Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's pick of Rochester Mayor Robert Duffy as his running mate in the governor's race has raised some eyebrows among New York's Democrats.

Duffy is a career cop who worked his way up to the chief of the police department. Cuomo credits Duffy with turning the city of Rochester around by cutting local taxes and improving the delivery of municipal services. He's also been fighting for mayoral control of the schools. Cuomo boasted that Duffy had tangled with municipal unions, something he says he expects to do if he's elected governor.

Cuomo was asked to square his pick of Duffy, who is white, with the Democratic Party's commitment to racial and ethnic diversity. He said his administration would be diverse in every sense of the word, and that his ticket represented important geographic variety. For WNYC, I am Bob Hennelly.