WATCH ABOVE: A state funeral was held Tuesday for former New York Governor Mario Cuomo who died at 82 of natural causes due to heart failure. Over a thousand people braved the cold and snow to mourn him. Marcia Kramer reports.
ALBANY, N.Y. – Mario Cuomo, the three-term New York governor who could never bring himself to run for president but inspired a generation of politicians with a loud and liberal voice and a story of humble beginnings as the son of Italian immigrants, has died. He was 82.
Cuomo died Thursday of natural causes due to heart failure at his home, the same day his son Andrew started his second term as governor, according to a statement released by the governor’s office. He was surrounded by his family.
Cuomo loomed large in New York politics as governor from 1983 through 1994 and became nationally celebrated for his ability to weave the story of his humble upbringing with ringing calls for social justice.
But he was also known for the presidential races he stayed out of in 1988 and 1992.
In 1991, Cuomo left a plane idling on the tarmac at the Albany airport rather than fly to New Hampshire and jump into the battle for the presidential nomination at the last minute. He left the door open for a lesser-known governor, Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
Cuomo’s last public appearance came in November, when Andrew was re-elected governor of New York. The frail-looking patriarch and his son raised their arms together in victory at the election-night celebration. He didn’t attend Andrew Cuomo’s speech Thursday because he was not well, but the current governor spoke of his father.
“He is here and he is here, and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point,” Andrew Cuomo said. “So let’s give him a round of applause.”
Mario Cuomo’s big political break came in 1982 when, as New York’s lieutenant governor, he won the Democratic nomination for governor in an upset over New York Mayor Ed Koch. He went on to beat conservative millionaire Republican Lewis Lehrman.
His reputation for eloquence was secured at the 1984 Democratic National Convention – the event when the party’s presidential candidate is formally nominated – when he delivered his “Tale of Two Cities” keynote address. He told of the lessons he learned as the son of a grocer in New York City.
“I watched a small man with thick calluses on both his hands work 15 and 16 hours a day,” Cuomo told the crowd. “I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet – a man who came here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language – who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example.”
The electrified delegates in San Francisco cheered, “Mario! Mario! Mario!” and some wondered whether they had chosen the wrong presidential candidate in Walter Mondale.
While Mondale’s candidacy stumbled, Cuomo took his oratorical skill to Notre Dame University, where as the nation’s most famous Roman Catholic supporter of abortion rights, he argued the church should not expect him to press for outlawing abortions, given that many Catholics themselves were having them.
In a statement, President Barack Obama called Cuomo “a determined champion of progressive values, and an unflinching voice for tolerance, inclusiveness, fairness, dignity, and opportunity.
Cuomo was prickly as well as eloquent. Cuomo regularly sparred with reporters, Republicans, fellow Democrats and even children. Complaining about what he saw as anti-Italian stereotyping, Cuomo once said the Mafia was “a word invented by people” and “a lot of baloney.” He once had a little boy near tears after asking how old he was and then pressing the child on how he could be sure of that.
In early 1987, he was leading in the polls among prospective White House contenders when he said he would not be a candidate. A more protracted dance in 1991 ended with the filing deadline for the nation’s first presidential primary 90 minutes off. Cuomo walked into a packed news conference in Albany and cited a continuing budget battle with New York’s Republicans in declining to run.
Cuomo easily won re-election for governor in 1986 and 1990. He repeatedly vetoed legislation that would have restored the death penalty in New York, and he closed down the Shoreham nuclear power plant on Long Island. He also built 30 new prisons.
In 1993, he turned down an opportunity to be nominated by Clinton for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, telling the new president in a letter that “by staying active in our nation’s political process, I can continue to serve as a vigorous supporter of the good work you are doing for America and the world.”
Nineteen months later, with voters tired of him, Cuomo lost his bid for a fourth term to George Pataki, a Republican state lawmaker who had promised to cut taxes and bring back the death penalty.
Mario Matthew Cuomo was born on June 15, 1932, and grew up behind the small grocery store run by his parents in Queens.
He attended St. John’s University in New York City, and after graduating with honours in 1953, he spent a summer playing minor league baseball.
Cuomo graduated from St. John’s Law School in 1956, tied for top class honours, and soon after went into private practice. He came to the attention of New York City’s political community in 1972 when he successfully mediated a housing dispute in Queens for then-Mayor John Lindsay.
In 1974, Cuomo made his first run for public office, losing a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
He lost a race for mayor of New York City to Koch in 1977. During the campaign, posters that read “Vote for Cuomo, Not the Homo” mysteriously appeared in some neighbourhoods. Cuomo denied any responsibility, but the bachelor Koch never forgave him.
Cuomo and his wife, Matilda, had three daughters and two sons.
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Retired Associated Press Political Writer Marc Humbert in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
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