Obit for a career

Gov. Cuomo’s career spanned four decades and affected Democratic politics on a local and national level.

After volunteering as a 16-year-old on the first, and unsuccessful, gubernatorial campaign of his father in 1974, Andrew then served as campaign manager for late-Gov. Mario Cuomo’s successful 1982 race.

Mario Cuomo defeated then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch in a primary. He took office for the first of his three terms in 1983, hiring his elder son as a $1-a-year special adviser.

In June 1990, Andrew Cuomo married Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, joining the two powerful political families. Their union was nicknamed “Cuomolot.”

The couple had three daughters, twins Cara Kennedy Cuomo and Mariah Kennedy Cuomo, born in 1995, and Michaela Kennedy Cuomo, born in 1997.

Cuomo and Kennedy separated in 2003 and divorced in 2005.

Cuomo founded Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP) in 1986, eventually leaving his gig at a law firm to focus on the group full time. That helped him earn a role as chair of the New York City Homeless Commission during the administration of Mayor David Dinkins, and he was named US secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 1997.

After the end of President Bill Clinton’s term in 2001, Cuomo thought about challenging Republican Gov. George Pataki, who had defeated dad Mario when the elder Cuomo ran for a fourth term in 1994.

But Cuomo withdrew his candidacy just a week before the primary, after trailing in the polls to Carl McCall, who was bested by Pataki in the general election.

In 2006, Cuomo was instead elected New York attorney general. He issued a scathing report on Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s administration for ordering State Police to keep tabs on then-Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno’s travels.

After Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, Gov. David Paterson took over. When Paterson withdrew his candidacy in 2010, Cuomo stepped in, cinching the nomination and defeating Republican Carl Paladino in the general race.

Cuomo was then re-elected twice, in 2014 and 2018. Mario Cuomo died on Jan. 1, 2015, within hours of his son being sworn in for his second term.