In case you haven’t noticed, the New York Gubernatorial primary is right around the corner (yes, this coming Tuesday, September 9), and it looks to be a very interesting contest, as Zephyr Teachout, a law professor at Fordham University, has captured the attention and support of progressives throughout the state in her battle against incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has faced increasing allegations of corruption, and who has drifted significantly to the right throughout the course of his administration. Much can be said about the Teachout/Wu ticket (which, in full disclosure, I support) versus the Cuomo/Hochul ticket, but what I’ve found especially interesting is how the endorsements have shaken out.
I won’t get into the issue of media endorsements --- so far, the most interesting of these has been the New York Times’ explicit “non-endorsement” of Cuomo and all-but-endorsement of Teachout, as well as the paper’s official endorsement of her running mate, Tim Wu, for Lieutenant Governor. Far more interesting is the issue of endorsements and support from the political establishment – both elected officials and New York’s unique party structure – particularly the endorsement of Gov. Cuomo by the Working Families Party (party website), historically a progressive organization that generally supported candidates at the left wing of the Democratic party and, on occasion, bucked the party entirely to support their own candidates.
First – a little background about New York’s election system, for those who don’t know. New York has a relatively unique electoral process wherein candidates can be nominated by multiple parties, and thus show up on multiple ballot lines. Once people vote, all of the votes for that particular candidate, on whatever line, are aggregated during vote counting. This has led to a quasi-multiparty system, in which the Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Independence Party, Conservative Party, Working Families Party, and others generally appear on the ballot (often jockeying for ballot position based on petition signatures, results from previous elections, and other sorts of minutiae). However, many of these smaller parties, namely Independence, Working Families, and Conservative, usually (but not always) nominate one of the major parties’ nominees. The Conservative Party usually supports the Republican in statewide races, although in local races they will sometimes nominate someone further to the right (or will nominate their own candidate in local elections where the Republicans do not field a candidate). The Independence Party sometimes supports a Dem, sometimes a Republican, and sometimes will support its own candidate (often based upon the whims of the party’s major benefactor, upstate billionaire Tom Golisano). Mostly, they seem to like to back a winner, and position themselves as a “centrist” kingmaker.
And that leaves us with the Working Families Party , which was historically a scrappy progressive party at the left end of the Democratic Party, with major labor support, that gave support to progressive Democrats and others. Notably, they supported Letitia James for New York City Council in 2004 against the Democratic candidate in the general election – and she won. In 2013 she was elected, on both the Working Families and Democratic lines, as the city’s Public Advocate. In 2013, they were instrumental in helping Bill De Blasio win the Democratic nomination for Mayor. Their endorsement in a Democratic primary is, needless to say, important – in that it not only offers major institutional support for a candidate, but also seems to serve as a progressive “seal of approval” for a particular campaign.
Second – as if a strange electoral system wasn’t enough, there is the issue of the politics of New York’s legislature. For many years, despite New York being a Democratic stronghold at the national level, the Republicans held the majority in the State Senate (with Dems controlling the Assembly). In 2008, that changed – with Democrats taking their first majority since 1965. However, a group of Democrats, including two who were later indicted on criminal charges, defected from the party’s caucus to support the Republican leadership. While this group has changed since then, we are still left with 6 “Independent Democratic Conference” (IDC) Senators that identify as Democrats, but caucus with the Republicans and support the Republican Senate leadership. In 2014, overtures were made toward reuniting with the main Democratic caucus, but this has not yet occurred.
Recently, it has become increasingly clear that, despite his denials, Andrew Cuomo was centrally involved in the IDC’s formation and support of Republican leadership in the Senate.
(article from Capital New York here)
That’s why I was especially disappointed to see the Working Families Party (and several of the officials it has historically backed) supporting Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 Gubernatorial Primary. I know De Blasio and several other erstwhile progressives are backing him --- but there’s a difference. Honestly, I’m not even disappointed in De Blasio – it’s in his interest to play it safe and back the incumbent, because if he bets against Cuomo and loses, his job will get a lot more difficult in the coming years. Meanwhile, he (and others like him) don’t stand to lose if Teachout wins, even if they back the incumbent Cuomo. Thus, the power of incumbency – the ability to make life really hard for those who cross you.
But the story is different for Working Families. This group relies on the progressive Democratic base for support, and in order to maintain their ballot position and raise funds, they need to act in the interest of this base. Furthermore, their mission is to support progressive (basically social democratic) candidates, within the Democratic Party or outside of it – and here, in this case, they are backing a candidate that, at the very least, gave his blessing to a group of Senators that handed Senate leadership to the Republicans, thus making the advancement of a progressive vision far more difficult. And if they are going to do this, what is their raison d’etre? Why should they be getting our votes on their ballot lines? Why should they be getting our money? They’ve devalued their brand as a “seal of approval” for progressive candidates. All in all, it’s disheartening.
Perhaps now is the time for a new progressive force, a party or otherwise, to emerge in New York, a state with a critical mass of progressive, social democratic, democratic socialist, green, labor, and other groups on the left. Hopefully, with increasing progressive dissatisfaction with Gov. Cuomo, we can seize upon this discontent to build a new force for change.