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Longtime aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Gareth Rhodes, 29, has raised a sixth of his campaign cash from Cuomo alums, according to this report in Politico, and some of those alums have gone door-to-door with him on weekends.
However, Rhodes is running in a district where Cuomo isn’t popular: Zephyr Teachout (who ran against Faso in 2016) trounced the governor in the 19th Congressional District.
Cuomo and Faso have engaged in a bitter war of words over health care and tax reform over the past year, with Cuomo arguing that the congressman’s votes hurt the state.
.A Politico campaign analysis of Rhodes’ donations found at least $66,000 was raised from Cuomo staffers and appointees and their spouses — a sixth of Rhodes’ total itemized contributions so far.
Rhodes grew up on a vegetable and livestock farm in Esopus. He served the governor as an intern, advance man and deputy press secretary until enrolling in Harvard Law School in 2015.
But in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary, Cuomo received 29 percent of the vote in the seven counties that are entirely contained in the 19th Congressional District, compared to 64 percent in the rest of the state. He received 37 percent of the district's vote in the general election, his third-weakest performance in any of the state’s 27 congressional seats.
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