Election Year Problems Mount For New York Dem Gov Andrew Cuomo

From his top aide being convicted on bribery and fraud charges, to the entrance of liberal firebrand Cynthia Nixon into the governor’s race, and now his former ally Stephanie Miner announcing she will run for governor as an Independent, New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo’s election year problems continue to mount. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that a new trial, investigating a massive bid-rigging scheme that gained hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts, threatens to further embroil Cuomo’s re-election campaign and expose a culture of corruption gone rampant in state government under Cuomo’s watch.

The Wall Street Journal reports,

A former public-university president and executives from two upstate New York developers are set to face bid-rigging accusations during a federal trial beginning Monday that has become a contentious issue in this year’s gubernatorial race.

Prosecutors allege the defendants worked with a former Albany lobbyist to help the firms win hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts.

…On trial are Alain Kaloyeros, former head of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, a state-funded public university; Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, executives at Syracuse-based COR Development Co.; and Louis Ciminelli, an executive at Buffalo-based developer LPCiminelli Inc. Prosecutors allege the men worked with Todd Howe, a lobbyist and onetime Cuomo aide, to secretly rig a state contract-bidding process in favor of the companies.