As I said in a recent column, I am leaning towards supporting Comptroller Bill Thompson in next year’s mayoral race; but until I fully make that decision I will write some more speculative columns on who will be our next mayor. Some of these columns may even piss off one or two of my political friends; so what’s new/lol. 

At this point in time -and with a little over a year to go before the mayoral primary- there are six significant potential candidates for the democratic primary. These are: Congressman Anthony Weiner, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Councilmember Tony Avella, Public Advocate Betsy Gautbaum, City Comptroller Bill Thompson, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Although I think this group is a decent one -as developing fields go- I think there is one person not on this list, who could win the primary, or at least get into a runoff. That person is our Attorney General: Andrew Cuomo. 

Thirty-one years ago, Mario Cuomo (Andrew’s father) lost the democratic primary run-off against Ed Koch. Koch went on to become mayor. Mario Cuomo went on to become governor of the state of New York a few years later. Then he started grooming his son (alter ego) Andrew, to fulfill the political ambitions he never achieved: like the US presidency (and maybe even mayor of NYC). 

Andrew did some high-profile things. For example he married up; into US royalty. He wed one of the daughters of Robert Kennedy, from the celebrated Kennedy family. It failed. He got a big job at HUD; it went “so-so” as we say in the islands. Then he came back to New York to do some political things at home; like running for governor in 2002. He eventually withdrew from the primary. It was a drastic case of bad timing. You see Carl McCall had paid his dues and was next up in the batter’s box; the black community wanted to se him run: win or lose. Surprisingly enough Andrew recovered quite quickly for such a notable faux pas. Four years later he won the democratic primary and became their nominee for AG. He eventually won the general election. 

Two years later he has emerged as a decent AG -except maybe for the mishandling of “Troopergate” (which wasn’t entirely in his domain). And he has polished up his once tarnished political star. His personal/domestic woes are behind him, and once he finds a lil more humility (Anthony Weiner take note) he will be even more formidable an entrant to the upcoming mayoral race -if he decides to enter. Given that Weiner -the current favorite- isn’t blowing away the field in recent polls, and given that there may be three candidates out of Brooklyn (Marty, Thompson and Weiner); Cuomo’s chances are rosy. 

We may be watching a Weiner meltdown folks, and we surely don’t see Thompson generating any excitement among his base (blacks) as yet. With the Hispanic vote up for grabs, Cuomo could be very competitive in this group, especially since he could get the backing of the Bronx county machine. Then Ms. Quinn has her own issues, which may be exacerbated when she loses the lawsuit brought by Councilmember Charles Barron’s former chief-of-staff Viola Plummer. I predict that Quinn will lose that action for improperly firing Baron’s staffer; but either way, the issue will haunt her throughout the campaign. Don’t say cousin Rocky didn’t tell you this first. 

Plus Quinn has placed all her chips in the Bloomberg-coattails basket; that’s a risky gambit. You see Bloomberg is Bloomberg; and Christine Quinn is Christine Quinn. A Bloomberg endorsement -though useful- will not determine the winner of the democrat’s primary, and although at least three of the possible entrants may try to snag it (Marty, Quinn and Weiner), the democratic voters will hardly pay attention to it. Look, I could be wrong on this, but it is my gut feeling.   

As to Marty Markowitz and Betsy Gautbaum (both uncertain), the chances of victory are slim. Tony Avella has even slimmer chances of winning than these two.  All the other names that may show up on the Campaign Finance Board’s list of mayoral candidates are nothing but kooks; so forget them. Thus Andrew Cuomo has a real good shot at becoming our next mayor if he is brave enough to jump into the race now. And maybe he should also pay me for political advice/lol. 

As long as Andrew Cuomo doesn’t have a “love-child” and a mistress stashed somewhere, as say Jesse Jackson did -and as the National Enquirer now reports that former presidential candidate John Edwards does- then Andrew will be very formidable in this race. I think he will win it. Do tell Cousin Rocky what you think. 

Stay tuned-in folks; let’s se if Andrew reads my column/blog.