Cuomo To De Blasio: Apologize For Claims About Document Leak
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The ongoing ill will between City Hall and Albany has taken a new turn.
As CBS2 Political Reporter Marcia Kramer reported, it stems from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's demand that Mayor Bill de Blasio apologize to him.
Cuomo said de Blasio wrongly accused him of leaking a bombshell report about the mayor's 2014 fundraising efforts, as part of what the governor calls "theatre to distract."
The governor said de Blasio is seeking to distract from the very serious allegations raised by Board of Elections Chief Enforcement Counsel Risa Sugarman about charges that team de Blasio may have circumvented campaign donation limits in their zeal to defeat state Senate Republicans in 2014.
Cuomo, speaking a day after the Inspector General said the Republican spokesman for the state Board of Elections gave the report to a reporter, demanded an apology from the mayor, as WCBS 880's Rich Lamb reported. He then upped the ante.
"The U.S. Attorney and the Manhattan DA and the Attorney General believe there are significant questions of following the law and legal compliance when it comes to the mayor's fundraising," Cuomo said.
But de Blasio will not utter the word "sorry."
"The State BOE leaked a confidential memo, and has been called out for failing to have proper policies in place to safeguard against these leaks," said press secretary Karen Hinton. "The BOE owes the people of New York an apology for such a flagrantly political act."
Cuomo spokeswoman Dani Lever responded specifically to Hinton's statement.
"The Mayor and his surrogates did not accuse the Board of Elections – they accused Risa Sugarman and those connected to this administration," Lever's statement said. "They were wrong, and continuing to double down doesn't make them any less so."
For weeks, the mayor and his advisers insisted that Cuomo was the puppeteer pulling the strings in a campaign to discredit him.
"You can follow the personnel trail, and a lot of it goes to the executive branch," de Blasio said in on WNYC's "the Brian Lehrer Show" last month.
On Wednesday, Cuomo was furious about the claims.
"The mayor was wrong," Cuomo said. "He falsely and recklessly accused public servants, who were just doing their job, of being unprofessional."
Cuomo and de Blasio have been feuding since last summer, when de Blasio accused the governor of not doing enough to help the city get key items passed by the state Legislature.
In another sign of the bitterness between the men, when Cuomo was asked if he would vote for de Blasio for a second term as mayor, the governor smiled and said pointedly, "I'm not a city resident."
