Cuomo Book Deal Comes Amid 2016 Rumors

Andrew Cuomo, the popular governor and a possible presidential contender in 2016, has a book deal.

HarperCollins said Monday that Cuomo will write “a full and frank account” about his private life and the “profound moments” of his first term in office. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

In a news release late Monday, HarperCollins said that the memoir “will be a full and frank look at his public and private life.”

Cuomo, a Democrat who hasn’t declared his plans for 2016, was represented by a man with much experience in handling presidents and presidential contenders, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients include President Barack Obama and another possible 2016 candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Cuomo book is scheduled for next year, when Clinton also has a book expected.

Earlier Monday, Cuomo dismissed reports that he would not seek the presidency should Clinton run, saying that he was focused on being governor.

Cuomo’s deal may complicate plans for a biography on the governor signed up by HarperCollins last year by New York Post state editor Fredric Dicker. A person close to the situation was quoted in The New York Times that HarperCollins was backing away from publishing Dicker’s book because of a conflict of interest. But company spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said that Dicker’s book was still under contract.

Dicker’s book had been hotly anticipated in the state’s political world since he announced the project last April. Cuomo had agreed to cooperate with Dicker, an ally whose radio show quoting anonymous sources has long been seen as a mouthpiece for the governor.

In 2010, the Village Voice wrote that Cuomo felt “so comfortable on [Dicker’s radio] show that he sounds like he thinks he’s still whispering off the record to his trusted confidant.”

But the relationship has since soured over Cuomo’s pushing through gun control legislation, and the governor’s political ambition and desire to say his story in his own words led to Monday’s deal.

The turn of events is particularly awkward because HarperCollins is owned by News Corporation, the same company that owns the Post.

This article appeared in print on page D14 of the May 1st, 2013 edition of Hamodia.