[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       COMMEMORATING MARIO CUOMO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NITA M. LOWEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 13, 2015

  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I wish to submit the text of an op-ed in The 
Journal News I wrote commemorating former New York Governor Mario 
Cuomo.

                 [From The Journal News, Jan. 2, 2015]

         Rep. Lowey: Mario Cuomo Was My Mentor and Inspiration

                            (By Nita Lowey)

       Mario and Matilda Cuomo and their five children were our 
     neighbors in Holliswood, Queens. Mario's parents, Andrea and 
     Immaculata, lived around the corner.
       When Mario, an attorney and law professor who gained 
     prominence by successfully mediating thorny housing disputes 
     in Corona and Forest Hills, first ran for Lieutenant Governor 
     of New York in 1974, Steve and I promptly jumped into his 
     campaign. He lost. But Gov. Hugh Carey, recognizing Mario's 
     extraordinary talents, appointed him as Secretary of State. 
     (His parents famously asked: ``Mario--you're a lawyer and a 
     teacher. How come you took a job as a secretary?'')
       My first job in public service was in 1975 as an assistant 
     to Mario Cuomo, working as a community relations officer in 
     the New York metropolitan region. I worked closely with 
     Mario, as he took charge of New York's anti-poverty programs 
     following their devolution by the federal government through 
     block grants to the states. He pursued housing, education, 
     health, community development, and senior citizen 
     initiatives, among others.
       He was indefatigable and inspirational. A profound thinker 
     and eloquent speaker, no wonder that he was elected 
     lieutenant governor in 1978 and then governor three times.
       Nobody articulated the ideals and values of public service 
     better than Mario Cuomo. He aptly captured the essence of his 
     brilliant career: ``You campaign in poetry, but govern in 
     prose.''
       During an event in 1984, when I was a New York state 
     assistant secretary of state and Mario Cuomo was governor, 
     Mario told me, ``Now listen to me and you'll be OK.'' I 
     listened, I learned, and I am doing OK.
       I was honored when Gov. Cuomo spoke on my behalf at a 
     ceremony celebrating my election to Congress in 1988. As we 
     mourn his loss, I am confident that Mario Cuomo's legacy will 
     continue and endure with the re-election of Gov. Andrew 
     Cuomo.

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