Politics Ain't Beanbag

In the last New York Gubernatorial election, Andrew Cuomo successfully lobbied to get on the ballot line for the Working Families Party. (New York allows a candidate to be listed multiple ballot lines by different parties)

Since then, Cuomo has crapped all over the WFP by, among other things, working to keep the state senate under Republican control, so that he had an excuse to betray Democratic Party values in what is one of the more Democratic states in the union.

Well, the WFP has come to its senses this time, and was signalling that it would endorse Cynthia Nixon for Governor, and Cuomo has pressured a number of large unions to sever their affiliation with the party:

Faced with defections from liberal supporters, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his labor allies are striking back, threatening to sabotage a progressive third party for potentially giving its ballot line to his Democratic rival, Cynthia Nixon.

Two powerful unions allied with Mr. Cuomo announced on Friday that they were withdrawing from the Working Families Party, a small but influential alliance of labor unions and progressive activists.

Other labor leaders aligned with the governor have threatened to create a competing new labor party of their own, as Mr. Cuomo has himself urged labor leaders to stop giving money to liberal community groups backing Ms. Nixon.

By day’s end on Friday, the breakup seemed complete, with the governor’s campaign announcing that it “will not be seeking the endorsement” of the W.F.P. at its convention next month.

It amounts to an old-school political power play by a veteran politician intent on leveraging every advantage of incumbency — even as public polls have him far ahead of Ms. Nixon.

The fight between Mr. Cuomo and Ms. Nixon has emerged as an early flash point in the battle to define the future of the Democratic Party in the age of President Trump: a contest between an accomplished and pragmatic governor who controls the classic machinery of Democratic politics, and an upstart challenger with little track record but white-hot rhetoric of unfiltered liberalism to rally the base.

………

The political maneuvers around the Working Families Party echoed a strategy used in 2014, when Mr. Cuomo was first seeking re-election, but encountered a primary challenge from Zephyr Teachout. The Working Families Party strongly considered Ms. Teachout before reluctantly backing Mr. Cuomo.

………

If the group endorses Ms. Nixon and she loses the Democratic primary to Mr. Cuomo, she could remain on the ballot through November competing for votes, potentially to the benefit of the Republican nominee.

The WFP made the right call, and they should make sure that Nixon is on their ballot line in the general.

They played nice with Cuomo 4 years ago, and he f%$#ed them like a drunk sorority girl.

He was never going to become a liberal, but he has continued to support Republican control of the state senate, which was an explicit promise of his.

You don't negotiate with a tape worm, you remove it.

WFP will experience some pain as a result, but it the alternative is total irrelevance.