ALBANY - For 25 years, a framed copy of Red Smith's Jan. 11, 1982, column from The New York Times has been perched on the wall overlooking my desk at the state Capitol in Albany.
The piece was, ostensibly, about his column appearing from then on just three days a week, down from four. The headline read: “Writing Less - and Better?”
It was, being a Red Smith column, about far more than that. It was about life, the interesting people he had met and was looking forward to meeting.
Toward the end of the column, Smith wrote: “On this job two questions are inevitably asked: ‘Of all those you have met, who was the best athlete?' and ‘Which one did you like best?”'
Having covered New York politics for more than 25 years for The Associated Press, I have also been asked such questions about the political figures who have dominated the state scene in the last quarter of the 20th Century and the first few years of the 21st.
The last three New York governors provided plenty.
€ Hugh Carey, the Brooklyn Democrat who took back the governor's mansion after 16 years of Republican rule under Nelson Rockefeller and, briefly, Malcolm Wilson, saved New York City and the state from bankruptcy. That was in the first months. Eight years later, Carey's poll numbers were as dismal as the bad dye job that had turned his hair orange the year before as he successfully courted a Chicago millionaire. The supposedly once-married widow ended up having three very much alive ex-husbands. Carey later became the fourth ex. In retirement, his image improved. He is now viewed as an elder statesman.
€ Carey's successor, Mario Cuomo, wound up being mainly known for what he didn't do - run for president. In late 1991, he left a plane idling at the Albany airport rather than climb aboard and run for the 1992 Democratic nomination. The national television crews were packing up even before his news conference ended. Cuomo said trouble-making Republicans running the state Senate made it impossible.
Many didn't believe it. Democrat Bill Clinton won the White House. Cuomo rejected a chance to be on the Supreme Court and instead ran for a fourth term in 1994. He lost.
€ Republican George Pataki rode into office promising to slash taxes, bring back the death penalty and reform state government. He cut income tax rates by 25 percent and won passage of legislation restoring capital punishment, all within his first six months.
His reform efforts, however, fell flat. Never known as Mr. Excitement - a Times magazine profile was headlined “Bland Ambition” - Pataki did manage to win three terms in a state where there are 5 million Democrats and just 3 million Republicans.
The current governor, Democrat Eliot Spitzer, came in as a hard-charging reformer. Thus far, he has had major fights with the Republican leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, and the Democratic leader of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver.
The often blunt Bruno is, of course, a colorful figure. So is former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato.
Great campaigns? Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic run for the Senate in 2000, at least until Rudy Giuliani quit as the Republican standard-bearer, followed closely by the battle between Cuomo and then-New York City Mayor Edward Koch for the 1982 Democratic nomination for governor.
Most impressive figures? In the state Legislature, it was the courtly Senate Republican Majority Leader Warren Anderson of Binghamton and the often irreverent and much younger Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink of Brooklyn. An odd couple, but they truly loved each other in a father-son sort of way. Overall, the most impressive was Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It was often said that when he left the Senate floor, the collective IQ of the body was cut in half.
This is my last column for the AP. I am going off to spend some time with a shiny new fly rod and a battered old canoe. It has been an honor to report to you over the past quarter century on New York's political scene.
Which brings me to the way Red Smith, having praised jockey Bill Shoemaker, ended that column and his career (he died four days later): “There were, of course, many others, not necessarily great. Indeed, there was a longish period when my rapport with some who were less than great made me nervous. Maybe I was stuck on bad ball players. I told myself not to worry.
“Someday there would be another Joe DiMaggio.”
And, perhaps, another Moynihan.
Humbert has covered New York state government and politics for The
Associated Press for more than 25 years
It was, being a Red Smith column, about far more than that. It was about life, the interesting people he had met and was looking forward to meeting.
Toward the end of the column, Smith wrote: “On this job two questions are inevitably asked: ‘Of all those you have met, who was the best athlete?' and ‘Which one did you like best?”'
Having covered New York politics for more than 25 years for The Associated Press, I have also been asked such questions about the political figures who have dominated the state scene in the last quarter of the 20th Century and the first few years of the 21st.
The last three New York governors provided plenty.
€ Hugh Carey, the Brooklyn Democrat who took back the governor's mansion after 16 years of Republican rule under Nelson Rockefeller and, briefly, Malcolm Wilson, saved New York City and the state from bankruptcy. That was in the first months. Eight years later, Carey's poll numbers were as dismal as the bad dye job that had turned his hair orange the year before as he successfully courted a Chicago millionaire. The supposedly once-married widow ended up having three very much alive ex-husbands. Carey later became the fourth ex. In retirement, his image improved. He is now viewed as an elder statesman.
€ Carey's successor, Mario Cuomo, wound up being mainly known for what he didn't do - run for president. In late 1991, he left a plane idling at the Albany airport rather than climb aboard and run for the 1992 Democratic nomination. The national television crews were packing up even before his news conference ended. Cuomo said trouble-making Republicans running the state Senate made it impossible.
Many didn't believe it. Democrat Bill Clinton won the White House. Cuomo rejected a chance to be on the Supreme Court and instead ran for a fourth term in 1994. He lost.
€ Republican George Pataki rode into office promising to slash taxes, bring back the death penalty and reform state government. He cut income tax rates by 25 percent and won passage of legislation restoring capital punishment, all within his first six months.
His reform efforts, however, fell flat. Never known as Mr. Excitement - a Times magazine profile was headlined “Bland Ambition” - Pataki did manage to win three terms in a state where there are 5 million Democrats and just 3 million Republicans.
The current governor, Democrat Eliot Spitzer, came in as a hard-charging reformer. Thus far, he has had major fights with the Republican leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, and the Democratic leader of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver.
The often blunt Bruno is, of course, a colorful figure. So is former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato.
Great campaigns? Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic run for the Senate in 2000, at least until Rudy Giuliani quit as the Republican standard-bearer, followed closely by the battle between Cuomo and then-New York City Mayor Edward Koch for the 1982 Democratic nomination for governor.
Most impressive figures? In the state Legislature, it was the courtly Senate Republican Majority Leader Warren Anderson of Binghamton and the often irreverent and much younger Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink of Brooklyn. An odd couple, but they truly loved each other in a father-son sort of way. Overall, the most impressive was Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. It was often said that when he left the Senate floor, the collective IQ of the body was cut in half.
This is my last column for the AP. I am going off to spend some time with a shiny new fly rod and a battered old canoe. It has been an honor to report to you over the past quarter century on New York's political scene.
Which brings me to the way Red Smith, having praised jockey Bill Shoemaker, ended that column and his career (he died four days later): “There were, of course, many others, not necessarily great. Indeed, there was a longish period when my rapport with some who were less than great made me nervous. Maybe I was stuck on bad ball players. I told myself not to worry.
“Someday there would be another Joe DiMaggio.”
And, perhaps, another Moynihan.
Humbert has covered New York state government and politics for The
Associated Press for more than 25 years
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