--- title: Remembering Mario Cuomo description: Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and I used to argue, at length. Here's what we discussed in our private conversations. canonical: https://time.com/3651989/mario-cuomo-dead-memory/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-02T16:20:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:42.413Z article:section: Politics og:title: Remembering Mario Cuomo og:description: Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and I used to argue, at length, in private. og:url: https://time.com/3651989/mario-cuomo-dead-memory/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55753df7bf48a520/698777da428a9e6e2bcc65c2/h_14530214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Mario Cuomo New York Governor Dead Obit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Remembering Mario Cuomo twitter:description: Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and I used to argue, at length, in private. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55753df7bf48a520/698777da428a9e6e2bcc65c2/h_14530214.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Remembering Mario Cuomo > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Watch the Best Moments of Mario Cuomo's Famous 1984 Speech [Watch (HLS stream): Watch the Best Moments of Mario Cuomo's Famous 1984 Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lliK57cz.m3u8) (1:53)  _Published 2015-01-02. Watch the best moments of the late Mario Cuomo's famous 1984 speech on equality._ by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Jan 2, 2015 4:20 PM UTC  Mario Cuomo, the three-term Democratic governor of New York, in 1995. Mario Cuomo, the three-term Democratic governor of New York, in 1995. Fred R. Conrad—The New York Times/Redux by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Jan 2, 2015 4:20 PM UTC Andrew Cuomo once told me that I had “sort of a father and son relationship” with his father, Mario, [who died Thursday at the age of 82](http://time.com/3651726/mario-cuomo-dead-new-york-governor/). I’m not sure what he meant by that. Cuomo and I argued a lot, at length–but it was sportive arguing, a kind of dance. We once watched at entire New York Knicks game together on television—with the governor on the phone in Albany, me on the phone in New York. We spent the first half arguing politics; the second half talking sports. He favored a new rule: a five-point shot from half court or deeper. Andrew also told me that the difference between him and his father was that Mario—and Andrew always called him Mario—focused on what should be done and Andrew focused on how to do it. Once, on the phone, Mario asked me why I hadn’t given him credit for increasing education funding by—he claimed—90%. I replied, “You did that? Oh, I’m so sorry.” “Why are you sorry?” He asked, bristling. “Because the schools still \[stink\],” I replied. He was, of course, furious. He trusted me enough to get angry at me. He knew our conversations were private; he knew that I valued them too much to ever use them against him. ### See Mario Cuomo's Life in Pictures  Mario Cuomo, Democratic candidate for Lt. Gov. of New York State, at City Hall in New York City on Aug. 30, 1974. Frank Russo—New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images  Mrs. Marie LaGuardia endorsed Mario Cuomo's candidacy for Mayor, presenting him with one of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's famous hats for good luck, at Cuomo's Times Square headquarters in New York City on Oct. 25, 1977. Jack Manning—The New York Times/Redux  Governor-elect Mario Cuomo reads the morning papers with his wife, Matilda, at their home in the Queens borough of New York City on Nov. 3, 1982. Jim Wilson—The New York Times/Redux  Andrew Cuomo, right, with Mario Cuomo, during his father's first campaign for governor of New York, Sept. 24, 1982. William E. Sauro—The New York Times/Redux  Mario Coumo with his daughter Margaret before her marriage to Peter Perpignano on Oct. 10, 1982. Anthony Casale—New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images  Gov. Mario Cuomo puts on a vest as he leaves his office at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. on Jan. 20, 1983. Harry Hamburg—New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images  Marching down New York's Fifth Avenue during the Columbus Day Parade are (from left:) Congressman Mario Biaggi, New York City Mayor Edward Koch, Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo and Westchester County Executive Alfred DelBello in New York City on Oct. 11, 1982. AP  Gov. Mario Cuomo, with some coaching by Mayor Ed Koch, left, throws out the first pitch at Shea Stadium, before a New York Mets game in New York City on April 5, 1983. Barton Silverman—The New York Times/Redux  New York Gov. Mario Cuomo gives a thumbs-up gesture with both hands during his keynote address to the opening session of the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco on July 17, 1984. AP  Mario Cuomo attends Hands Across America Benefit in Los Angeles on May 25, 1986. Ron Galella—WireImage/Getty Images  New York Governor Mario Cuomo points toward the camera as President Bill Clinton waves at the Cooper Union College in New York City on May 12, 1993. Greg Gibson—AP  New York Governor Mario Cuomo, right, converses with South African President Nelson Mandela at the Inter-Continental Hotel in New York City on Oct. 2, 1994. Malcolm Clarke—AP  New York Governor Mario Cuomo, left, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, and New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton laugh during a light moment while touring the NYPD's shooting range in New York City on June 23, 1994. Ed Bailey—AP  Mario Cuomo, the three-term Democratic governor of New York, in 1995. Fred R. Conrad—The New York Times/Redux  Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York, speaks to media outside of federal court in New York City on March 19, 2012. Scott Eells—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, accompanied by his wife Matilda Cuomo, serves as the Grand Marshal of the San Gennaro Grand Procession, kicking off the 87th annual San Gennaro Festival in the Little Italy section of New York City on Sept. 14, 2013. Angel Chevrestt—Zuma Press/Corbis  Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo embraces his father Mario after being reelected governor of New York, in New York City on Nov. 4, 2014. Lucas Jackson—Reuters We disagreed about a lot of things, but I loved the fact that when it came to policy his first instinct was compassion. (Politics was another matter. He could be brutal toward his enemies.) One of those enemies once told me that Cuomo was “a Queens ward-heeler with the voice of Abraham Lincoln.” But that was unfair; Cuomo’s rhetorical brilliance was rooted in personal experience. His heart was always—always—with the workers “whose fingers are too thick to work a computer keyboard.” He was, indeed, old school outer-borough New York, my New York. He once asked me if I wanted to go to Japan with him on a trade mission and I said no. “Why not?” He asked, shocked. I told him that I knew exactly what he would do when he got there. He would go to his hotel room and spend six hours on the phone back to New York, go to a couple of trade meetings with Japanese officials, have a ceremonial dinner where he’d feel uncomfortable, get back on the plane and go home. “When I go to Japan,” I said. “I want to go to Japan.” He agreed that I had a point. I asked him why he was like that. “I grew up over the store,” he said. “I get nervous when I’m not close to the store.” Which was why, I think, he never ran for President. He was afraid he’d get to Iowa and do something New York stupid, like mistake corn for wheat. He also, I suspect, felt that way about the Supreme Court, a position he was offered by Bill Clinton: he would have to compete with another smart Italian, Antonin Scalia, and might not be up to the job. He didn’t understand that his big heart, his basic instincts, his athletic cleverness, was exactly the moral challenge that Scalia needed. Father and son? Well, we did have conversations of a personal quality that I’ve never had with a politician before or since. Just after Michael Dukakis lost the presidential campaign of 1988, I told Mario what an old Boston politician had once told me, “Dukakis was never like us”—he meant a working-class ethnic sort—”he was never ashamed of his father.” I said it as a provocation. Cuomo had worked hard for Dukakis. But he didn’t flash back at me. He was silent for a while; I could feel his brain cranking. And then, finally, he said, “I used to hate going to parents’ night in school. My father couldn’t speak English. I was so embarrassed. I would try to keep him away from my friends.” He called me back three days later, having polled his inner circle—Fabian Palomino, Sandy Frucher, others—about whether _they’d_ been ashamed of their fathers. “You sure hit a nerve with that one,” Frucher told me. But I remember Mario best on the stump in the 1982 gubernatorial primary, running against Ed Koch—who was, like, 30 or so points ahead at the beginning of the race. Koch was hammering away on the death penalty. The polls said the people were for it, overwhelmingly. Koch was for it. Cuomo was against it. And Cuomo made it the central issue of his campaign. We went from town to town in upstate New York, just a few of us—all the press and smart money were with Koch at that point. Mario would hold town meetings, knowing viscerally that he could only win their votes if they knew what kind of man he was. And he needed the death penalty for that. If they didn’t ask him about it, he’d ask them, “Doesn’t anyone want to ask me about the death penalty?” He would tell them whether they wanted to hear it or not. He would tell the story of how one of his daughters was accosted by a thug on the street in Queens who burned her breast with a cigarette. “Did I want to murder that guy? Absolutely. My son Andrew got into the car with a baseball bat, looking for the guy. I would have torn him apart with my bare hands if I’d ever found him … But would have that been the right thing? No. It would have been the barbaric thing to do. That’s what we have government for—to protect us from the barbaric side of human nature.” The state, as an exemplar of moral rectitude, had to abide by the commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” People would come up to him after the meetings and say, “I’m still not sure I agree with you on the death penalty, but I certainly respect your position.” In the end, they decided to vote for him. They voted for him because Mario Cuomo was a man to respect, a man who respected _them_ well enough to tell them what they didn’t want to hear. _Read next:_ [_Pro-Choice Mario Cuomo Was Still A Catholic Politician_](http://time.com/3652656/mario-cuomo-abortion-catholic/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript In this part of the city, there are more poor than ever. More families in trouble. More and more people who need help but can't find it. Even worse, there are elderly people who tremble in the basements of the houses there. And there are people who sleep in the city streets. In the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show. Mr. President you ought to know that this nation is more a Tale of Two Cities than it is just a Shining City on a Hill. [ APPLAUSE ] Maybe, maybe, Mr. President, if you visited some more places; maybe if you went to Appalachia where some people still live in sheds [ APPLAUSE ] Maybe if you went to Lackawanna with thousands of unemployed steel workers, wonder why we subsidize foreign steel. [ APPLAUSE ] Maybe Mr. President. If you asked a woman who had been denied the help she needed to feed her children because you've said you need the money for a tax break for a millionaire or for a missile we couldn't afford to use. [ APPLAUSE ] We must be the family of America. Recognizing that at the heart of the matter we are bound one to another. That the problems of a retired school teacher in Duluth are our problems, that the future of their child, that the future of the child in Buffalo is our future, that the struggle of a disabled man in Boston to survive and live decently is our struggle. That the hunger of a woman in Little Rock is our hunger. 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