My OpEd in today’s NY Post assessing Governor Cuomo‘s sophmore term rated mention by Capital New York blogger, Azi Paybaragh in his Morning Briefing column [So now Andrew Cuomo is too Democratic?].
Azi mischaracterized my assessment as “conservative” and writing that “Cuomo is now acting more like a conventionally partisan Democrat…”
My OpEd ends with “[i]t would be a great shame if Cuomo becomes just another Democrat relying on special interests, media hype and flashy advertising to distinguish himself from other politicians…[And that his] fizz and bite was a refreshing break for New Yorkers tired of politics as usual.”
I believe that sentiment reflects goo-goos, special interests, liberal, and conservative perspectives. I mainly consider myself a Democrat philosophically aligned with the late former US Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson and the Democratic Leadership Council — more so than as a “conservative.”


Andrew Cuomo’s teacher evaluation plan gets taken apart by the New York Post today on the news and editorial pages, but is endorsed as a pragmatic, fair compromise by the Daily News.
The plan’s fate is still in the hands of Republicans in the State Senate, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s team is lobbying legislators to kill it. (Bloomberg, who has been frustrated on many occasions by his limited ability to influence legislation in Albany, has contributed heavily to the Republican Senate majority.)

In a column in the Post, former Assemblyman Michael Benjamin says that Cuomo’s impressive run of achievements is over. He argues (from the right) that after establishing his willingness to override the demands of liberal special interests in the early going, Cuomo is now acting more like a conventionally partisan Democrat, with the result that there’s been no real improvement on mandate relief for local governments, fracking is being held up, and a system of teacher evaluations doesn’t going far enough. 

As long as Cuomo’s approval rating remains where it is, and as long as the criticism that he’s too Democratic stays within the confines of the New York Post, he probably won’t be too bothered by any of it. 
But then, you never know.