Andrew Cuomo's progressive blues

This should be Andrew Cuomo’s springboard moment: He has tens of millions in the bank and every sign of routing his largely forgotten Republican challenger to win a second term. Throw that together with what’s still one of the best-known names in Democratic politics and a record of balanced budgets and wins on gay marriage and gun control, and election night should, for an ambitious big-state governor, be the first step toward a White House run.

Barring true shockers, Cuomo will win his Democratic primary Tuesday, as will his embattled running mate, former Buffalo-area Rep. Kathy Hochul. But the governor is finishing the nomination fight amid a sense in Albany that his political clout is diminished, progressives who believe he’ll always value his power over their principles, and a re-calibrated rivalry with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Cuomo’s even fallen behind in usefulness to Hillary Clinton — the New Yorker who’s likely to clear the field of most other Democrats, particularly those also from the Empire State — with the upstart challenge from Zephyr Teachout and her running mate Tim Wu exposing Cuomo as out-of-touch with the political passions of many liberal New Yorkers, and with a larger sense of progressivism that’s now defined much more by economic than social issues.

(Also on POLITICO: Clinton robocalls for Cuomo)

That’s the progressivism represented by de Blasio — a former Cuomo aide whom the governor started off the year all but trolling, and on whom he’s finished the primary season leaning, repeatedly, to backstop him.

Whatever Cuomo’s speculated-on national plans actually were, they are on ice for the foreseeable future. De Blasio is now the figure who’s more valuable to Clinton or any Democrat heading into presidential politics in the coming cycle. There is a freshness to the mayor’s family, his use of social media and an approach to politics that has made Cuomo look creaky by comparison.

Cuomo can’t buy Clinton much of anything with the 2016 electorate. De Blasio, who has created a fusion organization of political support that trumped other organizational muscle in his primary in 2013, can buy a lot, especially for a presidential candidate whose bona fides on income inequality are being scrutinized.

Cuomo stormed into Albany four years ago on a promise of cleaning out corruption, fixing the always-disastrous state budget and restoring New York as the progressive leader of the country. He’s arriving on primary day with a federal investigation of supposed meddling into his anti-corruption Moreland Commission — which exacerbated political troubles simmering over a left-wing revolt over spending cuts and tax breaks he’d signed off on and a failure to press for stricter campaign finance rules. That only intensified as Cuomo attempted to get Teachout thrown off the ballot in a move that made many New York politicos privately shake their heads.

(Also on POLITICO: NYT to Cuomo: No endorsement)

Even Cuomo’s 2011 push for legalizing gay marriage, at the time a controversial effort that was seen as a definitive progressive validator for an eventual White House run, has faded from people’s minds.

The Cuomo campaign rejected the idea that either the governor’s or his running mate’s progressive credentials were at stake, pointing to a new ad that “features President Clinton, Senator Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, and Mayor de Blasio — a united Democratic team supporting Kathy Hochul,” said campaign spokesman Peter Kauffmann.

A reminder of Cuomo’s image on the left came Friday, when Hillary Clinton was roasted by liberals on social media for recording a robocall supporting the governor and his running mate.

Cuomo allies contacted by POLITICO said there’s no problem with progressives that will hurt him or his second-term agenda. They pointed to his legislative successes, and suggested an over-eager press corps — many of whom has seethed at treatment by Cuomo’s aides over the years — is looking to write that he has come undone.

(Also on POLITICO: N. Y. poll: Gov't corruption a problem)

What’s driving this primary challenge are the very things that were once the reason New Yorkers elected him: his fiscally moderate-to-conservative approach to the budget, and a mastery of political tactics that progressives say have sold them out time and again.

“I submit that the governor of the State of New York cannot hold that title as the leader of the progressives if they plan on staying around long,” said David Paterson, the former governor whom Cuomo helped push out of a reelection bid in 2010. Paterson, picked by Cuomo earlier this year as chairman of the state Democratic Party, cited the governor’s approach to the state budget as the only reason why he thinks that the primary challenge got legs.

Kathy Wylde, head of the pro-business Parntership for New York City, whose members largely support Cuomo, said she believes that his work on economic issues is going to “serve him well over time. I think substance trumps politics.”

Hochul, who served less than a full term in the House, looked like a natural fit for a lieutenant governor running mate: A woman from the often-overlooked western corner of the state, she had relationships with her old colleagues in Congress that came with built-in political power. But she also had a record that reflected her Republican-leaning district: opposing driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, voting against Obamacare and for Eric Holder’s censure, and supporting gun rights. Those stances made Wu — the Columbia law professor whose previous claim to fame was coining “net neutrality” — more of a factor in the race even than Teachout....