Maxwell School News and Commentary

“That seems to be what the outcome was—it was a non-outcome outcome. Maybe that’s not the worst thing in the world because I think we do need a presidential election year in which to try to establish some kind of direction on this,” Grant Reeher, professor of political science, tells CNN.

Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher likens the 2020 Democratic primary to the 2016 GOP primary when several rivals of then-candidate Donald Trump kept their campaigns alive for as long as possible in hopes of stopping the eventual nominee's rise.

"The more moderate Democrats are recalculating, thinking they have to get on board with this [President Trump's impeachment] or face primaries" from left-leaning insurgents, says Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher. "The facts have also changed" since the Russia investigation, he adds.

"The inference would be that he’s more worried about this one," says Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher, about the $16 million [Governor] Cuomo has spent, largely on TV ads championing the economy and his liberal achievements.

"With the mid-term congressional elections coinciding with the gubernatorial primary contest, Nixon and Cuomo are both seeking to project themselves as 'resister in chief',” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

"Whatever damage takes place here would not happen in a vacuum," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science, about the unwritten rule in the Capitol, often called the Bear Mountain Bridge Compact, that dictates: "What happens in Albany stays in Albany."