Cynthia Nixon and Gov. Andrew Cuomo made accusations about President Trump, the M. T. A. and corruption during their lone debate.
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — The lone debate in the Democratic primary pitting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo against his challenger, Cynthia Nixon, featured its fair share of brickbats and bons mots. Here’s a quick look at some of the candidates’ statements, and when they may have stretched the truth.
Mr. Cuomo has seemingly sought to make the race less about Ms. Nixon and more about President Trump, who has dismal approval ratings in his home state. Mr. Cuomo said that he was “in a fight” with Mr. Trump and said that the president uses Twitter to attack him “weekly.” “Know me by my enemies,” the governor said in the early moments of the debate.
But while Mr. Cuomo has recently been on the receiving end of some negative attention from the president’s Twitter account after saying that America “was never that great,” the governor has not always been on Mr. Trump’s bad side.
Indeed, the two men have known each other for decades — Mr. Trump even recorded a video for the governor’s 1990 bachelor party — and Mr. Trump has given tens of thousands of dollars to the governor’s political campaigns. Mr. Cuomo has declined to return those donations, saying he wants to use the money to fight the president’s agenda, earning Ms. Nixon’s scorn.
Ms. Nixon has consistently attacked Mr. Cuomo for his stewardship of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the delay-ridden subway system and which the governor effectively controls.
Mr. Cuomo has countered that he has made a record investment in the M. T. A., and that New York City needs to pay its fair share for the repairs on the ailing system. Ms. Nixon argued strenuously that Mr. Cuomo had allowed the subways to deteriorate, saying he “stole hundreds of millions” of dollars from the system. “He used the M. T. A. like an A. T. M.,” Ms. Nixon said.
An investigation by The New York Times found that Mr. Cuomo had, in fact, steered money away from the system — including using $5 million to assist state-run ski resorts struggling after a warm winter.
Mr. Cuomo aggressively and repeatedly attacked Ms. Nixon over her tax returns, saying at one point that “only Donald Trump has done less transparency than my opponent” and accusing her of only putting out the returns late in the campaign for three hours “on a Friday.”
Ms. Nixon did release five years of her taxes last week, on a Friday, but had released last year’s returns in early May. Mr. Cuomo also suggested that Ms. Nixon was using “tax loopholes” to avoid paying taxes, citing her use of an S corporation to handle her acting career.
While that might qualify as a loophole, it is also legal. Ms. Nixon also noted that Mr. Cuomo had not released his taxes during his 2010 run for governor.
The governor at one point said that he was “never at war with labor,” but had promised during his successful run in 2010 to take on the state’s powerful unions, promising to rein in state workers’ wages and pensions.
In 2014, several major unions — including the New York State United Teachers, the Public Employees Federation, and the A. F. L.-C. I. O. — declined to back his bid for a second term; the P. E. F. endorsed his primary opponent, Zephyr Teachout.
This election cycle, however, Mr. Cuomo has mended many of those relations, solidifying his support among unions and even orchestrating an April exodus of two major unions from the pro-labor Working Families Party after they backed Ms. Nixon.
Mr. Cuomo’s administration has been buffeted by bad news when it comes to corruption, with the dual-barreled convictions of one of his closest aides and friends, Joseph Percoco, and the overseer of his most prominent economic development program, Alain E. Kaloyeros.
Ms. Nixon’s suggestion that Mr. Cuomo might have known about the misdeeds of Mr. Percoco, however, seems unsupported by the facts: Federal prosecutors who tried the former aide never accused Mr. Cuomo of wrongdoing.
Mr. Cuomo said that he had wanted campaign finance reform and other ethics reforms, but had been stymied by a Republican Senate. While that is technically true, Mr. Cuomo had long tolerated a group of rogue Democrats in that chamber, the Independent Democratic Conference, who collaborated with the Republicans to help them rule the Senate.
Ms. Nixon also pointed out that the governor has been a frequent beneficiary of the so-called “L. L. C. loophole,” which allows limited liability companies to contribute an almost unlimited amount to political campaigns.
Ms. Nixon has never held public office; Mr. Cuomo has been in the public eye for four decades and the governor’s mansion for more than seven years. As such, Mr. Cuomo was able to legitimately claim a roster of achievements during the debate, including gun control, infrastructure programs — including a new bridge named after his father, Mario M. Cuomo, to replace the Tappan Zee — and a paid family leave program.
“It’s about doing, it’s about management,” the governor said.
Ms. Nixon is a longtime education activist, but described herself as “shepherding” the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, whose involvement in fighting for funding for schools predates her career as an advocate.
Mr. Cuomo vowed that he would not run for president in 2020; he said the only thing that would keep him from serving a full third term was if «God strikes me dead.”
