The contender : Andrew Cuomo, a biography
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Examines the life and career of the New York attorney general and governor.

He is tactically brilliant, charismatic, yet also dark, brooding, and vindictive. He is an old-school boss who rules by fear, even as he puts himself forward as the new, 21st-century Democrat. In many ways his story is iconic: scion of a political family, the Italian-American governor's son who aims for nothing less than the presidency. A cabinet secretary at 39, he ran for governor in his first bid for elected office and was soundly drubbed, as his high-profile marriage to a Kennedy daughter ended in tabloid scandal. How he pulled himself up--first as attorney general, then as governor--is great political drama. Cuomo has proven he can twist arms like Lyndon Johnson and make a legislature work--a skill notably lacking in our current president. He scored a rousing victory by getting marriage equality passed in a state that had blocked it twice before. He has also seized power at every opportunity, alienated allies and rivals alike, and micromanaged to the point of obsessiveness, bringing to mind another, less celebrated president: Richard Nixon. Will Andrew Cuomo's political gifts lead him to the White House? Or will his demons--and his lifelong quest to outdo his father--keep him in the governor's mansion, looking for another place to go?--From publisher description.