Once again, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Gov. Andrew Cuomo offer a study in contrasts.

Consider what Cuomo said in response to Mitt Romney picking Rep. Paul Ryan to be his vice presidential running mate earlier this week:

“They must have seen a wisdom to what they were doing,” Cuomo said. “From my point of view I think it’s going to be an intelligent conversation on the budget, on finances, on priorities, on specifics like Medicare and I think it’s a conversation that the Democrats should welcome, frankly. But why they did it, it’s beyond my pay grade. It’s for them to decide.”

DiNapoli, a fellow Democrat, took a more forceful view with Alan Chartock on WAMC Northeast Public Radio in response to a question on the Ryan budget’s potential impact on New York.

“I don’t have a hard number for you,” DiNapoli said when asked how the controversial Ryan budget plan, if implemented, would impact the state. “But everything I’ve seen and heard it would be a disaster for us. It’s very clear that the Romney-Ryan ticket just talks about small government in a way that may sound appealing to some people but what it really translates to is undermining the federal partnership with the states and really the federal partnership to support citizens when they’re older and their vulnerable and that’s really going to hurt a state like New York.”

To be sure, Cuomo and DiNapoli have differing bases. Cuomo needs to continue his image as a post-partisan governing official, causing him to give such a careful answer. DiNapoli, meanwhile, was elected to a full term with strong union support.

He added, “On a very human level it would really be breaking the bargain that many people in this country have counted on especially as they’ve gotten older. And we can’t afford that. I really think that the policies that Romney-Ryan are putting forward would just be incredibly devastating to our state that we’re slowly coming out of in this recessionary time.”

The interview with DiNapoli airs tonight at 10:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.

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