Democratic Primary Tuesday

Registered Democrats head to the polls Tuesday in a primary election to choose candidates for governor and lieutenant governor of New York State. For governor, there are three names on the ballot:  Andrew M. Cuomo,  Zephyr Teachout, and Randy A. Credico. 

Mr. Cuomo, the incumbent, has been in office since 2010. A graduate of Albany Law School, he was secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton from 1997 to 2001 and attorney general of New York from 2006 to 2011. The New York Times declined last month to endorse him for re-election, saying he had broken his promise to root out corruption in Albany, but it did not endorse his opponents.

Ms. Teachout, an associate professor of law at Fordham University, graduated from Duke University’s law school summa cum laude in 1999. She then clerked for the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which has jurisdiction over New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the Virgin Islands. Several letter-writers in this week’s Star argue that Mr. Cuomo has failed to respond to pleas for help in the campaign to bury PSEG-Long Island’s new electrical transmission lines, and urge support for Ms. Teachout.

Mr. Credico is a former stage comedian turned political activist.  At the age of 27 (he is now 60), he began a seven-year campaign against New York’s Rockefeller drug laws, which he considered too harsh. He challenged Senator Chuck Schumer in the Democratic primary of 2010, finishing with .6 percent of the votes, and ran in last year’s New York City mayoral primary against Bill de Blasio, this time winning 1.67 percent of votes.

There are also two candidates for lieutenant governor on the ballot, Kathy C. Hochul and Timothy Wu.

Ms. Hochul, considered a centrist Democrat, was elected in 2011 to represent New York’s 26th District, which includes the cities of  Buffalo and Niagara Falls, the first Democrat in 40 years to hold the job, which she lost last year after redistricting. She would be on the ticket with Mr. Cuomo.

Mr. Wu, a professor of law at Columbia University who would be Ms. Teachout’s running mate, is a graduate of Harvard and a scholar of the media and technology industries. From 2011 to 2012 he served as a senior advisor to the Federal Trade Commission. He is the only one of the five candidates to have been endorsed by The Times.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.