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Larry Donnelly Exit Cuomo, enter Kerrywoman Kathy Hochul

Our columnist reflects on the New York governor’s fall from grace and looks at the career of the woman who will replace him.

IN A 2002 piece for Salon, the political website based in the United States, current CNN anchor Jake Tapper reflected upon the New York Democratic gubernatorial primary. 

Andrew Cuomo, who had been a member of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet, was initially the heavy favourite in that race, but wound up badly trailing the state’s mild-mannered comptroller, Carl McCall, and withdrew before ballots were cast to avoid humiliation.

Tapper sought to assess why Cuomo had fallen so far short in his quest.  It did not help that the party’s elected officials and activists just could not warm to the man. There was nary a person acquainted with the son of the respected three-term New York governor, Mario Cuomo, who would vouch for the then-44-year-old’s character.

‘They know him’

As McCall said when asked why so few of his rival’s former colleagues from a posting as Secretary for Housing and Urban Development backed him, “they know him, what can I tell ya?  Having worked with him, they’re not very supportive.”

Tapper summed up the prevalent sentiment forthrightly: “the regrettable fact for Cuomo was that, to a sizeable number of voters, he seemed like an a**hole.”

Even as a deliberate non-follower of my neighbouring state’s affairs – see Boston born-and-bred scepticism of all things New York for an explanation of a political indifference that is unusual for me – I could not escape hearing the universally negative stories about Andrew Cuomo from those who had encountered him.

Accordingly, it was with bewilderment that I viewed the subsequent rise of his political star and long tenure as the Empire State’s chief executive. Arrogant, brash and combative beyond belief, I just couldn’t see his appeal as a politician.

That the pandemic made him a much bigger figure and prompted speculation in a temporarily fawning media regarding a future presidential run, was equally mystifying.

I put it down to his being an ideal foil for Donald Trump and the perception that New York was dealing well with Covid-19.  The latter, which did not comport with reality, was engendered by his robust and effective communication style in an unprecedented period.

The fall

It all unravelled rapidly as multiple women emerged with disturbing accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct over many years against Cuomo. Despite plenty of calls from within the Democratic Party for him to step aside, Cuomo appeared determined to brazen it out and, while apologising, asserted that “sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I mean no offence and only attempt to add some levity and banter to what is a very serious business.”

His position was untenable, however, after the release of a report commissioned by New York Attorney General Letitia James. This found that the governor had groped, kissed and made inappropriate comments to 11 women.

There was a loud clamour for him to go and impeachment proceedings were in the offing. The last straw came when his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, who had trenchantly defended her boss and tried to discredit the women he harassed, abruptly quit.

Even as he went, Cuomo did so with no grace. Professing to take responsibility for his actions, he nonetheless insisted that there was no ill intent behind them and that they were misunderstood. He indicated that he would still resign, though, because “it’s not about me, it’s about we.”

To be blunt, New York Democrats had him sussed two decades ago.

While almost no one has shed a tear in the wake of Cuomo’s undignified exit from public life, Irish onlookers are delighted that the granddaughter of Kerry emigrants, Kathy Hochul, will assume his role. The Buffalo native has been serving as lieutenant governor since January 2015. She is a proud Irish American (her maiden surname is Courtney) who frequently touts her ancestry and references her family’s struggles as they chased their dreams in the US.

First woman, conservative-leaning

A Democrat, Hochul was a lawyer and a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill prior to successfully campaigning for local offices. In 2011, she won an open congressional seat in a solidly Republican district by a narrow margin. She probably owed that triumph to an independent candidate linked to the Tea Party movement, who took 9% of the vote, and she was defeated in a bid for a full term in 2012.

Early in her political career, and owing to an extent to the fairly conservative territory she represented, Hochul identified as an “independent Democrat.” She disagreed with the issuance of driver’s licences to undocumented immigrants.  She also opposed gun control measures and was actually endorsed by the National Rifle Association. She has pivoted leftward since, yet continues to be labelled a centrist Democrat.

It is expected that Hochul, soon to be New York’s first female governor, will endeavour to be elected in her own right next year. She will not receive a free pass in the Democratic primary. Among those with ambitions is James, the high profile attorney general. No matter where Hochul situates herself these days, ascendant progressives will assail past stances that aren’t in keeping with the present zeitgeist. Some liberals will consequently look askance at her.

That said, the advantages incumbency bestows should not be underestimated. Hochul is a shrewd politician who has crisscrossed New York as lieutenant governor and formed alliances and built strong relationships with key Democrats in rural and urban areas of what is a vast and diverse state. Crucially, she has maintained a healthy distance from Andrew Cuomo.

She will not be easily beaten. In her words, “like all good Irishmen and Irishwomen, I love a good fight, especially if it’s for the people of my beloved state.” Without getting carried away, Ireland and Irish America can benefit tangibly and intangibly from Hochul’s becoming the governor of one of the most Irish states in the US.

She wears her heritage on her sleeve and – whether it is in furthering business ties, expanding educational exchanges or ameliorating the plight of many thousands of our undocumented in New York – this country will have another powerful friend its politicians and diplomats can call on. This is particularly significant in an era when Irish influence in America has been widely described as on the wane.

Even this detached Bostonian will be watching Kathy Hochul – from Buffalo, but of Kerry – with great interest.

Larry Donnelly is a Boston attorney, a Law Lecturer at NUI Galway and a political columnist with TheJournal.ie.  His upcoming book – “The Bostonian: Life in an Irish American Political Family” – will be published by Gill Books on 15 October and can be pre-ordered here https://www.bookstation.ie/product/the-bostonian/.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:22 PM

    ‘The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.’

    When my grandfather died young, my Granny had to go out to work to keep food on the table and a roof over the heads of their seven children, the youngest of whom were 10 years of age. The state did sweet f.a. to ensure that she wasn’t obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of her duties in the home, in fact they took his medical card off her because it was in his name.

    Article 41.2 is sexist, mendacious, outdated rubbish that isn’t fit for purpose. Get rid of it.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:28 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: Not sure what getting rid of the article would do in that situation. In fact, if that article was followed, your grandmother would have been properly looked after?

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:46 PM

    @Thomas O’ Donnell: It wasn’t followed. It never is, as this article elucidates. What is the point of having something in the constitution that serves no purpose beyond being a bit insulting and making false promises?

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    Mute Joseph Mc Dermott
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:16 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: plenty of mothers out there that wish to stay at home to bring up their children. What your proposing is taking that right away. I believe it should be more gender neutral. It should apply to mums or dads and not be exclusive

    35
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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:31 PM

    @Joseph Mc Dermott: The hell I am. Mothers would have the right to stay at home regardless. The article does protect them and never has. What’s the point of it if it isn’t enforced? And it won’t be either. If it hasn’t since it’s inception, it’s not going to now with the current shower.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:39 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: The article doesn’t protect them and never has*.

    17
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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Feb 1st 2022, 12:26 AM

    @David F. Dwyer: Your point is clearly and cogently made. The State for all it’s false Roman piety is hypocritical in it’s practical effect.

    22
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    Mute Dearbhla O Reilly
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:35 PM

    Ahhh McQuaid. What a peach he was. Took on his role with gusto. His legacy and the church’s legacy lives on. Lucky us eh? Especially women.
    And thanks Dev too.

    112
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    Mute Benny McHale
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:26 PM

    Just needs a tweak. Change “woman” to “A citizen”, and “her” to “his/her”

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    Mute The Bolt
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:28 PM

    @Benny McHale: Isn’t it mad how something so simply solved, has people losing their brain over it. People are getting too touchy over terminology.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:47 PM

    @The Bolt: ‘People are getting too touchy over terminology.’

    The fact that it promises safeguards that it does not and never has delivered on is the problem. Terminology is the cherry on top. And to the OP, it needs more than a ‘tweak’, it needs enforcement or to be scrapped altogether. Obviously one is cheaper than the other.

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    Mute The Bolt
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:00 PM

    @David F. Dwyer: Well scrapping it serves no one. As you say, enforcement is what people should be fighting for, not terminology. I read your point about your nan, and no doubt its happened to many others. The fight should be that this shouldn’t happen to anyone, and hopefully and amendment would ensure that.

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    Mute David F. Dwyer
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:35 PM

    @The Bolt: Be realistic, enforcement has never happened and never will not happen. The state isn’t going to pay for anyone who wishes to be a homebody to do so. The article is a false promise. Better off without it if it can’t be fulfilled.

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    Mute Honeybee
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:02 PM

    The state has never recognised the role of women in the home, first by having laws that on marriage a woman could not remain in employment / lost half her wages on marriage. The role of caring for children/elderly/infirm was never acknowledged, women in the home had no rights, they were not seen as contributing to the economy/commerce and they relied on handouts from their husbands, they didn’t even have entitlement to health care and still have no proper provision for pension entitlements. It was sickening recently to hear Michael Martin speak about how women are valued when our history of how women were and are treated is a different reality. Look at the provisions of Article 41.2 and know they looked the other way when women needed to have their rights addressed under this Act, imagine if any woman had brought a challenge to vindicate her rights under the Act why they would have thrown the might of the state at her as they did in recent actions by women in healthcare on their deathbeds.

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    Mute Dearbhla O Reilly
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:25 PM

    @Honeybee: well said.

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    Mute Gavin Linden
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:03 PM

    Maybe I see view this in the complete opposite it was intended but I think it should be viewed as a very positive article in the constitution to support those women (or indeed men) who choose to contribute to both their family and by extension the state by remaining at home full time at a certain period in their children’s life.
    Ok, words such as ‘duties’ are antiquated but it could be a tool to build a positive system for those such people.

    59
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    Mute Anne-Marie Keane
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    Jan 31st 2022, 10:09 PM

    “endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home”

    Putting the misogynistic view/wording aside for a min, what did they do to ensure a mother didn’t have to work whilst trying to rear children & run a home? Was their monetary value/recognition for the woman? Entitled to a pension? No.

    There should be a vote to keep it but change the language so that it states parents and not mothers. Enforce it to ensure that parents are protected & allowed the time needed to run a home & rear kids without monetary stress/ loss of pensions.
    Childcare costs are so high and it’s women that mainly suffer when it comes to deciding who reduces/leaves their employment to have a quality family life.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Jan 31st 2022, 9:00 PM

    Kick McQuaid’s can out the window, instead of down the road.

    Don’t miss this unique opportunity to express the positive contribution of equality in the home, care and work of all kinds .. and all the benefits it would deliver for all those currently undervalued by our society.

    Include “The Family Home” special status in the Referendum, to place Family Homes in their rightful place as primary and superior rights supporting primary constitutional values, in particular, human dignity (need for shelter / housing) and self-governance.

    General property rights would ONLY apply to the extent that the property interest immediately serves these primary constitutional values of human dignity (need for shelter / housing) and self-governance.

    https://www.change.org/p/irish-referendum-on-family-home-special-status

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:45 AM

    @Neuville-Kepler62F: Few property owners (more than 50% of the population) would vote for what you suggest. They prefer the present arrangements whereby the state can only seize private property under very limited circumstances and subject to full compensation. Neither would foreign direct investment be attracted to a country that might seize or confiscate its property, willy-nilly. The housing crisis won’t be solved by stealing. It will be solved (slowly, because we don’t have sufficient building workers anyway)principally by investment and the taxation needed to fund it. These are matters for the legislature elected by the people.
    (This doesn’t mean that changes aren’t needed to discourage abuses like deliberate dereliction. But this can be achieved by targeted taxes)
    Enforceable property rights, like freedom of expression are fundamental to a functioning civilised society.

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    Mute Neuville-Kepler62F
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    Feb 5th 2022, 4:38 PM

    @Peter O’Muiri: .. good post.
    One couldn’t describe current Irish society as a functioning civilised society with a “locked generation”, rack rents by landlords (getting €7.4 billion of taxpayers money p.a. in HAP) and evictions.

    A referendum on housing was first called for in 1974 (Kenny Report) and if it was passed would have prevented the 2008 crash. We now know why FF & FG buried that one, representing the interests of Developers and Landlords, and the disaster it caused.
    A referendum has been called for again in 2014 by the Constitutional Convention. The German Constitution has such a provision to give special place to the Family home without adversely impacting on the German general property rights.

    We are waiting since 1974 for this Referendum on Housing after many less important referenda have been implemented to fix our badly defective Constitution.

    “All Irish citizens should be able to afford to own their own homes on average incomes in their own country” – NK62F

    Failing to permanently resolve housing by way of a Referendum will ultimately lead to civil unrest – one small spark!

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    Mute eitrebor
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:45 PM

    Have never come across any instance of this being legally tested through the courts but would enjoy knowledge if it has – the language appears clear on ‘economic necessity’ & I genuinely have wondered to myself why women & their partners have not tested it where maternity benefit was not topped up by the state to the level of their wage/salary to allow them the first few months with newborns in particular where they may wish to but cannot stay with them due to their economic necessity, lack of funds, needing to return to work etc. Generally economic issues are non justiciable due to Art 45 but this is a clear statement signalling economic circumstance & a positive requirement on the state. Have thought about this aspect several times whilst noting the anachronistic nature of the text.

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:15 AM

    @eitrebor: I witnessed one instance. At the end of a Circuit Circuit Court sentencing hearing of a woman convicted of defrauding pensioners in a scam which netted her almost €10K. The defence counsel pleaded that because she was mother of two children sending her to prison risked the children being taken into care, and this would , inter alia, be in contravention of the Article. In any case, the judge didn’t imprison her, but didn’t indicate whether this decision was influenced by Article 41.2, or just by the reluctance of Irish judges to lock up female criminals generally.
    Perhaps the present wording should be removed and replaced by one to compel gender-neutral sentencing!

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    Mute eitrebor
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 5:44 PM

    @Peter O’Muiri: thanks for the insight. I suppose in one sense given the interpretation/applicability of Art 34 a Circuit Court judge would correctly leave constitutional interpretation to the superior courts and not seek to advance new ground obiter in such a sentencing.

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    Mute Cian
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    Jan 31st 2022, 8:54 PM

    The only people I can see it insulting is men? How is it ensuring to women to get preferential treatment haha

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    Mute Tom Molloy
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:21 PM

    @Cian: A positive take on it is needed. The father of the children is been exhorted to provide for his wife and his offspring. Maternity hospitals are stressing the benefits of breastfeeding, will that be next to be called sexist instead of the wonderful and healthy option. ?

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    Mute andrew
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:30 PM

    Its all about having a conversation about what we want in and out of the constitution we took out articles 2 and 3 to agree to the Good Friday Agreement 1998 and their are those that would like a right to a home to be a constitutional right, its apalling we have such homelessness so it is welcome we are talking about changing the constitution.

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    Mute Dearbhla O Reilly
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    Jan 31st 2022, 11:49 PM

    @andrew: people have been asking for this particular change for decades. So I guess its a priority for a great many. As for changes and conversations, we have had 33 f them leading to amendments. It’s a well written document despite the church’s input. Robust and more democratic than many and more changes can still be made. The right to a home is a good debate to have on it. We are good at debate on constitutional issues. Bring it on.

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:31 AM

    @andrew: Some people are under the illusion that creating ‘paper’ rights is the answer to all our problems. It isn’t. The present Russian constitution contains express rights to housing and free health-care. Visitors to Moscow will bear witness to the thousands sleeping on the streets (in spite of constant police harassment and violence). Russians also enjoy a life-expectancy almost 10 years less than we do in Ireland and Western Europe.
    Creation of social entitlements, and how they are to be paid for are best left to the legislature answerable to the people – and sackable by them. Like in Sweden and the other Nordic nations which have short constitutions which set out the organisation of the state, the balance and division of state power, and a few fundamental rights (such as freedom of expression and assembly)

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    Mute Lyn Brookes
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    Feb 1st 2022, 5:55 PM

    How many women have actually taken the state to court to in order to receive financial hep and benefits to raise their family rather than having to head out to work every day. How many women have to leave the family home due to having an abusive partner and have to fight tooth and nail to get housed and then live on the poverty line. Most women have to go out to work in order to provide the household with essentials, one wage is simply not enough any more. The constitution is quite clear, so why are women being forced to take jobs in order to provide heat and food.

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    Mute Máire Daly
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    Apr 5th 2022, 9:06 PM

    I was talking to a Community Welfare officer about this, he said ‘this clause in the constitution is the reason we don’t force lone parents to get a job, as if they were on the dole, it gives them space to raise their children’.

    So yeah, it’s a good clause, that has benefited lone (male) parents too.

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    Mute Peter O'Muiri
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    Feb 2nd 2022, 10:02 AM

    Remove it. Period. The creation of social entitlements, and how they are to be paid for, is properly a matter for the elected legislature.

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