Public corruption the central issue

The Times Union Editorial Board’s predictable endorsement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo for re-election will come too late for an opposing letter so I’ll do it in advance. That endorsement will be disgraceful — after all the Times Union has done to spotlight New York’s public corruption, in which Cuomo is thoroughly complicit. That is — or should be — the central issue.

It would be particularly bizarre if the name “Moreland” appeared nowhere in the editorial endorsing Cuomo in the election. That refers to the blue-ribbon commission Cuomo empaneled to investigate public corruption. Turned out he was only interested in having it investigate his nemeses in the Legislature. When the Moreland Act Commission got interested in Cuomo’s own office, he abruptly shut it down, saying “it’s my Commission, I can do whatever I want with it.”

The same goes for the likely absence of the names Percoco, Howe, or Kaloyeros. Their crimes were part of Albany’s “pay-to-play” culture — they helped Cuomo extract big bucks from developers and other businesses who, in return, got cushy deals from the state. Bribery in all but name.