If you saw my last diary, you know that I am in America right now, supporting my dad and handling the "estate" of my mother, which is composed 90% of papers and archives from all her civic involvement through the decades. But I am also taking some "time off" from cleaning and sorting to get involved, myself, in an election that is coming up in New York: the challenge from Zephyr Teachout to incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary on September 9.
Why? Because I think my mom would agree: sometimes you have to prioritize. Her archives will be here next month, but the chance to elect a true progressive as NY governor will come and go. Now is the time to act, because climate change is a real and growing threat now, and because money is strangling our democracy now. I'm also prioritizing this because next spring my husband and I are going to move back to Ithaca. We will be leaving a part of the world where the most conservative politicians and voters are still to the left of the US Democratic party. I get more than a little depressed when I think about what I'll be leaving behind, from single payer health care to 5 week paid summer vacations to the absence of Big Money in public elections and the absence of handguns on the street. I would be really happy if at least I was moving to a part of the US where someone was trying to do something. I know, I know, Cuomo brought same-sex marriage to NY, and of course a Republican governor would be worse... but I just can't get excited about moving to a NY that is still under Cuomo's leadership.
More below the squiggle (but, as someone pointed out in the comments last time, it's good to offer a donation link in the intro, so here it is: donate here.)
So who is Zephyr Teachout? A few weeks ago I didn't know she existed, but I found myself listening to her speak to a small crowd in Ithaca recently. She came across as genuine, honest, enthusiastic, and intelligent, and there was nothing not to like in her progressive agenda. But I remained hesitant on two fronts: could she really get elected, and if so, would she be tough enough to handle the job -- the lobbyists, the old boy networks, the dirty politics?
I met Zephyr Teachout again last Thursday night at the private home of a supporter in Ithaca. Apparently there were people in the audience with good connections and deep pockets -- I wouldn't know. I've been away from the area for too long. Quite a few people recognized my mother's name when I mentioned it, though. I came away fired up and totally on board.
I still find Zephyr genuine, honest, enthusiastic and intelligent. She doesn't have the riveting charisma and gravitas of, say, Bill Clinton, but I am ok with that. Her presentation style was already more polished than it was a few weeks before (too bad no one made a video recording there. Here is one taken by Kossack CrisMcConkey at the earlier event in Ithaca.) I do wonder still about how she would "settle in" to governing. But there were plenty of people in the audience who had had direct contact and interactions with Andrew Cuomo, and nobody liked him. I got the impression from them that Albany is filled with two kinds of Democrats: those who basically care about the environment, education, immigration, renewable energy, etc., and are trying to do something -- and those who also care but are afraid to do anything because of Cuomo and Big Money. Cuomo is too arrogant and Big Money is too powerful and together they intimidate everyone. I am thinking (or perhaps just naively hoping) that if Cuomo is gone and if Big Money knows that Teachout can't be bought, many good Democrats will come out of hiding and help her make changes.
My other concern from a few weeks ago -- can Zephyr Teachout get elected? -- was also addressed Thursday night. I think she really does have a chance, for several reasons.
First of all, the NY state Democrat primary is closed, and participation levels historically are very low, something like 15% of registered Democrats. This article sums it up well, I think:
Zephyr Teachout, a left-leaning Fordham University professor, has scant name recognition and campaign funds amounting to a bag of nickels. She is a long shot, an underdog — whatever you want to call somebody who has little more than a snowball's chance in hell.
Yet Cuomo knows she can do considerable damage in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.
Here's why:
Primaries attract only a small percentage of voters. Those who do vote are the party faithful, who are informed and motivated. Teachout may be unknown to most people, but the Democrats who are likely to vote Sept. 9 certainly know who she is. Because many of them are public-union members who don't like Cuomo, they are motivated to vote for her.
In addition, Cuomo has a large and growing weak spot on the issue of ethics. He ran four years ago on a platform of "cleaning up the corruption in Albany," and once elected he
did set up a commission to investigate the problem. But then when the commission's investigation started to lead toward his own friends and donors, Cuomo disbanded it. And he won't answer questions about it. New Yorkers are not happy with this... and Teachout is perfectly positioned to capitalize on this point. Corruption in politics has been her focus for years.
Teachout is best known for her efforts to limit the influence of money on politics. Her arguments were cited in the Citizens United case by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. She is one of the leading legal experts on corruption. (from her website)
(from Teachout's platform positions on her website.)
b. Strictly Limit Big Donor Money
New York State today has one of the least democratic electoral systems in America. Big donors can give as much as $60,000 to a single candidate running for governor. That compares to a limit of $2,600 for what that same person can donate to a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and is more than most other states in the Union. I will therefore move immediately to reduce the maximum individual contribution to all candidates in New York to $2,600. Any candidate who participates in the public funding system would agree to even lower limits. When one person can give more to a political campaign than the average New Yorker earns in a year, it drowns out the voices of ordinary citizens. This radically unfair system helps explain why Governor Cuomo’s political decisions massively favor the rich: he has raised less than 1 percent of his campaign funds from donations of $250 or lower. His economic policies – which have cut the state’s corporate tax rate, raised the exemption for the estate tax, and eliminated the bank tax entirely – reflect that.
Teachout has written a book, in fact, about this subject, called "
Corruption in America: from Benjamin Franklin's snuff box to Citizens United." The book is at the publisher and due to be released soon. (It is not easy to find a reference to the book on her website, but I found it on Amazon and apparently it comes out on August 25 -- tomorrow!) If this book, which she wrote long before Cuomo's problems with the Moreland Commission, is properly publicized (Rachel Maddow, I'm hoping you hear about it...) then Teachout's chances will improve even more.
And thirdly, the fact that Cuomo has 35 million dollars in the bank is not as important as it might sound. The people in the audience talked about recent primary upsets (Cantor, Abercrombie...) and how, at a certain point, it doesn't matter how much money the incumbent has, if he is not well liked. And Cuomo is certainly not well liked, among Democrats anyway. If Cuomo starts to spend wildly for the primary, one significant result will be that more people will know there is a primary, and that Cuomo is fighting to win it (rather than just relaxing and waiting to be anointed the party nominee.) A media blitz from Cuomo could certainly help get out the vote -- for Teachout. One of his other options is to try to knock her off the ballot -- he tried that twice already and has failed so far, and the publicity is helping Teachout a lot. He can try to ignore her and refuse to debate her -- but that is starting to backfire, too (see New York Times article.) He can put political pressure on other state Democrats to keep them from endorsing Teachout, but this strategy may also fail. It sounds like the local Democratic party in Ithaca is already considering an endorsement, which is a big deal. Naturally, any Democratic politician who endorses an incumbent's opponent will risk serious retribution if that incumbent is in fact re-elected.
In short, I believe that Zephyr Teachout can govern and that she can win the Democratic primary (and general election), and that it is very important for New York (and for other states as well, and for all parts of the world affected by climate change) that she does.
But I learned more than this at the gathering on Thursday night. At the risk of exposing just what a political neophyte I am, I will share.
In order to get stuff done (which was a passion of my mother's, and I can feel that the urge is genetic) it isn't enough to have lots of grassroots action, bake-sales, petition-signings, rallies, letters to the editor, public awareness campaigns, and all that. These aren't bad, and of course they help create a good climate for eventual change, but the Real World has been bought and paid for by the Koch brothers and their cronies. If you want to get stuff done, and if you need someone like Cuomo or Obama to make it happen, you need to hold these people's feet to the fire. You have to counterbalance Big Money, which is whispering in their ears 24/7.
The person hosting the event in Ithaca gave the example of the Sierra Club, but mentioned many other "noble causes" with many members and lots of funds. They tend to go to Albany (or Washington) and beg -- won't you please support this-or-that legislation? No? Well, how about 1/2 of what we want? or 1/4?" And then when they get 1/8, they are really happy and applaud the politician for supporting the good cause. The politician and his Big Money friends laugh behind their closed doors, and (significant) stuff does not get done. Our host Walter said this is the wrong approach... the "good guys" are being too nice and in his view they are just wasting all their donor's money.
The anti-fracking movement in NY, in contrast, has not gone to Albany and said, "we want you to ban fracking and end fossil fuel extraction and invest in renewables and do other good things." Walter (who is someone who really likes to get stuff done) is advising that group to play by Albany's rules in order to beat them at their own game. "You want to let frackers come here? Fine... no problem at all... just prove to us that they are following the laws you already have in place, concerning safety, liability, compensation, and so forth." And Walter knows the laws that are in place in great detail, and he has the safety studies and the science that show the laws are not being followed, and he is not afraid to make noise. His ultimate aim is to end fossil fuel extraction in NY and promote renewables in a huge way, but his method is to work within the system to make it so financially risky for frackers to come here that they choose themselves not to come. And so far his approach is really working.
So, in short, I learned that citizen-powered organizations (I'm thinking of Occupy as well as the Sierra Club and all the rest) are important for public awareness and community-building and for "shifting the Overton window." But when you want bang for your buck in the short term, it might be better to model your organization after the anti-fracking movement in New York.
By the time these lessons had sunken in last night, Zephyr Teachout was long gone. There were about eight of us still sitting around the table, and we were wondering what we could do, in general, to make the world a better place. Walter said: raise money. Period. Raise money for Zephyr Teachout, because she is in the right place at the right time and there might not be another opportunity. Zephyr doesn't have to match Cuomo's 35 million dollar war chest, but she needs staff and supplies for her ground game. Now. Because the primary is on September 9th.
"Averblue," he said to me (using my real name of course) "go raise 50,000 dollars and put out 1000 yard signs and that will make a difference." I said, oh my goodness, that is impossible, I don't have those connections. Or the time. But then I thought, what would mom say? My mom didn't believe that things were impossible or in giving up before you started. She would always do her best to do what was right, and support the good causes, even when the odds were long. In fact, I think she had a soft spot for underdogs... and certainly for progressive candidates, and female candidates....
So... I'm not going to rule out any possibilities. I do know a few people here and there with money. But I am such a newbie at this. What I'd like first (from people with experience) is some feedback about the best way to approach such fundraising. I write much more coherently that I speak, and speaking on the phone is not something I am good at, at all. What motivates someone with money to make a big donation? Detailed knowledge of the candidate's positions? A believable "path to victory"? A personal letter or email or visit from a supporter like me? Personal interaction with the candidate and the sense that she is going to be true to her vision? I just don't know.
And well, even though I had to take an unpaid leave of absence from my work and use all my savings to buy a plane ticket to come help my dad, I'm going to make a small donation myself, on the credit card. Because at least Zephyr Teachout can use that to show how many more "regular folks" are supporting her campaign than the Cuomo campaign.
I hope you'll join me and donate as well.
I'll end this diary with a quote from one of Zephyr's press releases.
"We are challenging Governor Cuomo and Kathy Hochul because we believe in an economy and democracy that work for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected. Governor Cuomo has abandoned New York and abandoned Democratic values. He has visited one public school in four years in office, while transferring school funding to big bank tax breaks. He has failed to enact a ban on hydro-fracking that would poison our beautiful state, failed to pass the Dream Act, and failed to live up to his promise of publicly-funded elections and of fairly districted elections.
"We are committed to an inclusive and responsive democracy. We believe that public education is the infrastructure of democracy and that fighting corruption is the job of all public servants. New York has historically been a pioneer in politics, shaping the foundation of the U.S. government. With the support of New York Democrats, we have a chance again to be pioneers in building an equal, fair, democratic future, refusing to accept this moment of gross political and economic inequality.”