Tax Watch: Mann v. Cuomo: New generation battles over new Tappan Zee Bridge name

Next year, when the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge is completed, the state Thruway Authority will change or install signs directing motorists to the $4 billion public works project.

That’s also when Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who rammed through the bridge name for his father at the end of the 2017 legislative session, will be running for a third term.

“Vote for Cuomo,” the governor’s lawn signs may trumpet.

“Cuomo Bridge, 1 mile,” the road signs may tell motorists, whose tolls will pay for the signage project, the cost of which has yet to be determined.

THE PETITION: Return the Cuomo Bridge its original name

CIRCULATING: Cuomo naming petition gains support

JUNE VOTE: Tappan Zee gets new name

EDITORIAL: Can we compromise?

Erecting the Cuomo bridge signs will signal that Andrew Cuomo’s filial power play in 2017 had withstood growing opposition to the name change. Calling the bridge "The Cuomo" has roiled residents on both sides of the bridge.

The opposition spread following the launch of a Change.org petition on Nov. 2 by Port Chester attorney Monroe Mann Jr. that had almost 100,000 signatures three weeks later.

Cuomo has lashed out at the critics, calling the growing opposition “vindictive” and part of a right-wing attack on his family’s good name. He claims that the state Legislature’s vote for the new bridge name in June reflected legislators’ enduring respect for his father, from both sides of the political aisle.

“The bill passed overwhelmingly by Democrats and Republicans, something like 90 percent,” Cuomo said on Nov. 16. “That’s heartwarming. Because those are people who knew my father, those are people who worked with my father, and they are not hyper-partisans who are part of this campaign.”

But Cuomo’s retelling of the vote belies the fact that the governor used his vaunted political muscle to name the dual spans for his dad with scant discussion. He sprang the naming issue on the Legislature in the dying hours of the 2017 session, in a 72-page omnibus bill dubbed the “Big Ugly” that included crucial issues that Republicans and Democrats both needed to serve their constituents.

Legislator Tom Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, whose district office in Tarrytown oversees the bridge, said it would be more appropriate to commemorate Mario Cuomo in his home county of Queens, by renaming the Whitestone Bridge or Queens County courthouse.

“My constituents are very angry. I hear it from everyone, including Democrats,” said Abinanti. “I have yet to hear anyone tell me it was a good idea, and I live in a Democratic district, with constituents who liked and respected Mario Cuomo.”

On a windswept morning, Tax Watch met with Mann on the Hudson River shore, as he peered up at "The Cuomo," with its stream of cars and tractor-trailers rumbling along.

On the petition’s first day, Mann recalls his elation that 35 had signed it. Five days later, there were 15,000. By Nov. 16, following stories in The Journal News/lohud and other media, there were almost 75,000 signatories. The petition is expected to hit 100,000 by month’s end.

“We need to keep the Tappan Zee name,” said Mann. “We want to keep the name a part of New York history — the Tappan Indians and the Dutch.”

Mann, 40, is an unlikely leader of the Cuomo name imbroglio. Though he attended King Street Elementary School in Port Chester, he graduated from high school in Maine, received his bachelor’s degree from a college in Switzerland, and earned a law degree from Pace University in White Plains in 2010.

Earlier this year, he’d lived for six months in Florida with his ailing father, Monroe Mann, the legendary Port Chester attorney who died in mid-October at age 94. The elder Mann was known for fighting public officials on behalf of citizens wronged by government action.

After his father’s death, Mann Jr. returned to Port Chester to be with his mother.

“I was so happy to return to New York,” he said. “Then I heard a news report about the Cuomo Bridge, with a picture of the Tappan Zee. I was shocked.”

The tempest over the bridge naming comes as the younger Cuomo prepares to run for his third term in 2018. Speculation also has him considering a presidential bid in 2020.

The naming issue has drawn attention to Cuomo’s political brand — and disconnect from the people of the Lower Hudson Valley.

Cuomo has lived in Westchester County for about 20 years, first in Bedford during his marriage to Kerry Kennedy, and now with his girlfriend, Sandra Lee, in New Castle. He remains largely aloof from the local community, interviews with numerous Westchester community leaders found.

Even within Democratic circles, Cuomo has kept his distance. Cuomo didn’t weigh in on the Westchester county executive race between state Sen. George Latimer and Rob Astorino until the weekend before the vote.

His media handlers portray him as a man of the state, who has marched in the Chappaqua Memorial Day parade, and votes next door to his Bittersweet Lane home at the Presbyterian Church.

The Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge was built under Andrew Cuomo, a fact that has not escaped residents who have signed the petition. They predict the short-hand version on the signs will be reduced to the "Cuomo" bridge.

“Andrew gave himself a pat on the back,” said Robert Zahm of Rye. “People will drop the ‘Mario,’ and call it the ‘Cuomo.’ He’s trying to hide behind his dad. But it’s just about Andrew, and that’s not a surprise.”

The naming of the bridge was vintage Cuomo. He muscled it through in late June, as part of the omnibus bill at session’s end. It’s the kind of up-or-down vote that characterizes Albany’s top-down decision-making, with legislative leaders making deals in private, and then announcing just hours before the vote.

That’s what happened on June 28. The Legislature had returned for a special session to address the extension of mayoral control of New York City’s school system, and sales-tax extenders for cities and counties around the state. That evening, legislators learned that the Cuomo naming was part of the package, said Abinanti.

“The governor is superb at playing the game,” Abinanti said. “He needed to find a way to do it, so he did this.”

Cuomo has attempted to demonize the petition campaign by noting that Reclaim New York, a fiscal watchdog group funded by conservative Robert Mercer, promoted the campaign on its website.

“You know it’s a political campaign because it’s funded by a person named Robert Mercer, who is the same person who funds Breitbart News, the ultra-conservative news station, the same person who funds Donald Trump,” Cuomo said. “They are rabid conservatives and they don’t like my father.”

But Mann shook his head at Cuomo’s attack. He said he hasn’t received a cent from Mercer, but was grateful that Reclaim New York helped spread the word.

“I’m just a guy from Port Chester who was watching TV and, on a whim, started a petition,” he said. “It’s not right for a politician to use his power to name something for a family member. We need to keep the Tappan Zee name, to stay true to our historical roots.”

David McKay Wilson writes the Tax Watch column.