When Jim Johnson announced his resignation, the first uncensored thought that came to mind was “I wonder if Andrew Cuomo and Jack Kemp where in cahoots on this one?” It was just intuition, but with Kemp and Charlie Stone rumored to be helping McCain and Cuomo shifting his position after a Clinton concession, it did have the feel of one of their targetings. I may not be the only one asking that question. It turns out the hits on this old story took a large jump on the day of the resignation.
Unanswered Questions About Andrew Cuomo
This story drew from Lucy Komisar’s piece, including the story of my stopping an illegal steering of HUD subsidies by HUD Secretary Jack Kemp to a project my deputy informed me was Andrew Cuomo’s:
One of them was Andrew Cuomo. Fitts says that in 1989, Kemp ordered her to allocate “Section 8” rental subsidies without a competitive process. These were subsidies that went directly to builder/landlords for apartments they would rent at below market rates. She says that when she refused to award subsidies illegally, they were surreptitiously approved by staff while she was out of town. She got them stopped by appealing to the HUD General Counsel. One of Fitts’s deputies told her later that the illegal payments were for Cuomo’s Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (HELP).
From Fees For Our Friends: The Scandal that Taints Andrew Cuomo