Rob Astorino is asking voters whether New York is winning or losing.
The Westchester County Executive, in a video challenging Andrew Cuomo’s economic successes in leading the state, has announced he is running on the Republican ticket for governor.
“I’m tired of listening to the fairy tale that everything is just great when it’s just the opposite. I’m tired of watching New York’s decline,” he said, declaring his candidacy Wednesday.
If the state is winning, Astorino, 46, proclaimed, then re-elect Cuomo, but the evidence, he added, shows it is not.
New York has the highest taxes in the country, worst business climate, most corrupt government and second highest electric rates, Astorino claimed.
The video also attacked the governor for raising taxes and for his plan to fund college classes in prisons.
Astorino called Cuomo’s handling of Common Core a “disaster,” and promised to replace it with better standards, teaching and testing, all set and controlled at the local level. He additionally said New York needs more charter schools, not fewer.
He promised bipartisan, inclusive governing that he said helped get “Westchester back on the winning path again.”
Before he was elected to his first term as County Executive in 2009, Astorino served on the Westchester County Board of Legislators, and was a Mount Pleasant councilmember for 12 years.
Though he won re-election last year in a 2-1 Democratic county, he has an uphill battle if he faces Cuomo in the general election.
Cuomo, a popular incumbent, already has more than $33 million in campaign funds, according to the New York State Board of Elections.
A Feb. 13 Quinnipiac University poll showed Cuomo, with a 63 percent job approval rating, would beat Astorino 58 to 24 percent.
It also found he would easily defeat another potential challenger, Donald Trump.
The 2010 GOP candidate for governor, Carl Paladino, could reportedly run as a third party candidate.
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