Analysis: Local Democratic leaders shed no tears over Cuomo

It was a big-time affair at the luxurious downtown facility. All of the region’s top Dems came to pay homage to the governor – at that time riding high and headed toward a second term.

But when Zellner surveyed the Hyatt that evening, all those top Democrats were nowhere to be seen. Zellner had been relegated to the “kids’ table” reception and the common folk. The “adults” favored by Cuomo were hobnobbing in another room.

During the about-to-end Cuomo era, Erie County Democrats more often than not found themselves isolated from the inner workings of New York Democratic politics. Sure, Mayor Byron Brown served as Cuomo’s hand-picked state chairman until just a couple of years ago, But Brown always has run his own political organization, and like Cuomo, often ignored Zellner. Ditto for predecessor Len Lenihan.

Thaws in the local party’s relations with Cuomo have occurred, but the history is long. The governor’s father – the late Gov. Mario Cuomo – once in the 1980s referred to the late Erie County Democratic Chairman Joe Crangle as a “non-person.” Crangle’s alleged offense, which he denied, was criticizing Andrew Cuomo, then an aide to his father.

Lenihan, meanwhile, never gained Andrew Cuomo’s favor after siding in 2006 with hometown candidate Denise O’Donnell for attorney general. Cuomo won that effort. Lenihan felt the aftermath, especially after Cuomo became governor in 2011 and his operation desperately – and unsuccessfully – tried to replace him at the Erie County helm. Later, Zellner was simply ignored.

“How’s your friend Jeremy Zellner?” disgraced Cuomo confidant Joe Percoco once snarled to the Politics Column.

This week Zellner seemed to let loose after Cuomo announced his resignation amid allegations of sexual harassment, setting the stage for Buffalo’s Kathy Hochul to become the new governor later this month.

“His style was one of smash and get what you want at any cost,” Zellner said, blaming the Cuomo operation for a previous effort to dislodge him from the party chairmanship. “The fact that we were out in the wilderness is due to people like [former Chairman] Steve Pigeon and Andrew Cuomo. They tried to influence what we do and we pushed back.”

The governor in 2012 had even asked former Mayor Tony Masiello to step in as Erie County chairman, even though the longtime Cuomo ally faced a bevy of conflicts as an Albany lobbyist. Masiello gracefully sidestepped that one.

But that move and others demonstrated a fundamental lack of understanding of Western New York politics. The Cuomo forces failed to recognize the political pickle they handed Masiello. They failed to realize that Erie County Democrats did not want Albany dictating their chairman, or that they would push back. And when the governor’s people tried to force Hochul off the state ticket in 2018, everyone but the Albany masterminds recognized that “rewarding” her with another congressional run never made a particle of sense.

Now Hochul moves into the Executive Mansion and is expected to only strengthen her long associations with Zellner, Lenihan and company. What governor would not want upstate New York’s largest Democratic organization in her corner?

Just a few months ago, the chairman would have counted as a major improvement a simple phone call from Cuomoland. Now he anticipates strong ties with Hochul, noting key Hochul aide Melissa Bochenski once served as executive director of the Erie County party.

“Kathy and I have talked. She is ‘of’ the Erie County Democratic Party,” he said. “She comes from Chairman Crangle, the Erie County Democratic Committee, and that’s all great. We’re going to play a prominent role going forward and I’m excited about it.”

Zellner says the party has waited a long time. It endured mostly a silent cold shoulder for many years.

Now Hochul represents the “right person at the right time.”

“Literally, our favorite daughter now becomes governor despite Andrew Cuomo,” he said. “I feel like we’ve come full circle here.”