I will never vote for Mark Green again

Andrew Cuomo

Green’s Criticism of Cuomo in Campaign Stirs Some Criticism of Green

By JONATHAN P. HICKS
Published: August 29, 2006

When Representative Charles B. Rangel held a news conference last week to endorse Andrew M. Cuomo for attorney general, he spent only a little more time praising Mr. Cuomo than he did chiding Mr. Cuomo’s leading Democratic rival in the race: Mark Green.

Mr. Rangel joined several other prominent Democrats who have condemned Mr. Green’s political strategy of criticizing Mr. Cuomo on an almost daily basis. Mr. Green refers to it as his “comparison campaign.” Others, like Mr. Rangel, call it negative campaigning that threatens to undermine Democrats as they seek to defeat Jeanine F. Pirro, the Republican candidate, in the November general election.

“I would say that if you’re not going to win, don’t hurt the winner,” Mr. Rangel said of Mr. Green.

But Mr. Green is not out of the race by any means, and he has been aggressively campaigning as the Sept. 12 primary nears. A Quinnipiac Poll released last week showed him 13 percentage points behind Mr. Cuomo, within striking distance in a primary whose turnout is hard to predict.

Mr. Green maintains that he is not guilty of negative campaigning and is merely highlighting differences in the two candidates’ records. Mr. Green’s supporters maintain that an airing of Mr. Cuomo’s positions and record could help close the gap in the polls.

Mr. Green’s aggressive approach was highlighted by his sharp attacks on Mr. Cuomo in their Aug. 17 debate, when even Mr. Cuomo’s other opponents in the race criticized Mr. Green’s conduct, and audience members booed his comments. While Democratic officials have rallied around Mr. Cuomo, political analysts say an approach like Mr. Green’s can have its intended effect in the closing days of the race.

“The question is whether this kind of campaign can have an impact on the race,” said John H. Mollenkopf, the director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University Graduate Center.

“And the record is clear that it can have an impact in the right circumstances,” Mr. Mollenkopf said, “if he is bringing out something that the voter is not inclined to like about a candidate, or it’s revealing something negative that the voter did not previously know.”

Mr. Mollenkopf added that the poll finding Mr. Green 13 percentage points behind Mr. Cuomo was conducted before Mr. Green was endorsed by the editorial page of The New York Times, and that the endorsement “could also have an effect on the race.”

How many black pols have endorsed Green?

Yeah.

It's because he made it quite clear that he didn't think much of blacks and Latinos when he ran for mayor. Pulling out the race card after eight years of Giuliani. Disgusting.

I have no great love of Andy Cuomo, but there isn't a day where Mark Green gets my vote for anything ever again. It's not even so much that he let his underlings distribute a cartoon of Freddie Ferrer kissing Sharpton's ass in Brooklyn, something that Bloomberg fired someone for in Staten Island, but that he walked into a room of black pols and said "I don't need you to win, I need you to govern"

Well, shit, he didn't need black votes then, why does he need them now?