Could New York Governor Andrew Cuomo be thinking about a 2016 White House run? Speculation is on the rise following a television interview that aired this morning.
The Cuomo administration has been quiet about the upcoming presidential campaign. CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford spoke with the governor in the Adirondacks over the weekend, where Cuomo reaffirmed he has no interest in a run for the White House, explaining he is focused on "being the best governor that I can be.”
“I spent eight years in Washington with Bill Clinton,” Cuomo told CBS. “I was the HUD secretary—Housing and Urban Development Secretary—I had a lot of fun doing that. But I really love what I’m doing now and I tend to be one of the personalities that stays focused on what they’re doing, and I am focused on being the best governor that I can be.”
But WAMC's political observer Dr. Alan Chartock has no doubt that if he can, Cuomo will run for president. Republican Assemblyman Jim Tedisco says Cuomo should stay focused on New York.
In the CBS interview, Cuomo commented on fellow Democrat former Congressman Anthony Weiner's run for mayor of New York City as well as former New York Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer tossing his hat in the race for city comptroller.
"All politics is theater" quips Dr. Gerald Benjamin, director of the Center for Research Regional Education and Outreach at SUNY New Paltz. Assemblyman Tedisco adds lawmakers prefer to work with the governor not as a hopeful presidential nominee, but as the head of New York State.
And while Cuomo and former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton loom large as New Yorkers possibly vying for the presidency on the Democratic ticket, to say nothing of Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is an early favorite for the GOP nomination.
