Politics on the Hudson

The first giveaway that @NYGovernor is a fake is the incorrect middle initial.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s middle name is Mark, but the parody twitter feed bills him as “Andrew P. Cuomo” (perhaps P for phony or parody?). Or maybe it was the hit tip given to rapper Jay-Z and reference to a similar parody account for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan.

Unfortunately for the real Cuomo twitter feed (@NYGovCuomo) which went live Saturday, the official state website for the governor links to the fake twitter account. NYCTheBlog is on the tweetgate case, but it remains unclear how the fake account was linked to by real website.

Still, it’s very easy to confuse the two at first glance. Both accounts use the same picture of Cuomo and have the same background.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said he was aware of the problem and it was being fixed.  Just after 12:30, the link appeared to have been fixed.

To be clear: @NYGovernor is a parody. @NYGovCuomo is real.

Update: Turns out the prankster is a UAlbany grad student.