Oh, those were the days: its 1982 and Mario Cuomo was going to be Governor, and Andrew Cuomo, 24 years old his father’s appointed executive director of his transition team. That’s not unusual though, Mitt Romney made his name through his father governorship in Michigan, Nancy Pelosi, aunt of California governor Newsom, used her father’s FDR administration’s ties, Lynn Cheney road her father’s veep’s credit and congressional record in Wyoming to Congressional Glory, the Bush Family starting with Poppa to his two sons — one who actually adhering to the Peter Principle made it all the way to the White House, the Murkowski’s of Alaska, and all the Kennedy’s, including his brother Teddy, have all used JFK. While America does not have a house of lords, if you follow enough politics closely enough, you would think otherwise.
If that isn’t bad enough, then there are the wives of husbands, who died in office, and got a seat by claiming they were the right successor, all of which makes one think of Sterling Hayden’s belief in losing one’s Purity of Essence gives the other some of their potency 1 As Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, by Stanley Kubrick c. 1964 which is public domain and so available here on Archive.org
”The odds in Vegas were 17 to 1 on Cuomo-Koch, but Mario won.” What a proud son. Andrew refers to eating dinner at his parents’ home in Hollis, Queens, as ”going to Matilda’s” but he is close to his family as Mario and Andrew roomed together when the latter attended Albany Law School awaiting Matilda’s care packages of homemade Italian food.
Andrew describes his father as ”dedicated.,” not as negligent or neglectful. Some say their father is old fashioned, Andrew says ‘’principled.” He once complained that he wouldn’t play basketball with Mario anymore because the old man elbowed him in the ribs; the old man joked back “kids.”
The HUD Years
Mr. Cuomo came to HUD as an assistant secretary in 1993, right after his marriage to Kerry Kennedy. He had a background in politics and housing so was a natural fit. In his 20’s he built apartments for the homeless through a nonprofit group he founded, Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged, or H.E.L.P. The group’s approach to homelessness combined housing with education, job training, help with substance abuse and mental health services. He brought to HUD with kiosks, outlawing guns in the buildings and even hinting at curfews to control the crime; he urged home ownership through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Mr. Cuomo attempted to use HUD as a springboard for his campaign to be governor of New York, which started just nine days after leaving Washington. And indeed in the leadup to the Sept. 10 2002 Democratic primary, Mr. Cuomo has focused on his work at HUD in practically every campaign speech and television commercial. Besides claiming to have reinvented HUD, he paints his administration as a golden age for housing.’
‘We took this big old government that nobody could make work and we transformed it,” Mr. Cuomo said in a recent debate with H. Carl McCall, the state comptroller and his opponent in the Democratic primary for governor. Mr. Cuomo boasted that during his administration HUD created more jobs, built more housing for the elderly, and fought harder against housing discrimination than anyone had done before. ‘‘I’m a can-do Democrat,’‘ he said, ”and I believe we can do more and make Albany work better.”
In 1997, he promoted HUD secretary; in 2007 the Attorney General of New York, and finally in 2011 getting the gubernatorial crown; Mario’s old job. Nothing lasts forever and the former governor died on January 1, 2015 at 82 of congestive heart failure leaving his son-protégé on his own. Most believe Andrew has been a worthy successor; others say he is over his head. As governor he was well loved, but could not really point to any accomplishment’s unless like other Democrat Governor’s (Wolf of Pennsylvania, Newsom of California and Northham in Virginia) it was pushing covid victims into nursing homes.
The chart of Andrew
There is no stated birth time for Governor Cuomo, but we feel that this rectification sums his up. His temperament type is a Splash, because he few conjunctions but technically is missing a Grand trine unless we cheat and use the Part of Spirit, but truthfully this setup is not ideal. That stated, there are many types that fall short of the idea, and so we add the Governor’s to the list.
On the plus side of the Splash, he does have few conjunctions and it is in the first house of Sagittarius from the sun to Saturn. This setup gives him a serious outlook, which fits him well, as Cuomo works hard & is diligent. His work ethos and political beliefs are very akin to his father Mario.
Venus in the Second house shows his attraction to wealthy-well connected women: first there was Kerry Kennedy who threw him over for a second rate polo player Bruce Colley, and then his current girlfriend, Sandra Lee Christiansen, the foodie. Opposite Uranus in the Ninth, this highlights how his partners are too freedom loving to be pinned down, which is actually something that attracts him, but also does not lead to marital happiness.
His next opposition is from the Sixth House to the Twelfth, with Mars to the Moon highlighting the health of his partners being fragile (Kerry Kennedy is a depressive and Sandra Lee has battled uterine cancer). This placement also gives him great ambition and alludes to him being a late starter, coming from humble beginnings and making several missteps along the way. We believe he is a shoe-in for his 2018 re-election and will make a run for the roses in the future.
We didn’t foresee that Biden would pick off a strong contender with lots of innuendo. But that’s politics, still we don’t think Cuomo will be down for long…Mayor perhaps?
Footnotes:
Updated on September 12, 2021 to reflect his departure and Mrs. Kathy Hochul’s ascension to governor.
Footnotes:
- 1As Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, by Stanley Kubrick c. 1964 which is public domain and so available here on Archive.org
