Andrew Cuomo was elected governor of New York on November 2, 2010. Born December 6, 1957, in Queens, NY, he is the son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo. He previously served as the state's attorney general.http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1720819/WBFO.News/Erie.County.Dems.cheer.Cuomo.victory

Cuomo became a leading figure in the outrage over executive "retention bonuses" distributed by insurance firm AIG after the company had received $170 billion in bailout funds from the U.S. Government.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2009/03/cuomo_emerges_amid_aig_disaste.html?hpid=topnews Cuomo was among the first to provide the public with details about the bonus program (which included bonuses of $1 million distributed to at least 73 executives) and forced AIG CEO, Edward Liddy, to release to him the names of executives who received bonuses.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2009/03/cuomo_emerges_amid_aig_disaste.html?hpid=topnews

Cuomo ran as the Democratic candidate for New York governor against Republican Carl Paladino in 2010. Cuomo had run for governor of New York unsuccessfully eight years earlier. His father, Mario Cuomo, was also once the governor of New York state. Cuomo stated in his victory speech that his victory was a result of New York coming together to reject Paladino's divisive campaign message.http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1720819/WBFO.News/Erie.County.Dems.cheer.Cuomo.victory

Cuomo's public discussion of the AIG bonus scandal started with a letter sent from his office to Representative Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. In the letter, Cuomo discussed the $160 million in retention payouts distributed by AIG, providing details such as the number of executives who received bonuses, the fact that top recipient, Douglas Poling, received $6.4 million and that 11 of the executives who received bonuses of more than $1 million had already left the company. Cuomo told Frank that "something is deeply wrong with this outcome" and expressed his hope that the Financial Services Committee would confront the problem "head on."http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/17/raw-data-cuomo-letter-aig-bonuses/

Cuomo was criticized during the 2008 presidential election for making a comment that included the phrase "shuck and jive", which some viewed as a racial slur aimed at Barack Obama. Cuomo's office dismissed the charges, maintaining that the quote was merely an attempt to describe the nature of the early primary process.

• "You know I’ve spent a lot of time in other races, especially in Iowa and in New Hampshire, back with Gore and back with Clinton. Those races require you to do something no other race does, you know, and I like it, and I agree with you, it’s a good thing...It’s not a TV-crazed race, you know, you can’t just buy your way through that race ...It doesn’t work that way, it’s frankly a more demanding process. You have to get on a bus, you have to go into a diner, you have to shake hands, you have to sit down with ten people in a living room...You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference, you can’t just put off reporters, because you have real people looking at you saying answer the question, you know, and all those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room."http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/blog/2008/01/ag_cuomo_on_nh_no_shuck_and_ji.html

Andrew Cuomo delivers his victory speech to an audience of supporters. He thanks many different people and organizations, and says that all the people in the office of the attorney general were the best staff ever assembled. He states that the journey leading up to his victory was a long and bumpy road, and thanks his friends and family for sticking with him.