Opinion: Andrew Cuomo beats the Rent Is Too Damn High Party candidate

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The rent may have been too high and Carl Paladino may have hogged all the headlines, but in the end Democrat Andrew Cuomo became New York’s governor.

Cuomo was favored to win, and that expectation got only stronger when Republican Paladino dug himself into one hole after another, finally burying himself one weekend when he read a speech that came across as homophobic.

With the victory, Cuomo takes over an office his father, Mario, held in the 1980s and ‘90s. This brings the total number of father-and-son governors to four pairs, following Edmund and Jerry Brown of California; the Romneys, George of Michigan and Mitt of Massachusetts; and the Folsoms, Jim Sr. and Jim Jr., of Alabama.

The New York governor’s seat has been embroiled in scandal since 2008 when Democrat Eliot Spitzer resigned in the wake of a prostitute scandal; followed by David Patterson (D), the state’s first African American governor, who decided not to run for reelection after he found himself under investigation (by Cuomo) for contacting a woman who accused one of his top aides of domestic violence.

But the real story is that America has been deprived of years of Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. When the kung fu expert found himself being parodied on national television on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ he predicted victory, but, alas, victory was Cuomo’s alone. We still have this great video, though, from the governor’s debate on Oct. 18. So impressive was Mr. McMillan that this clip has been seen more than 4.6 million times.

-- Tony Pierce