The Contender
Andrew Cuomo, a Biography
by Michael Shnayerson


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

The copyright page of the trade paperback edition of The Contender, Michael Shnayerson's biography of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo tells an interesting story all by itself. The hardcover came out in April 2015. This was a few months after Cuomo began his second term. The trade edition came out in August 2020. This was after Cuomo's daily press briefings in the early months of the pandemic elevated him into the voice of reason providing a powerful contrast to President Donald Trump's increasingly contentious broadcasts about dealing with COVID19. There was even talk earlier in the year that Cuomo might become a serious contender for the Democratic nomination for president.

The prospect of a President Cuomo was also an underlying theme in Shnayerson's book. Cuomo, he writes, is "the most tantalizing Democrat of his generation, his slightest eye twitch or throwaway line seized on as proof that he is, at last, readying for a presidential run. No one who knows him doubts the day will come. The only question is when." [p. 9] No doubt that still seemed prescient in 2020, although after his resignation in 2021 following charges of sexual misconduct it's no longer as assured as it may have once been.

Still as a study into how the sausage (i.e., laws) gets made in the New York State Legislature, it's a detailed look at Cuomo's successes and failures in his first term, as well as a biography of his not inconsiderable career before becoming governor. Himself the son of Governor Mario Cuomo, he had served as his father's campaign manager and policy staffer, then moved on to a Washington post as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, and then as state attorney-general.

He had some major successes in his first term as governor, using a mix of cajoling, negotiating, and arm-twisting to get New York to pass a law permitting gay marriage in 2011 (packaging it as "marriage equality"), and some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation in the wake of mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. He also made necessary budget cuts as well as split the difference on a temporary "millionaire's tax" that was set to expire. His solution? He got legislative leaders to extend the tax but cut it in half and use some of the funds for a middle-class tax cut. The result was that he preserved, in part, a tax on the 1% while setting it up to be sold as a tax cut. There's also evidence of some of his less admirable traits, such making a deal with Republicans on redistricting that preserved their majority in the state Senate and butting heads with successive New York City Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio.

Given the unpredictability of contemporary politics, it's difficult to state with any certainty that Cuomo's days as a contender are definitely over. Instead, this should be considered a portrait of a politician of whom we may not have heard the last.

-- Daniel M. Kimmel, April 14, 2022

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

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2024 primary contenders' book excerpts:
• The Vanishing American Adult, by Sen. Ben Sasse
• The Faith of Mike Pence, by Leslie Montgomery
• The Courage to Be Free, by Gov. Ron DeSantis
• The Contender, by Michael Shnayerson (biography of Gov. Andrew Cuomo)
• Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America's Future, by the Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine campaign
• A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary, by Martin A. Dyckman
• The Faith of Mike Pence, by Leslie Montgomery
• Where You Go: Life Lessons from My Father, by Charlotte Pence
• The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis, by Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse
• The Diversity Myth: Multiculturism and Political Intolerance, by David O. Sacks & Peter Thiel
• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, by Peter Thiel and Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters