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In 1974 Cuomo ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor. The decorum of the courtroom had not prepared him for the hurly-burly of the soapbox. "I was too professorial," Cuomo recalls. Hugh Carey, whom Cuomo knew from St. John's, was elected Governor and persuaded Cuomo to take on the largely ceremonial job of secretary of state. In 1977 Carey pushed Cuomo to run for mayor of New York City. Cuomo, overcompensating for his preceptorial manner, turned almost surly. In the campaign debates, he made Congressman Ed Koch appear to be the victim, not an easy thing to accomplish. "I was too prosecutorial," he says. Cuomo lost the nomination, then ran on the Liberal Party line in the general election and lost again.
Carey asked Cuomo to run with him as Lieutenant Governor in 1978, and the duo won easily. Within a year, however, there was tension between them, and Cuomo began thinking about challenging his benefactor. By the time Carey announced that he would not seek re-election in 1982, Cuomo was primed. But there was one thing he had not counted on: Ed Koch. After the mayor decided to seek the nomination, Cuomo's support suddenly became scarce.
The death penalty was a symbolic issue in the campaign. Koch and the public were for it with a vengeance, while Cuomo was fervently opposed. Voters disagreed with Cuomo but admired his principles and his chutzpah. Cuomo defeated Koch by a comfortable margin and went on to beat Republican Lew Lehrman by a slim one. Defeating Koch was a catharsis for Cuomo; he had come from way behind to upset the man whom he once thought of as his nemesis. Koch today says Cuomo has "been a superb Governor," utilizing his talent for "communication, conciliation and consensus in an unusually successful way." At the time, Pollster Patrick Caddell likened Cuomo to Sandy Koufax when he was riding the Dodger bench. Everyone knew Koufax had enormous potential. Then one day Koufax found his control and went from being an enigma to one of the most overwhelming pitchers ever. Cuomo, said Caddell, almost overnight became "one of the most awesome candidates I've ever dealt with."
Cuomo had the good fortune to campaign during a recession and govern during a recovery. He inherited a projected deficit of $1.8 billion, which he eliminated in his first budget. New revenues allowed Cuomo to do what few Democratic Governors of New York have ever done: cut taxes. Cuomo boasts of having made the largest tax reduction in New York history, $3.2 billion over three years. He has overseen four straight balanced budgets and, despite the cranky, byzantine ways of Albany, they have been done on time.
Out of what Cuomo calls "my defense budget"--money appropriated for law- and-order--he has built more than 6,000 new prison cells for the overcrowded New York system. He has proposed a Medicaid bill that reforms the method of payment, saving the state money. New York has begun an innovative program to provide capital construction money to nonprofit groups to build housing for the homeless. It has also pioneered a variation on "workfare" programs, permitting welfare recipients to receive job training.