Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was asked this morning about the 23rd District race and about his conversation over the weekend with Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of the race Saturday and then endorsed Democratic candidate Bill Owens.

Cuomo rejected state GOP chairman Ed Cox’s comments that she was in an “emotional state.”

“When I chatted with her she was very logical and sober and intelligent and reasoned,” he said on Fred Dicker’s radio show. “We had a personal conversation, but I talked to her about the situation, the circumstances. I talked to her about the Democratic candidate.”

Cuomo questioned whether the congressional race in northern New York has the national implications that many are saying.

“I think it’s going to be a close race. It’s an interesting race from New York’s point of view,” he said.
“All these national pundits who want to say, well, this is a national referendum on what President Obama has done, I think that’s a lot of baloney. This is a very particular situation, it’s a particular district, particular part of the state.”

But Cuomo said “I do think one of the factors is an anti-Albany anger that may be playing out. But I don’t believe it’s a referendum on President Obama.”

After the elections, Scozzafava’s role with her own Assembly minority conference is also in question.

Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, R-Canandaigua, said this morning that he has spoken with about a dozen of his members in recent days and “obviously they are very disappointed in Dede’s endorsement of the Democratic candidate. Every person to a tee basically said our Washington representative doesn’t need to be another pawn of Nancy Pelosi in terms of what is going on from a national policy, in terms of tax and spend.”

He said, “Dede should have just stayed out of it, and she didn’t and now we’ve got to deal with it.”

Kolb said he would be meeting with Scozzafava, the conference’s minority whip which comes with a $16,500 stipend, after the elections.

“I told Dede that when this is all over we’d sit down and have some very frank and pointed discussions,” Kolb said. “And we’ll see where those discussions take us.”