Dress For The Job You Have

       Back in 2012, Mitt Romney made an interesting jest in his speech at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner about New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Romney joked Cuomo would be getting “a little ahead of himself” citing the fact that he only served “one term as a governor, and he has a father who happened to be a governor, and he thinks that’s enough to run for president.” Romney obviously had a similar resume, but certainly appealed to his party enough to win the Republican nomination, but can Cuomo appeal to Democrats? In Harry Enten’s analytical piece “What Cuomo’s Re-election Tells Us About His Future," Enten compares Cuomo’s primary results to that of previous presidential candidates. Cuomo certainly underperformed with a low 62.2 percent. The obvious question is, why is his own party waning in support? 

Cuomo has certainly been responsible for serious reform in New York, since 2011 he has, restructured the tax code and increased taxing for higher income workers, legalized same-sex marriage in the state and provided a controversial gun control law that Cuomo described as “the toughest gun control law in the United States”.  Cuomo holds the beliefs of the Democratic party, so why is he being disregard by voters? Enten claims it is has to do with Cuomo being too conservative in the eyes of Democrats. Based off a Quinnipac study, a portion of Democrats believe that Cuomo has been far to soft on his reforms. Others claim that they disapproved of his intense gun control policies, some don’t believe he is treating education reform properly.

Even with Cuomo’s disappointing primary numbers he is still significantly likely to be re-elected, but the next several months after returning to office will be the most important to his political future. Cuomo will need to perform some magic in order to reclaim the voters he’s lost. For one, he will need to reaffirm his relationship with New York Mayor and fellow Democrat Bill De Blasio (whom Cuomo had previously clashed with over budgets for charter schools). Cuomo also needs to bring more popular left reform if he has any chance of regaining any positive attention.

But if Cuomo can’t seem to get garner support now, who’s to say he will be able to win a presidential primary? Cuomo may be suffering from a similar situation to that of Mitt Romney. Romney’s approval ratings when he served as Governor stumbled significantly as his term came to a close. This slip crushed his reputation in Massachusetts and certainly contributed to him losing the state in the 2012 election. So will Cuomo suffer from a similar approval drop and wreck his reputation in his home state?

The common expression “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” is usually taken in a very literal sense. Perhaps Cuomo is too concerned with his future rather than exceeding at the job he is already doing. It seems that politicians from both sides of the spectrum need to be reminded that they were voted in office to serve the people of their state/district, not the people that haven’t even casted a ballot in their favor yet. 

And perhaps this is a situation that plagues modern elections, campaigning in a election that hasn’t even started yet. There has always been a advantage to a pre-emptive strike, a candidate getting his/her name out in the open early allows for enough time to get moderates to evaluate and support the politicians beliefs while also gathering the support of the party. But it seems acting prematurely may become a new problem that joins the already festering conflicts of electoral politics.

Enten, Harry. “What Cuomo’s Re-election Tells Us About His Future” fivethirtyeight.com September 10, 2014. Accessed September 11, 2014.

        NY Governor. "Governor Signs NY Safe Act in Rochester" January 13, 2013. Accessed September 11, 2014.

Qunnipac University. “Liberal Dem Would Hurt Cuomo In New York Gov Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; But Gov, DiNapoli, Schneiderman All Have Big Leads” May 21, 2014. Accessed September 11, 2014.