URL for this article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/450300p-378998c.html

Editorials
Published September 4, 2006

Two Democrats are bidding seriously to become the party's candidate for New York attorney general: former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo and former Public Advocate Mark Green. Each is a lawyer with a public service record.Their shared goal is to succeed Eliot Spitzer, who demonstrated how powerful an attorney general can be in wielding the law. Spitzer's skillful exercise of authority was a reminder that the state's top legal officer must, first, foremost and only, represent the interests of the people.

Measuring by that elemental standard, the Daily News believes that Green is more suited to serving as AG than Cuomo is. Green, who has been a consumer advocate for more than three decades, gets our nod as the preferred choice in Tuesday's primary.

Cuomo's resume includes a short stint as an appeals lawyer for the Manhattan DA's office, substantial work on behalf of the homeless and leadership of HUD under President Bill Clinton. He has managed a bureaucracy and speaks passionately about social justice.

As would be expected, Cuomo is ambitious. He has aspired to rise in politics since serving at a young age as right hand to his father, Mario. This drive brought Cuomo success while also, at times, prompting him to place his own interests over a greater good.

He accompanied significant accomplishments at HUD with expensive self-promotion. In his first attempt at elective office, a run for governor four years ago, he raised $12.4 million from supporters and then quit the race a week before the primary. Then he accused the party establishment of shunning him in favor of state Controller Carl McCall because McCall was trying to become New York's first black governor.

"I was an arrogant interloper, interfering on his turf," Cuomo told New York Times columnist Bob Herbert. "I came from Washington. Came here. Didn't wait in line and came here and said, 'I'm going to run.' And got in the way of the first African-American."

Most disturbing were Cuomo's actions when his marriage to Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy - a union heralded as the melding of two political clans - broke up after his gubernatorial humiliation. Worried about further political damage, he authorized an accusatory public statement about his wife at a time that demanded discretion for the sake of the couple's three children and their relationship with their mother. Career and image trumped family.

As we wrote then, Cuomo "looks desperate to protect his public image and political career." Such a skewing of values leads to the question of whether, based on character, Cuomo should be entrusted with the responsibility of applying the law evenhandedly to friend and adversary, without calculation as to political benefit. That we feel compelled to ask is answer in itself.

And there is an alternative: Green. (The race's third candidate, Sean Patrick Maloney, is too far behind in the polls to be a factor.)

Green and Cuomo are cut from similar liberal Democratic cloth. Green served as city consumer affairs commissioner under Mayor David Dinkins, is an advocate in the mold of Ralph Nader and came close to defeating Michael Bloomberg for mayor in 2001. His accomplishments include petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to bar "Joe Camel" cigarette ads aimed at children. His plans for the Attorney General's office include targeting abusive practices by HMOs and, as is standard for all candidates this year, attacking Medicaid fraud.

Green envisions an office that is oriented toward consumer protection and says that, at age 61, attorney general is his career "destination." Voters would have a good idea what they would get in choosing Green on Tuesday.