XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: cruikshanke@yahoo.com   
      
   Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York claimed the Democratic   
   nomination for a second term on Tuesday, but at a considerable   
   price: A liberal challenger with little money or name   
   recognition, Zephyr Teachout, was on track to receive about a   
   third of the vote, a signal of the potent dissatisfaction with   
   Mr. Cuomo in his party’s left wing.   
      
   Mr. Cuomo avoided what could have been a more damaging blow to   
   his prestige, as his choice for lieutenant governor, Kathy   
   Hochul, a former congresswoman from Buffalo, soundly defeated   
   Ms. Teachout’s running mate, Tim Wu.   
      
   In a statement on Tuesday night, the governor congratulated Ms.   
   Teachout and Mr. Wu, who are both law professors, “on running a   
   spirited campaign, engaging in the democratic process and having   
   the courage to make their voices heard.”   
      
   Mr. Cuomo now heads into the November general election in a   
   strong position, facing a little-known conservative opponent in   
   a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one.   
      
   “New York is on its way to reclaiming its place as a model for   
   the nation and the world,” Mr. Cuomo said in his statement. “We   
   must not turn back now.”   
      
   With 85 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Cuomo had 60.7   
   percent of the vote, compared with 35.5 percent for Ms. Teachout.   
      
   Though she ran her campaign on a shoestring and with scarcely   
   any organizational support, Ms. Teachout was on pace to record   
   the strongest challenge to an incumbent governor since primaries   
   for the office were established in New York in 1970.   
      
   There have been only two other major-party primaries against   
   governors seeking re-election since then, and both failed: In   
   1994, Lenora B. Fulani received 20.5 percent against Gov. Mario   
   M. Cuomo. And in 1978, Lt. Gov. Mary Anne Krupsak received 33.7   
   percent in a challenge to Gov. Hugh L. Carey.   
      
   Ms. Teachout carried counties in large portions of New York,   
   from the Canadian border to New York City’s northern suburbs.   
      
   She and Mr. Wu, who were endorsed by one of the major unions of   
   state workers, also ran away with the race in Albany County and   
   much of the capital region.   
      
   Sounding jubilant, Ms. Teachout gave what sounded like a victory   
   speech. “I will not be your next governor, but the Democrats of   
   this great state have been heard,” she told supporters who   
   jammed a nightclub in Manhattan.   
      
   In a show of confidence heading into the campaign season, Mr.   
   Cuomo largely avoided doing the things that candidates do —   
   debating, pressing the flesh and pointing out his opponent’s   
   flaws. But that strategy may have misfired. The strong   
   performance by Ms. Teachout, a legal scholar of political   
   corruption who had never run for office, was an embarrassing   
   rebuke to Mr. Cuomo, and it could put a dent in any national   
   aspirations he may hold.   
      
   Her support was driven in part by frustration among Democrats   
   with Mr. Cuomo’s carefully calibrated way of governing. While he   
   has been lauded by liberals in the state and nationally for bold   
   action on topics like same-sex marriage and gun control, his   
   posture on nuts-and-bolts issues like budgets and taxes has   
   leaned more toward the right.   
      
   Mr. Cuomo, 56, has raised more than $40 million since taking   
   office at the start of 2011. He retains the backing of the   
   state’s Democratic establishment as well as most of its most   
   politically potent labor unions, valuable allies in getting   
   voters to the polls.   
      
   In some ways, his road to re-election gets less complicated   
   ahead of the general election, when Mr. Cuomo will face Rob   
   Astorino, the Westchester County executive.   
      
   Mr. Astorino, 47, shares several of Ms. Teachout’s   
   disadvantages, including a vast gap in campaign fund-raising and   
   lesser name recognition around the state. Yet he has none of her   
   advantages, such as appealing to women, and he faces the huge   
   disadvantage in party registration.   
      
   Indeed, polls have shown Mr. Cuomo with a wide lead over Mr.   
   Astorino, whom the governor’s campaign plans to attack as an   
   “ultraconservative” over his opposition to abortion rights,   
   strict gun control laws and same-sex marriage.   
      
   In keeping with his approach of scarcely acknowledging the   
   primary, Mr. Cuomo skipped the tradition of holding a party on   
   election night. His only public appearance on Tuesday came when   
   he arrived at a church near his home in New Castle, in   
   Westchester, to cast his ballot, along with his girlfriend, the   
   Food Network host Sandra Lee.   
      
   Mr. Cuomo, who was greeted by a small group of hydrofracking   
   protesters, defended his absence from the campaign trail,   
   explaining that he was focused on his job and that voters should   
   judge him by his performance. “Look at what I’ve done,” he said,   
   adding, “Four years ago, I took office, the state was considered   
   a joke.”   
      
   In the run-up to the primary, Ms. Teachout’s supporters were   
   vocal on social media and elsewhere, while Mr. Cuomo’s   
   supporters were comparatively hard to find. He brushed off her   
   suggestion that the governor’s supporters lacked passion for him.   
      
   “I’m a passionate guy,” he said after voting on Tuesday. “I   
   think my supporters have a lot of passion.” He added: “You know,   
   they may not come out and protest, but you want to see passion?   
   You talk to an angry taxpayer who’s living in Westchester and is   
   paying the highest property taxes not only in the state, but in   
   the nation.”   
      
   Mr. Cuomo also warned against reading too much from the primary   
   results, maintaining that all that mattered to him was receiving   
   51 percent.   
      
   “Who comes out to vote, who doesn’t vote — the turnout can be   
   very determinative,” he said. “And sometimes it’s not   
   representative.”   
      
   Ms. Teachout, 42, who grew up in Vermont and worked on Howard   
   Dean’s presidential campaign, was recruited by the Working   
   Families Party, a group of unions and liberal activists that was   
   considering withholding its backing from Mr. Cuomo.   
      
   The party ultimately agreed to stick with the governor, but Ms.   
   Teachout, a professor at Fordham Law School, pressed on. She   
   faced an uphill climb, collecting $100 donations from supporters   
   and urging them to spread the word about her candidacy via   
   social media.   
      
   She tried to appeal to liberals and other Democrats who have   
   soured on Mr. Cuomo, such as environmental activists concerned   
   that he will not take a position on fracking, and teachers and   
   parents upset that he has not spent more money on public   
   education.   
      
   Ms. Teachout, who has studied corruption, also assailed Mr.   
   Cuomo over his office’s meddling into the work of the Moreland   
   Commission, an anticorruption panel that Mr. Cuomo created last   
   year but then abruptly shut down, a matter that is now being   
   investigated by federal prosecutors.   
      
   Mr. Cuomo picked Ms. Hochul to be his running mate after the   
   current lieutenant governor, Robert J. Duffy, decided not to   
   seek re-election. But she was not well known outside of western   
   New York, and some Democrats were unsettled by her past   
   positions on issues like gun control — when in Congress, she   
   earned an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association — and   
   immigration.   
      
      
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