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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Tue Jun 3, 2014, 08:29 AM Jun 2014

The Working Families Party Plays it Safe by Endorsing Andrew Cuomo for Governor

http://www.thenation.com/article/180084/working-families-party-plays-it-safe-endorsing-andrew-cuomo-governor



Has New York state’s Working Families Party come up with the formula for forcing centrist Democrats to the left and delivering bread-and-butter progressive policy? That was the hope on Saturday night outside Albany, where the party gathered to make its endorsements for state races later this year. Faced with losing the ballot line to a challenger who tapped into resentment over his estate tax cuts, charter-school championing and failure to deliver campaign finance reform, Governor Andrew Cuomo won the party’s designation only after promising to fight for Democratic control of the state Senate and deliver a progressive policy wish list.

Progressives in the Empire State are getting used to hearing that their moves serve as a model for the broader movement. That was the take on Bill de Blasio’s mayoral victory last fall, and it’s how Cuomo’s backers cast the endorsement vote this weekend. “The eyes of the country are on you,” said Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to the party faithful in the ballroom of the Desmond Hotel. Schneiderman and de Blasio put their solid progressive credentials to work for Cuomo in pushing Working Families state committee members to back the governor and not Zephyr Teachout, the academic and activist who had emerged as a progressive alternative.

The sales pitch worked: Cuomo won a solid (if not commanding) 59 percent of the vote to Teachout’s 41 percent.

But the endorsement vote and the deal that secured it don’t represent success. The real test of the WFP approach—honed since its founding in 1998 and facilitated by hard work in hundreds of contests for local and state office—will be whether Cuomo delivers, which won’t really be clear until his second term is under way.
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The Working Families Party Plays it Safe by Endorsing Andrew Cuomo for Governor (Original Post) xchrom Jun 2014 OP
I believe Teachout is mulling a DEM primary challenge. Smarmie Doofus Jun 2014 #1
 

Smarmie Doofus

(14,498 posts)
1. I believe Teachout is mulling a DEM primary challenge.
Tue Jun 3, 2014, 08:59 AM
Jun 2014

Many DEMs will vote for her in the primary and cross over to the Greens ( Howie Hawkins and union/teacher activist Brian Jones) in November.

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