ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Mario Cuomo, a son of Italian immigrants who became an eloquent spokesman for a generation of liberal Democrats during his three terms as governor of New York but couldn’t quite bring himself to run for president, has died. He was 82.
Cuomo died yesterday of natural causes due to heart failure at his home, the same day his son Andrew started his second term as governor, according to a statement released by the administration. He was surrounded by his family.
Cuomo loomed large in New York politics as governor from 1983 through 1994 and became nationally celebrated for his ability to weave the story of his humble upbringing with ringing calls for social justice.
“He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here,” Andrew Cuomo said in his inaugural address yesterday. “He is here and he is here, and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point. So let’s give him a round of applause.”
He was also known for the presidential races he stayed out of in 1988 and 1992. Cuomo agonised so publicly over whether to run for the White House that he was dubbed “Hamlet on the Hudson”.
In 1991, Cuomo left a plane idling on the tarmac at the Albany airport rather than fly to New Hampshire and jump into the battle for the presidential nomination at the last minute. He left the door open for a lesser-known governor, Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
In a statement, President Barack Obama called Cuomo “a determined champion of progressive values, and an unflinching voice for tolerance, inclusiveness, fairness, dignity, and opportunity.
“His own story taught him that as Americans, we are bound together as one people, and our country’s success rests on the success of all of us, not just a fortunate few,” Obama said.
Cuomo’s last public appearance came in November, when Andrew was re-elected governor of New York. The frail-looking patriarch and his son raised their arms together in victory at the election-night celebration.
Andrew Cuomo said he showed his second inaugural speech to his dad, who declared it was good, “especially for a second-termer”.
Mario Cuomo’s big political break came in 1982 when, as New York’s lieutenant governor, he won the Democratic nomination for governor in an upset over New York Mayor Ed Koch. He went on to beat conservative millionaire Republican Lewis Lehrman.
