’t get as much money out of Mike Bloomberg as you guys did:

• August 2009 – Bloomberg hosts a fundraiser for Jennings at his private home in Manhattan.  Not known who attended or how much was raised.
• October 2009 – Bloomberg hires Angelo Roefaro to work for him in a strange public/private arrangement with his cousin Mayor David.
• October 2010 – Bloomberg writes a personal campaign check for $1199 payable to Friends of Matt Ryan for Mayor.