Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino announced on You Tube his candidacy to run as a Republican against Governor Cuomo.
Astorino, a Republican who has twice won the county executive’s seat in the democratic dominated Westchester County, painted a grim picture of New York under Governor Cuomo, saying the state is “dying” from highest in the nation taxes and among the poorest business climates in the country.
“Is New York winning or are we losing?” Astorino asks in the video.
He accused Cuomo of painting a “fairly tale that everything is just great”, when Astorino maintains, it is “just the oposoite”.
Astorino also attacked Cuomo’s recent proposal to provide free college education to prisoners, and blamed the governor for problems with the roll out of the Common Core learning standards.
Cuomo remains consistently popular, and has a $33 million dollar war chest. The governor says he intends to seek re election, but has not formally announced.
A spokesman for the New York State Democratic Committee, Peter Kauffman, issued this brief response:
"We look forward to an entertaining Republican primary process and are ready to run against whomever their nominee is in September," Kauffmann, said.