Reed hints again at challenge to Cuomo: 'Your days are numbered'

Buffalo News (NY)

Feb. 4—WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Reed Thursday strongly hinted that he may challenge Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the 2022 election.

"Governor Cuomo: Your days are numbered. There's leadership coming to Albany very soon," Reed, a Corning Republican, said in a conference call with reporters.

Reed also appeared to indicate that he will stick to a commitment that he made when first campaigning for Congress in 2010, when he said he would serve only six terms in Congress. Voters in the 23rd Congressional District elected Reed to a sixth full term in November.

Asked about the term limit pledge, Reed said he was focused first and foremost on his current work in Congress, particularly in terms of addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

But he added: "I'm well aware of my commitment to the public. And I will honor those commitments, and I will leave it to the public to make the decision as to where my future goes. And it is always up to the people to decide my political fate, and I respect their judgment."

Richard Azzopardi, a top aide to Cuomo, didn't think much of Reed's comments.

"Reed acts like a moderate at home while he spent the Trump years plotting to take away healthcare coverage from his own constituents and failing to stand up to the administration that actively sought to hurt New York at every turn," said Azzopardi, in reference to Reed's votes to end the Affordable Care Act. "We should be so lucky."

Reed launched into comments about his political future after a reporter asked him about the Cuomo administration's response to a letter Reed and other New York Republicans signed asking the Justice Department to subpoena Cuomo and his aides in an investigation of nursing home patient deaths in the state amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

That response, without evidence, linked the GOP lawmakers — especially Rep. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park — to QAnon, a false conspiracy theory that inspired some of the participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, even though there is no indication that Jacobs and the other Republican lawmakers from New York are tied to QAnon.

There is also no evidence that they encouraged the Capitol riot — which was aimed at overturning the presidential election. As for Reed, he never made any claims of election fraud and accepted Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect in November.

Jacobs, however, refused to vote to certify the election results. That prompted Azzopardi, the Cuomo spokesman, to lash out at Jacobs in a statement to WGRZ.

"It's no surprise this QAnon Trump puppet, his treason caucus and their friends want to talk about anything other than the approaching one-month anniversary of the Capitol insurrection that they helped foment and resulted in the death of a police officer," said the statement from Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi. "It's a naked ploy and New Yorkers see right through it. Maybe someone should investigate what he and the rest of the Trump enablers knew about the organizing and planning of this riot."

Hearing that statement, Reed said: "I'll take a deep breath before I respond. I will say: Disgusting. Disgusting. A complete lack of leadership, and I would expect no different from Governor Cuomo to engage in such despicable rhetoric. He should be ashamed of himself."

Reed then launched into his comments about new leadership coming to Albany. Asked: "In the form of whom?" Reed replied: "That's all I'm going to say."

Any Republican faces huge obstacles, though, in challenging Cuomo, who is expected to run for a fourth term next year. New York has been trending Democratic for years, and no Republican has won the governorship since George Pataki secured his third term in 2002.

Reed has hinted about a run for the governorship before. Asked about the possibility in the fall of 2019, Reed told The Buffalo News: "People are asking us about it. Where I'm at right now, I'm doing what I believe is the right thing to do. I'm trying to represent all of New York, with prioritization for our folks in Western New York and the 23rd Congressional District, while running for re-election."

And Reed's pledge to serve only six terms isn't the only thing that might leave him exploring other opportunities. New York is expected to lose at least one House seat in a reapportionment before the 2022 election, and it's possible that Democrats who control Albany could chop up Reed's district, which includes much of the Southern Tier and parts of the Finger Lakes region, and add it to other newly redrawn districts.

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