By Brian Bohl
The crowd of about 300 people at the Democratic headquarters in midtown Manhattan saw a landmark day for the party in New York state politics.
Eliot Spitzer won his campaign for governor, Hillary Clinton easily won re-election for a second Senate term, and Andrew Cuomo defeated Republican challenger Jeanine Pirro for state attorney general.Cuomo, 48, was the first of the three candidates to address the Sheraton Hotel crowd Tuesday night, thanking his supporters for helping him post a 20-point victory margin over Pirro, who previously had served three terms as Westchester County’s district attorney.
A former housing secretary under President Bill Clinton’s administration, Cuomo erased the bitter taste of his last entry into the state political scene by winning with 59 percent of the votes, compared to the 39 percent Pirro secured. Cuomo ran for governor of New York in 2002 but withdrew before the Democratic state convention, allowing former State Comptroller Carl McCall to receive the nomination.
Though the polls closed at 9 p.m., Cuomo stepped onto the ballroom stage for his victory speech only an hour and a half later, congratulating Spitzer for his victory over Republican John Faso and Clinton for her win against Republican and former Yonkers mayor John Spencer.
“I spoke to Jeanine Pirro, who was very gracious and very kind,” Cuomo said amid applause from campaign supporters and volunteers. “She said it’s time for us to put the politics aside and take this state forward. She is exactly right, and I’m looking forward to doing that.”
Cuomo, who worked as campaign manager when his father Mario Cuomo ran for governor of New York in 1992, said he will follow in the footsteps of Spitzer, who is moving out of the attorney general’s office and into the governor’s mansion in January.
“The New York attorney general can be New York’s great equalizer,” Cuomo said. “No one is so powerful that they are above the reach of the law, and no one is so powerless that they are beneath the protection of the law, and that’s what the attorney general is going to do.”
Pirro made her concession speech before Cuomo’s public remarks, walking to the podium at the Women’s National Republican Club in Manhattan shortly after 10 p.m. The defeat concluded a campaign that saw the 55-year-old come under investigation for allegedly asking former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to monitor phone calls of Al Pirro, her husband.
“This race has been a success,” Pirro said. “Why? Because we talked about the issues that I fought for my whole life: fighting for the underdog, giving [a] voice to the voiceless and never remaining silent in the face of injustice.”
Al Pirro was not in attendance at the event, and Pirro did not comment on her future plans.Cuomo will take office after being inaugurated on the first day in January.