{"id":3492,"date":"2011-01-06T11:05:52","date_gmt":"2011-01-06T16:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=3492"},"modified":"2011-01-06T15:51:55","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T20:51:55","slug":"in-new-york-politics-spouses-optional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/01\/06\/in-new-york-politics-spouses-optional\/","title":{"rendered":"In New York politics, spouses optional"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve covered politics for a quarter-century and in much of the country a candidate with top-flight ambition needs one thing:\u00a0 a spouse<\/p>\n

But yesterday’s state-of-the-state address featured not one but two A-list New York politicians who were accompanied by their unmarried partners.<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s significant other, Diana Taylor, was on-hand.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old businesswoman (I can’t bring myself to call her a “girlfriend”) regularly serves as Bloomberg’s unofficial first lady<\/a>, hosting public events, campaigning, and marching in parades.<\/p>\n

Also sitting in the audience was Governor Andrew Cuomo’s partner, food-and-decorating entrepreneur Sandra Lee.<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old hosts a show on the Food Network and will apparently serve as New York state’s ersatz first lady.<\/p>\n

Having an unmarried governor in office isn’t a first for New York.\u00a0 Hugh Carey’s first wife Helen passed away a year before he took office in 1975.<\/p>\n

Cuomo divorced his first wife, Kerry Kennedy, in 2005.<\/p>\n

In the past, marriage was seen as a sign of social stability and groundedness.\u00a0 It was also a crucial factor for many the state’s more socially-conservative Jewish and Roman Catholic voters.<\/p>\n

A first-spouse can also be an important adviser for policy and strategy — think Hillary Rodham Clinton or Todd Palin — not to mention a key ally when times are tough.<\/p>\n

But times have changed and in the post-Spitzer era, being safely single might be an equal asset.<\/p>\n

Of course, the North Country has also had experience with unmarried politicians.<\/p>\n

Former Rep. John McHugh — now Army Secretary — was married briefly when he entered politics, but divorced early, and served most of his congressional career as a bachelor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve covered politics for a quarter-century and in much of the country a candidate with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3493,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions\/3493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}