By Tom Reynolds 

   Andrew Cuomo said in Syracuse: "I’ve done more for upstate economic development than any governor in the history of the state of New York." With friends like Cuomo, who needs enemies?  In reality, upstate New York jobs’ growth has been less than a quarter of the national average with an outright loss of manufacturing jobs.  Cuomo’s “Hunger Games” awards have mostly wasted over $3 billion supporting such economic development projects as bike trails and empty film studios.  Some might ask; what went wrong?  But the better question is; was it ever intended to succeed?  To answer why Cuomo’s upstate economic development policies were never meant to succeed and how this impacts our defense of the 2nd Amendment, it is necessary to first understand the political situation in New York.  In the two legislative bodies which control New York State government, the leaders of the majority party in the legislatures (Speaker in the Assembly and Majority Leader in the Senate) are extremely powerful and little gets done without their personal approval.  Cuomo’s party controls the New York Assembly with 106 of 150 seats, about 75 of which are New York City area Democrats, so there is no real hope of change in the NY Assembly.  Of the 63 seats in the NY Senate, the Democrats control 31, the Republicans control 31 and 1 is held by a Brooklyn Senator named Simcha Felder who ran on both the Republican and Democrat lines.  Senator Felder caucuses with the Republicans which gives them the majority, by one vote, and allows them to elect a Republican Majority Leader to control the Senate.  (If you are wondering why a Brooklyn Senator sits with the Republicans, his district voted for Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections.)  A Republican Majority leader in the Senate prevents much of Cuomo’s and NY City’s anti 2A craziness from becoming law.  So, the only thing keeping Cuomo from complete political control of the state hangs by a thread. 

   If Felder should change and caucus with the Democrats or if one seat flips in the upcoming election, Cuomo controls the Senate and it will be goodbye 2nd Amendment and farewell to Upstate.  The above facts are pretty much indisputable, which brings us back to the question, of why Cuomo’s economic development plans were never meant to substantially help upstate New York.  The answer lies in Cuomo’s backup plan to gain the majority in the NY Senate so a Democrat becomes the powerful Majority Leader.  In 2020, there will be a national census and in 2021 the legislative districts will be redistricted to reflect that census.  When the population shifts more to the New York City area, it will gain Senate seats (Democrats for sure), Upstate will lose Republican seats and the Majority Leader will become Democrat (and most likely a NY City Democrat). 

    Cuomo’s economic policies have not stopped population loss in Upstate but do support his goal of a Democratic Senate based on NY City.  When jobs disappear the population follows them.  Out-migration to other states has exceeded in-migration from other states, even in NY City.  While Upstate NY’s total population has shrunk, NY City’s total population has grown slightly because of immigration.  (Did you really believe Sanctuary Cities were all about social justice?)  Cuomo just needs to continue the current trends and he is guaranteed Senate control in 2022 as Senate seats shift from Upstate to the NY City area.  Cuomo and Democrats don’t mind wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on failed economic projects in order to gain political control through a depopulated Upstate.  Remember, Cuomo proposes economic plans for Upstate which emphasize tourism and agriculture, which just happen to be the two lowest paying sectors of the economy and many of those jobs are seasonal.  While I, and probably many of you, like tourism and agriculture, who would try to build a strong Upstate economy based on the lowest paying sectors of the economy?  The answer, of course, is Andrew Cuomo, since he does not want a strong upstate economy.  Cuomo’s plan was multifaceted as one of his other major initiatives has been consolidation under the guise of budget savings.  But most savings are illusory and consolidating governments makes the state easier to control from Albany.  It’s easier to control 63 counties than the hundreds of towns and villages - none of which are located in NY City - and Cuomo is all about control! 

   One tragedy in all this is the human cost of Cuomo’s plan, which he callously ignores.  Families with long histories in Upstate NY are being torn apart as sons and daughters must seek jobs in other states.  NY has a huge, state funded, system of higher education but, after NY taxpayers have funded their education, the graduates must move to other states to find a job.  That’s the problem, but what is the solution?  What can we do to stop the Cuomo express since he is well on his way to depopulating Upstate and declaring 2A obsolete?  Most immediately, we have to maintain control of the NY Senate or Cuomo’s plan is inevitable.  This means holding all thirty one Republican seats in 2018 and flipping some of the current Democratic seats.  Where are the potential flips?  Of the thirty-one Democratic Senators, only 5 are located outside of the NY City area stronghold: one each in Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany and two on Long Island.  While we, in Upstate, tend to ignore Long Island, it should be noted that the two Long Island Democratic seats just flipped from Republican in the 2016 election and by small margins.  It’s quite possible that these two seats are better candidates for flipping than the three in Upstate.  (The City of Albany, for instance, has not had a Republican mayor since the 1920’s.)  Pro 2A groups in Upstate need to push our Upstate politicians and Upstate political committees and the state Republican committee to field strong candidates on Long Island and then we must financially support those candidates.  It’s important to flip some seats no matter where they may be.  

   We need to get Upstate residents registered and voting.  NY City Democrats don’t vote heavily in off year elections such as 2018 and both the governorship and Senate seats could be at risk if we can motivate people to register and vote in order to save their jobs, their rights and their families.  Effective registration and get-out-to-vote campaigns are vital.  The pro 2A community can seek and work with allies in unrelated areas; groups that share our dislike of Cuomo and understand the need to save Upstate.  The greatest threat that Cuomo’s plan faced was hydro-fracked gas since that would have turned around the upstate economy and increased population more than enough to offset NY City’s growth due to immigration.  We only need to look a few miles south of the NY border to understand why hydro-fracking would ruin Cuomo’s plans.  We may not agree with these groups on all the issues but we certainly agree far less with Cuomo and NY City Democrats.  These other groups need to apply the same logic to their efforts.  There are 4 to 6 million gun owners in NY State but in the 2014 gubernatorial election there were less than 4 million votes cast.  By my calculation, only a little more than 1 million gun owners may have voted.  There is a group ripe for cultivating the vote since Cuomo’s 2013 gun control legislation, the Safe Act, is a major issue. They may not like guns or perhaps some gun owners don’t like fracking but I’ll bet that almost all dislike Cuomo more.  We must focus on the bigger picture which is to save Upstate (and thus 2A) from Cuomo and the NY City Democrats.  

   Of course, it’s well established the two major impediments to NY State’s economy are high taxes and stifling regulations.  But that will not change until we change governors.  While we may not see much effect in NYS, for the reasons I’ve described, we have just seen what a change in Washington can do for the economy in most states.  A change in governors could work wonders for the economy.  Finally, we need to let our upstate politicians know that we are not fooled by the “Trojan Horse” economic policies of Andrew Cuomo.  We must insist on incentives that are effective and do not throw away taxpayer dollars on programs that were never intended to succeed.