New York Democrats in spotlight this week
ALBANY >> After a 20-year break, a Clinton will once again headline a Democratic National Convention, with an entourage of 291 New York state delegates in tow.
The Philadelphia gathering that kicks off Monday is a sequel to Bill Clinton’s leading role at the 1996 convention in Chicago. That year, the president was nominated for a second term, Vice President Al Gore poked fun at himself by dancing the “Macarena” while standing still, and former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo gave a final speech to delegates.
New York also will send a lineup of speakers to Philadelphia, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mario’s son; U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer; and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
It is not clear what topic Cuomo will speak on, but his turn in the spotlight is likely to be smaller than his father’s for past addresses. Mario Cuomo’s 1984 keynoter rejecting President Reagan instantly put him in the front ranks of presidential contenders, while his 1992 speech nominating Clinton memorably dubbed Bill, then age 46, “The Comeback Kid.”
While Cuomo lacks his late father’s mesmerizing speaking skills, he suggested this past week he was ready to do whatever he’s asked by presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I’ve had a speaking role in the past conventions,” Cuomo told reporters at a recent stop in Binghamton. “But this is going to be about Hillary Clinton .... ”
Because this is the first Democratic National Convention since Mario Cuomo’s death in 2015, a tribute of some sort would not be surprising.
Bill Clinton will speak Tuesday as part of a program that includes “Mothers of the Movement,” a group of women whose children who died during police encounters or from other gun violence. The group includes Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who died while being arrested in the New York City borough of Staten Island two years ago.
Endorsing Mrs. Clinton in January, Carr wrote the
U.S. needed to “confront the effects of police brutality. We’ve got to do something about the violence in our communities — especially gun violence — and the racial and economic injustice that’s connected to it. Hillary seems to be the only candidate right now who’s talking about how we can be strategic in trying to solve this problem. That’s why I’m endorsing her for president.”
Wednesday’s program will include speeches by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Chelsea Clinton, who was the subject of her mother’s speech at the 1996 convention, will speak Thursday, the same day Hillary Clinton will give her acceptance speech. All the Clintons live in New York state — Bill and Hillary in Westchester County; and Chelsea, along with husband Marc Mezvinsky and their two children, in a Manhattan condo.
The Democratic convention comes just days after Republicans picked another New Yorker as their standard-bearer. The Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump race will be the first time
two New Yorkers have squared off for the presidency since Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey in 1944.
Like Trump, FDR was a native New Yorker, spending much of his life in Hyde Park, and had deep roots in the state. Like Dewey, Clinton is a Midwest transplant. Dewey was born and grew up in Michigan, spending his adult life in New York after attending Columbia Law School. Clinton was born and grew up in the Chicago suburbs, lived in Arkansas when her husband was governor there and settled in New York in 2000 to establish residency so she could run for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan,
Clinton was easily elected twice as U.S. senator from New York, but she has had a rougher ride trying to go national, losing the Democratic nomination for president to Barack Obama in 2008 and facing a remarkablly strong challenge from Bernie Sanders this year. She did well in New York City and a few other spots around the state, but Sanders managed to carry a number of congressional districts, collecting
108 delegates to 139 for Clinton.
Sanders is to speak at the Democratic convention on Monday. Also scheduled to speak during the week is U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, DN.Y., who dropped her Senate campaign in 2000 to make way for Clinton.
Other speakers and participants from New York announced by the DNC so far are:
• Anastasia Somoza, who “along with her twin sister, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and spastic quadriplegia when she was born and is an advocate for Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” her DNC description reads. Somoza first met Bill Clinton in 1993 at a town hall meeting for kids.
• Joe Sweeney, an NYPD detective on Sept. 11, 2001, who worked in the rescue effort at the World Trade Center.
• Lauren Manning, a former executive and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost almost all of its World Trade Center employes on Sept. 11. Manning is one of the most catastrophically wounded survivors of the attack.