Watch CBS News

Cuomo Defeats Paladino To Win NY Governor's Seat

NEW YORK (AP/CBS New York) -- Democrat Andrew Cuomo coasted past tea party Republican Carl Paladino after an exceedingly nasty race to win election Tuesday as governor of New York -- the job his father, Mario, held in the 1980s and '90s.

Nearly 90 minutes after the polls closed and news organizations including The Associated Press declared Cuomo the winner, a Paladino spokesman said exit polls were flawed and Paladino refused to concede.

Podcast

Cuomo victory speech

Podcast

Paladino addresses his supporters

View New York Races | View New Jersey Races | View Connecticut Races

With just under a quarter of the vote in, Cuomo had 58 percent of the vote while Paladino had 37 percent. Third-party candidates split the balance.

Cuomo, 52, led in the polls from the start of his well-funded campaign and helped the combative and conservative Paladino sink himself by shifting the focus from economic issues to Paladino's opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

"The people have spoken tonight and they have been loud and clear," Cuomo said, his father and mother, Matilda Cuomo, at his side. "They are angry. They are paying for an economic recession they didn't cause, they are frustrated when they look at the dysfunction and degradation in Albany. They want that government in Albany to change, and that's what they are going to get."

The Cuomos now join the exclusive club of father-and-son governors, whose members include the Browns, Edmund and Jerry, of California; the Romneys, George of Michigan and Mitt of Massachusetts; and the Folsoms, John Sr. and John Jr., of Alabama.

Paladino, a 64-year-old millionaire developer and political novice, made some major missteps during the campaign. He got into a shouting match with a newspaper reporter, and hinted at one point that the divorced Cuomo had had affairs while married -- accusations that Paladino later backed away from.

He also created a furor when he said children shouldn't be "brainwashed" into thinking homosexuality is acceptable. He said being gay is "not the way God created us."

Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo said the AP called the race too early. "Carl is still in this race and we won't concede to a flawed exit poll," Caputo said.

Cuomo -- New York's attorney general and, before that, housing secretary in the Clinton administration -- promised to clean up state government, control overspending and rein in some of the nation's highest property taxes. He styled himself a fiscally conservative new Democrat.

As attorney general, he helped bring about national reforms in the student loan industry, on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms. In Albany, he turned the public integrity unit he created into a force to be reckoned with.

The top job in New York opened up for Cuomo earlier this year when Democratic Gov. David Paterson dropped his election bid amid an investigation into whether he interfered in a domestic violence case against a top aide. No charges were filed against Paterson. Paterson himself took office in 2008 after Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a call-girl scandal.

It was Cuomo's second run for the state's highest office. His 2002 bid ended in disaster after he said Republican Gov. George Pataki merely held New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's coat after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Cuomo dropped his bid for the Democratic nomination just days before the primary.

Cuomo's father was governor from 1983 to 1994 and became known for both his liberal conscience and the very public way he agonized over whether to run for president in 1992. (Ultimately he decided not to.)

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.