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Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New Castle continues to distance himself from a federal corruption scandal that has tarnished the reputation of his economic development projects, according to media reports.
Cuomo argues that a series of guilty verdicts won’t hurt his chance of re-election in the fall.
“I think there has never been a suggestion that I did anything wrong,” Cuomo said in Brooklyn, according to this article in the New York Post.
“Can we do more checks and balances? Yeah, we always can, but you will always have some level of people who think they’re smarter and get greedy and get stupid and get venal."
Public opinion polls indicate that the convictions of Cuomo’s former closest aide, Joseph Percoco of Northern Westchester, and four others in the “Buffalo Billion” case have not hurt his re-election chances.
Percoco, a South Salem resident, was indicted on corruption charges that allege he accepted more than $300,000 in bribes to benefit Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company that sought to build a power plant in the Hudson Valley, and COR Development, a real estate developer that received several large state projects.
A federal jury recently convicted State University of New York professor and development administrator Alain Kaloyeros —appointed by Cuomo to lead a $1.5 billion project to revitalize Upstate New York.
Federal prosecutors said Kaloyeros headed the SUNY program that steered contracts to developers, who also happened to be major Cuomo campaign donors. Three executives from LPCiminelli and COR Development also were convicted in the bid-rigging case.
In his bid for a third term, Cuomo continues to trounce his Democratic primary opponent Cynthia Nixon, an actor and education activist, according to recent polls.
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