in the past few months over the dire state of the New York City subway system, a pair of corruption convictions that got close to -- but never implicated -- him and, most recently, his refusal to return campaign donations Trump made before he became President.

Cuomo has argued that the $64,000 in question is better off being used to aid other Democrats running to oppose the Trump agenda. He has responded to broader accusations that his record over nearly eight years in office is insufficiently liberal -- or, as Nixon spokeswoman Lauren Hitt described it, "Republican-lite" -- with a list of achievements, from raising the minimum wage and tightening gun laws to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state four years before the Supreme Court made itparanoia and melodrama." She dismissed the accusations as "silly" and said the governor was focused solely on the meat and potatoes of the debate.

Captain recovering from attending debate prep in Team Nixon's preferred temperature pic.twitter.com/AVq2rp5yfK — Melissa DeRosa (@melissadderosa) August 28, 2018

Despite the Nixon campaign's protests over the process that led them there, the debate might have come at a fortuitous time, following the attention-grabbing victory of progressive Democrat Andrew Gillum in Florida's gubernatorial primary on Tuesday. Gillum edged out the front-runner, moderate former Rep. Gwen Graham, the daughter of a former governor and senator, by running a grass-roots campaign to the left of the primary field.

In a tweet late Tuesday, Nixon cast Gillum's come-from-behind win as a sign of things to come.

"Andrew Gillum just won his primary