Though he planned to arrive on Friday, Governor Andrew Cuomo cancelled his trip to the annual conference of New York Hispanic lawmakers in Puerto Rico. Zack Fink filed the following report.
In what organizers are calling a cancellation, Governor Andrew Cuomo decided not to fly down to Somos el Futuro, an annual conference of Hispanic elected officials, even though sources tell us he had already arranged for a big party Friday night.
“Well, I am not insulted. I think we have to realize that the governor when he got elected, I think we went through the same thing and finally the governor-elect Cuomo, then, my first year doing Somos. He came to give us the respect that particular time,” said state Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who represents Brooklyn.
Sources told NY1 that organizers were not told of the cancellation until 3 p.m. on Friday, the day he was supposed to arrive.
Publicly, legislators were careful about how to respond, but many admitted to being a little taken aback. Some hadn’t even heard until we told them.
“He’s not coming? No. You know what, it’s my first conference, so I have no expectation of anyone being here. I am sure he made a good decision for New York, he needed to be there for whatever reason. Disappointing,” said state Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, who represents Scarsdale.
“I think it’s a disappointment for the conference to not hear from him. I think it would have been mutually beneficial to hear from the people at this conference, what their concerns are and to hear what the governor’s plans are,” said state Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, who represents Tarrytown.
Privately, some are speculating that Cuomo didn’t want to share the spotlight with mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who is speaking to the group.
One person who did make it down is Cuomo’s potential Republican challenger next year, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.
“We’ve got to make some fundamental change because I think fundamentally our state’s out of balance right now,” Astorino said. “And until that’s fixed, we are going to continue to spiral and spiral the wrong way.”
Astorino was one of the few bright spots for the state GOP. His solid win on Election Day in a largely Democratic county like Westchester had people buzzing that he should jump into the gubernatorial race. There has been a reluctance on the part of most potential candidates to do that because Cuomo has roughly $ 30 million in his campaign war chest.
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