Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, a key political ally for and beneficiary of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, says he’s not too surprised that the state’s chief executive is keeping a noticeably low profile at the Democratic National Convention.

After all, the high-profile delegates don’t arrive until later in the week (AG Eric Schneiderman, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand haven’t arrived yet).

And then there are the tangible needs of actually running the state, Poloncarz said.

“I know he’s got some important issues he’s dealing with back home in New York state. As soon as I leave here at the end of this week we’re going to be focused on the budget for 2013,” he said.

He added that’s sure Cuomo will rally the troops once he gets to Charlotte:

I’m certain that when the governor finally gets here it’s going to be a strong statement that the entire delegation is here, we’re rallying behind our governor, we’re rallying behind our president, and I feel confident that when he speaks to the delegation at the breakfast later this week, we’re going to hear a strong message about why New York matters in this national race even though we know that if the election were held today he’d win by 20 points.

Cuomo hasn’t been a major surrogate for Obama, however, and has shied away from the making major appearances. Ask about this, Poloncarz said there’s speculation the governor may be running for president four years from now:

I don’t know the reason why. A lot of people have been speculating that the governor is going to run for 2016. We still have 2012 to get through and we have to re-elect President Obama and I know that Governor Cuomo is going to be working hard at that between now and Election Day.

Share|