Skip to main content

Democrats pack Larry's to hear campaign speech by Cuomo

By Howard B. Owens

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo made a campaign stop -- he's running for governor -- in Batavia this afternoon at Larry's Steakhouse on East Main Street.

The room was packed with local Democrats and several members of the media.

We'll have more coverage later.

UPDATE:  My digital recorder failed me. I was planning to post an audio of Cuomo's speech, but the file didn't save right.  All I have is his meeting with reporters (audio starts just after a TV reporter asked about his plans for the lieutenant governor). There are more pictures after the jump.

Chris Charvella

There were quite a few Republicans and independents there as well Howard. Great event, I can't wait to vote next Tuesday.

Oct 25, 2010, 8:22pm Permalink
Chris Charvella

Jeff, if a Republican put out Cuomo's plan the entire party would be tripping over each other on the way to the polls to vote for him.

What I like about Andrew's plan is that it's fiscally conservative but it will be administered by a person who genuinely cares about every person, particularly those that don't have a bunch of money in their bank account. A fiscally conservative agenda paired with a real concern for the well being of the working class could do the trick for New York and I'm looking forward to the next four years.

Oct 25, 2010, 9:08pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Yes, Chris, fiscal conservatives don't genuinely care about people. They're not concerned about the working class. Yup.

Oct 25, 2010, 9:14pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

Chris, when it comes to union busting you are correct, Republicans would be all over it. But Cuomo (D) as a perceived friend of labor is falsely leading the unions over the precipice.

Oct 25, 2010, 9:24pm Permalink
Bea McManis

Maybe it was a broad brush, but are you denying that there are many who claim to be fiscal conservatives that have nothing but disdain for the less fortunate?

Oct 25, 2010, 10:35pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

I'm denying it. Tax records consistenly show that Conservatives give far more of their personal income to charities than Liberals. You can talk the talk with other peoples (taxpayer) money but what people do with their own money speaks loudest about priorities.

Oct 25, 2010, 10:41pm Permalink
Chris Charvella

I only mentioned that Andrew's plan is conservative and that I have faith he'll pay close attention to how his policies affect the middle class. His opponent can't match even that.

Oct 25, 2010, 10:42pm Permalink
Justin Burger

I thought it was nice to see so many supporters, young and old alike.

Howard, I am borrowing your photo with Cuomo and I posing, and putting on my Facebook. I managed to get some pics of you there too!

Oct 25, 2010, 11:37pm Permalink
Jeremiah Pedro

Bea,

I would appreciate very much if you would refrain from making pointed statements that could be construed as you putting words into peoples mouths.
You do not have to be a democrat in order to care about the middle class. Nor do you have to be a republican to be a fiscal conservative.
I merely agreed with a statement that Howard made.
I wouldn't mind seeing Mr. Cumo as our next Gov. I would also like to see him follow through on his proposals.
With the choices before us I can not see how Mr. Cumo could loose this election.

Oct 25, 2010, 11:51pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Any issue of politics aside, I think it was great that Cuomo visited Batavia. Congratulations to our friends in the local Democratic organizations for being a part of pulling it off. It was a good community event.

Justin, I was glad to be able to get a picture of you with Cuomo. I tried to get as many pics as possible of local people and readers with him.

Oct 25, 2010, 11:54pm Permalink
Justin Burger

This is all I managed to get of the speech on video with my little camera, in between snapping pictures.

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z2HAvthFAEQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Z2HAvthFAEQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&quot; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Oct 26, 2010, 12:08am Permalink
Bea McManis

Posted by Jeremiah Pedro on October 25, 2010 - 11:51pm
Bea,

I would appreciate very much if you would refrain from making pointed statements that could be construed as you putting words into peoples mouths.
You do not have to be a democrat in order to care about the middle class. Nor do you have to be a republican to be a fiscal conservative.

Jeremiah,
Your second paragraph was the point I wanted to get across. That broad brush can go both ways.

Oct 26, 2010, 2:26am Permalink
Jeff Allen

Chris,
here are quotes from a report John Stossel did for ABC(not FOX) show 20/20:

Stossel interviewed Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks, who conducted a study which found that conservatives, while making slightly less money than liberals, actually contribute more. "But it turns out that this idea that liberals give more is a myth. These are the twenty-five states where people give an above average percent of their income, twenty-four were red states in the last presidential election."

Arthur Brooks, Who Really Cares, author: "When you look at the data, it turns out the conservatives give about thirty percent more per conservative-headed family than per liberal-headed family. And incidentally, conservative-headed families make slightly less money."

Here is a link to a New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=3

Here is a paper out of Georgia State:

http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/summit2009/docs/Funding_for_Disaster_…

and finally, Chris, you brought up fiscal conservatives and "caring"

Oct 26, 2010, 6:16am Permalink
Dave Olsen

Politics aside, it is cool of him to come to Batavia and meet voters and talk with us. He probably won't win Genesee County and he probably doesn't need us either. So, good job by the local Democratic committee. Nice pic's.

Oct 26, 2010, 8:53am Permalink
Chris Charvella

Jeff,
Here is the finding on charitable giving quoted directly from the Georgia State paper:

'The relevant empirical evidence seems to indicate that while political ideology or orientation does not have a definitive impact on an individual’s willingness to make charitable donations, non-political demographic influences such as income, religious affiliation, higher levels of education, and being female are positively associated with making charitable donations.'

The other article you cited is an opinion piece about a book that I haven't read so there's really nothing I can say about it.

My original comment was about Andrew Cuomo, his conservative fiscal agenda and his record of looking out for the poor and middle class. Since fiscally conservative policy tends to disparately affect the poor and middle class, I was simply stating that I trusted Andrew to do the right thing while making hard decisions.

It was not a commentary on conservative ideology.

Oct 26, 2010, 11:04am Permalink
John Roach

Chris,
When Andrew's dad was Lt. Gov, his administration was so anti union, the State's Corrections Officers had to go strike in 1979. Andrew is his dad, so it will be interesting if history repeats itself with him.

Jeremiah,
remember, Bea still thinks all Republicans support child abusers. Her credibility is thin.

Oct 26, 2010, 11:26am Permalink
Thomas Mooney

What a joke , many to do 's in the crowd that want same old same old because of the benefits that they get from being involved with the Demecrates .

Oct 26, 2010, 11:30am Permalink
Chris Charvella

Gee, John, you seem to know every aspect of Andrew's personality, his motivations, his plans. If I had known you two were so close I would have made sure you got an invite yesterday.

Oct 26, 2010, 11:38am Permalink
deb stella

Every New Yorker needs to come together over the next few years. We are bleeding jobs and our young people are leaving in droves. I do not think it is very helpful for people to be arguing over which group gives more to charities. If the current trend holds, we will all be in need. Anger is not a good platform. The fact is we are in trouble and we will all have to give a little. We cannot continue to reward New York business people who ship jobs overseas.

Oct 26, 2010, 4:21pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

Chris, so what does Andrew Cuomo bring to the table that is any different? He repeats mantras, makes claims, and shows us nothing we haven't seen before. What convinces you that the "three men in a room" policy making won't continue. I don't know where you stand on issues concerning labor, but he is no friend of labor, yet says just enough of the right things to get them to open their pocketbooks. Cuomo was born and bred a politician. He makes statements that he understands our frustrations???? How???? He says he is himself frustrated. His only frustration is that he is not governor yet.

Oct 26, 2010, 4:46pm Permalink
Mark Potwora

Why wasn't this event in the Mall so that any and all could attend..Was he here to get votes or just tell the ones who were allready going to vote for him how great he is...Albany will run the same..Scams and alot of late budgets..Deb come together ,give me a break this was an event for only those that support Cuomo..It was not an event open to the public..Hows that for coming together..

Oct 26, 2010, 6:28pm Permalink
Chris Charvella

Jeff, when you bring up labor I assume your talking about public employees unions. We all sit around and gripe about politicians not having the guts to make tough decisions but when a guy shows up and says, very directly, that he's willing to do just that regardless of party politics you try and flay him.

Every conservative I've ever talked to about New York's fiscal woes cites the sheer multitude of public employees as a major problem. Are you shocked that a prominent Democrat feels the same way? You shouldn't be. Pragmatism has to rule the day right now and Andrew is being pragmatic about what it's going to take to secure our state's future.

I support unions, I always have. Right now though, what's good for New York may not be good for every public employee. I'm glad I'm not the guy who's going to have to make that choice, but like I said earlier, I trust Andrew to make the right decisions.

You can't please everyone, you can only try and do what's right, right now. Somebody has to steer the ship through choppy waters and I know that Andrew Cuomo is the man to do it.

Oct 26, 2010, 8:22pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

Chris, all I ask of any candidate, regardless of party is to act on truth and not political expediency or false public opinion. If you have the time please read these two reports:

http://www.nypensionpadding.com/pdfs/preliminary_data_analysis_summary…

https://acrobat.com/#d=jtcQ30j5iwSObkkJgixdYQ

Asking unions for concessions is one thing, and all NYS public employee unions have made concessions for the last 4 to 5 contracts, but undercutting some of the foundational union issues in a knee jerk reaction is not the answer.

Oct 26, 2010, 10:01pm Permalink
Bea McManis

Posted by Mark Potwora on October 26, 2010 - 6:28pm
Why wasn't this event in the Mall so that any and all could attend..

Howard posted this a good four hours before the event. One man from Orleans Co. was there to picket already.
Where did it say that it was only for his supporters.
If you had read Howard's original post on this, would you have attended? You certainly would have been welcome.

http://thebatavian.com/blogs/howard-owens/andrew-cuomo-planning-campaig…

Oct 26, 2010, 10:20pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

I'm quite certain the majority of the attendees had more than 4 hours notice. This was a quick slide in/slide out, don't get your hands dirty.

Oct 26, 2010, 10:29pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Just to be fair, Republican candidates do the same thing.

There are obvious political motivations in "slide in and out."

But there's also security considerations and just the fact that campaigns tend to be chaotic and too much advance planning with lots of public notice tends to lead to embarrassment.

If I were being frank, I'd characterize any quibbles over how the event was planned and staged to be more along the lines of partisan pettiness than anything really important.

If I were running a campaign, especially for a front runner, I wouldn't handle the planning and notification any differently. There's nothing to be gained by a front runner of what is a minority party in a county like Genesee holding a big rally. Considering that he will almost certainly win (and certainly lose GC), what's wrong with at least being a little thankful that he made this much of an effort to visit GC? Characterize it as throwing us a bone, if you like, but so far it's more interest in GC than any other candidate for governor has shown GC.

Oct 26, 2010, 10:45pm Permalink
Jeff Allen

There is nothing petty about calling out ANY candidate who does an end around to avoid people who might ask questions that require real accountability. If I had known about it, I would have taken the day off work to be there on the slim chance that I may actually get the opportunity to address the AG.

Oct 26, 2010, 11:10pm Permalink
Lorie Longhany

Thanks Charlie.

Believe me when I say this -- there wasn't a lot of advanced notice for us. And there was no list and no one took names at the door.There were plenty of faces in the crowd that I didn't know or recognize. I also made a few "reach outs" to Republican leaders. When we invited people we specifically told them to invite friends and family no matter what their affiliation.

It was an honor and a privilege to host this event. A segment of our citizens talked to the man that will be steering the state out of some pretty troubled times for the next four years. We also contributed to the local downtown economy on a Monday afternoon and fed a whole lot of people some really awesome appetizers.

Andrew gave a great speech and shook hands and spoke with just about everyone that was there that wanted to talk to him. I can't tell you the people that brought old, yellowed local newspaper clippings to show him from his father's Batavia visits or shared a memory. And he gave each one of them his undivided attention.

Oct 26, 2010, 11:38pm Permalink
Bea McManis

Jeff, had you known about it early enough to take the day off from work, then you would have had far more advance notice than the rest of us.
It is a petty to find fault. He did a quick swing through Genesee and Orleans counties. I really wish I had been there.
Had you gone, I'm sure you would have had the opportunity to look him in the eye and tell him exactly how you feel and what you think of him. No one would have stopped you and he certainly wouldn't threaten to "take you out" because you disagree with him.

Oct 27, 2010, 3:03am Permalink
Jeff Allen

"Andrew gave a great speech"...that's how we ended up with our current President. Bea, I had to laugh at the "take you out" reference. Good one.

Oct 27, 2010, 5:54am Permalink
Lorie Longhany

Jeff, a little advice for the next time. You need to plug into a better network so you will get the heads up on these kinds of events.

An election inspector, who I won't name, had to have received some kind of a tip. She had enough time to make a fashion statement and get to the event on time as she donned a striking orange garbage bag ensemble as her protest garb.

Oct 27, 2010, 8:53am Permalink
Bea McManis

Lorie,
To be fair, if that election inspector learned of the event at 1:30pm, she still had time to decide which of the garbage bags she wanted to wear.
Did they distribute their protest garbage bags at the GOP headquarters or somewhere else?

Oct 27, 2010, 10:10am Permalink
Lorie Longhany

Bea, I have no idea where the bag came from. Maybe the lawn and leaf aisle at Wal-Mart.

I'm definitely all for the 1st amendment and kid our local protester. I'm glad she was able to attend the event even though she was dressed up as garbage. We would have welcomed her to take off her garbage suit, come in out of the rain, and have a bite to eat at the appetizer table, but it was too late and she had already left when I was told she had been out there.

Oct 27, 2010, 10:22am Permalink
Bea McManis

lol on lawn and leaf sale.
Too bad you didn't connect with her. Larry's can always be depended upon to provide great food.

Oct 27, 2010, 11:13am Permalink
Jeff Allen

The Buffalo News (who endorsed Cuomo) has reported that they have requested his schedule and have been denied. He limits access and is evasive on exposure. If that is a sign of things to come then NOTHING will change in Albany.

Oct 27, 2010, 1:31pm Permalink
bud prevost

Beth said "Someone needs to tell that lady with the "Why won't you debate Carl" sign that the debate was last week. She must have missed it. "

Beth, with all due respect, that was no debate. It was a joke. I bet if you asked 100 people on here what they remember most about the debate, 95 would say the rent is too damn high.

I hope when Andrew is elected, he follows through on his campaign rhetoric. I'm looking for 20% reduction in spending, and consolidation of the multitude of government entities we have. My guess is, that neither will happen, but we'll have a good looking first lady who can cook.

Oct 27, 2010, 1:52pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

But, Bud, as I understand it, Carl got exactly the debate format he wanted.

And FWIW, I wouldn't have it any other way. There shouldn't be a debate unless everybody is invited to the shindig.

Oct 27, 2010, 2:25pm Permalink
Dave Olsen

Bud, I remember Warren Redlich telling the voters of NY State that Andrew Cuomo received a $ 55,000 contribution from a parking lot.

Oct 27, 2010, 2:48pm Permalink

Authentically Local