Cuomo Wins Big At Dem Convention

Andrew Cuomo, four years after he left the Democratic convention defeated and dejected in his bid for the party's nod for governor, is riding high tonight.

Cuomo got a full two-thirds of the delgate vote for attorney general at the party's convention today in Buffalo.

The Associated Press reports Cuomo's closest competitor, Mark Green, got 19% of the vote. Nobody else made it into double figures.

Cuomo's strong showing keeps the other four Democratic candidates from getting an automatic spot on the ballot. All four had pledged prior to the convention to go the petition route if they failed to win 25% support in Buffalo.

Hillary Clinton will be in Buffalo tomorrow as the convention is expected to nominate her for another term in the U.S. Senate. While the endorsement is likely to resemble a coronation, anti-war candidate Jonathan Tasini is said to be working furiously tonight to get 10 delegates to nominate him for the Senate post. Newsday's political blog Spin Cycle reports if Tasini can get the ten signitures, he will be given a chance to speak in support his candidacy and, presumably, lambast Clinton - something the Newsday report says the Clinton camp is working hard tonight to prevent.

GOP FIREWORKS START TOMORROW

The Republican convention gets underway tomorrow on Long Island. As we reported yesterday, John Faso - with the flip-flop of the Erie County delegation - appears to have taken the lead in delegate count. The folks at UrbanElephants.com have updated their delegate-vote chart, based on the latest county endorsements. The updated chart shows Faso in the lead.

A big question for tomorrow - who will Nassau County's Republican Committee back? The host county's delegation remains uncomitted at this time and represents the largest weighted share of delegate votes at the convention.

In the race for U.S. Senate on the eve of the convention, the UrbanElephants chart has John Spencer well out in front of KT McFarland, but shows McFarland on the cusp of getting the 25% support she needs to win an automatic spot on a primary ballot.

Politics on the Hudson, the new political blog of the Journal News, had a very impressive first full day of publication, posting several scoops. Among them: the blog reports WIlliam Weld will pick Secretary of State Christopher Jacobs as his choice for lieutenant governor; a story about delegate poaching - with KT McFarland trying to cut into John Spencers strength in Brooklyn and Spencer trying to pry away some Manhattan delegates for McFarland; and a story that Yonkers Republican mayor Phil Amicone is endorsing Faso for governor, but has declined to make a choice in the Senate race, which features hometown candidate John Spencer.