The Contender
Andrew Cuomo, a Biography
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4.3 • 7 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A no-holds-barred biography of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Andrew Cuomo is the protagonist of an ongoing political saga that reads like a novel. In many ways, his rise, fall, and rise again is an iconic story: a young American politician of vaunting ambition, aiming for nothing less than the presidency. Building on his father's political success, a first run for governor in 2002 led to a stinging defeat, and a painful, public divorce from Kerry Kennedy, scion of another political dynasty, Cuomo had to come back from seeming political death and reinvent himself.
He did so, brilliantly, by becoming New York's attorney general, and compiling a record that focused on public corruption. In winning the governorship in 2010, he promised to clean up America's most corrupt legislature. He is blunt and combative, the antithesis of the glad-handing, blow-dried senator or governor who tries to please one and all. He's also proven he can make his legislature work, alternately charming and arm-twisting his colleagues with a talent for political strategy reminiscent of President Lyndon Johnson. Political pundits tend to agree that for Cuomo, a run for the White House is not a question of whether, but when.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The hook of this biography from Shnayerson (Coal River)--that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still a legitimate presidential prospect--may have been overtaken by events: the January 2015 arrest of Sheldon Silver reinforced the state's image as a cesspool of corruption, despite Cuomo's pledge to clean up Albany. The governor is certainly a fascinating figure, but even readers with a negative view of him are likely to have qualms about the author's persistent use of anonymous sources. Shnayerson, belatedly, explains that many of the people he spoke with were afraid of getting on Cuomo's bad side, but does not provide any basis to credit their accounts or indicate what efforts he took to corroborate them. This is a serious failing, as the author gives space to some significant innuendos, including speculation that Cuomo may have tipped off investigators to his predecessor's use of prostitutes, the scandal that led to Eliot Spitzer's resignation and set the stage for Cuomo's 2010 election. There's enough that's well-documented about Cuomo, both good and bad, to make resorting to unsubstantiated reports unnecessary, and this biography, intended to be definitive, is not.
