deBlasio Over Delivers To NYPD, Undercuts His Promise To Voters

http://gothamist.com/2015/06/23/de_blasio_cops_budget.php

In deBlasio's 2013 campaign there were implicit promises made regarding police reform and an implicit promise with Dante deBlasio being the face of the most effective campaign ad, that Bill deBlasio would be a mayor that understands and empathize with people of color. His recent turn around on policing and a double down on Commissioner Bratton's and PBA President Pat Lynch's desire to turn the city's open society (nearly anarchistic culture) into a police state with unchallengeable and criticism-free police officers.

In a democratic and free society, the individuals not only has a right to challenge authorities but an obligation to constructively criticize authority and those that implement the policies that were supposed to the will of the people in the first place. If the people demand that the local constables harrass and bully their youth, then constables should follow that course. On the other hand if the only the privileged want the unprivileged to be harassed indiscriminately the unprivileged have the right to redressed their concerns to their government through their elected representatives, which is the intrinsic campaign promise deBlasio ran and won with in 2013.

deBlasio may be campaigning nationally on a income inequality message, but this most recent reversal is undercutting whatever progressive cred he may have had as a candidate. I would also want to remind everyone that it was deBlasio and his campaign manager Emma Wolfe that strong armed robbed the WFP nomination on behest of Cuomo despite never intending to hold Cuomo to his promise to deliver the State Senate back into Democratic control; as Cuomo had already promised Senate Majority leader that he would retain the Senate chamber.

Klein To Keep "Options Open" When Dust Settles

Jeff Klein will very likely throw away any good will that he may have been entitled to by reneging on the WFP deal that withdrew the WFP ballot line to his primary challenger Oliver Koppel (thereby removing his only viable threat to re-election) when he and his fellow IDC senators rejoin the obstructionists Republicans in January.

But what does one expect when there is no enforceable repercussion to backtracking on a deal with a cockolded WFP.

Cuomo Wins, But Will Immediately Be Tested To Be Untrustworthy

Cuomo got a state senate that is on the cusp of going either direction just as he wanted. The IDC state senators can welch on their commitment that got them WFP to withdraw support for challengers in the general election, by rejoining the Republican conference. 

This is exactly what Andrew Cuomo wanted. He should be wary of getting what he wanted. The WFP, and the unions that pushed Cuomo into the WFP endorsement have painted themselves into a corner that they now have to lash out against corporatist Democrats or lose any credibility with the close to three hundred thousand voters that voted on either WFP or Green party lines which approaches the margin of victory in this election. Red meat will be demanded by the progressive voters that will not find it tolerable to support candidates just because he/she is the presumptive favorite though dismissive of the progressive agenda. Trustworthiness is a quality that in nearly any sector of society is desirable, but in politics it is manna from heaven and Cuomo will either follow through on his commitment that gave him the WFP ballot line or burn that bridge and the possibility of national ambitions in a presidential primary.

It is for certain that he can't have both, no matter how much Governor Cuomo wishes that he didn't have to be accountable to what he previously promised. Andrew Cuomo either will have to govern as a liberal or surrender the possibility of national ambitions and even re-election.

The Mayor Supports The WFP, Just Not Enough To Vote The WFP Line

Bill deBlasio has declared that he is planning to vote for Andrew Cuomo on the Democratic ballot line rather than the Working Families Party line which he was instrumental delivering to the governor despite his first term being an obstructionist opposed to the WFP agenda. The mayor, having the veneer of being the progressive darling, has been the face of WFP for their 2 mailings (that I have received so far) to encourage voters to cast their vote for Andrew Cuomo but on the WFP's line. If the mayor refuses to vote on the WFP, then why should anyone else? Why should the deal that Cuomo agreed to to get the WFP ballot sway any left-of-Cuomo voter if everyone involved in the deal has abandoned the WFP?

Campaign finance, the only systemic reform that was a tenet of the agreement, will certainly be the thoroughly tossed onto the trash with or without a massive electoral turnout for the WFP. The NY DREAM Act, minimum wage increase (though probably not pinned to inflation), and declarative right to an abortion will be pointed to as the WFP deal being consummated to the satisfaction of Cuomo, deBlasio, and the coalition partners that make up the WFP. What Bill Lipton and Dan Cantor (state and national directors of the WFP respectively) can claim as a victory, but no one who has put a significant amount of thought into it, that anything else other than whacking at the leaves and surrendering to plutocracy rather than earnestly challenging the status quo; to accept that 'it's just the way things are' that one individual with a million dollars is of greater value than the lives of a million sorry souls.

Imagine if the WFP deal was just campaign finance, and without the far more achievable but laudable goals that I expressed would be passed in Cuomo's next term. That as a condition of the WFP deal an explicit amount of money was declared to induce voters to vote the WFP, and that campaign finance reform be the central issue to his campaign. Cuomo would have likely balked at such a deal, since there was no viable escape clause but that it being so ironclad should have been the purpose. The two possible outcomes would been that the WFP would have been left with Zephyr Teachout as the nominee though the unions that pay the bills would have bolted from the party but the Democratic Primary would have still occurred only with Teachout continuing on in the general election challenging the incumbent governor to answer criticisms from the left; alternatively had the WFP been able to narrow the deal to just campaign finance reform then Cuomo could have only one metric to be judged on whether he kept his side of the bargain passage and funding Fair Elections, no half measures or partial victories to be claimed as face saving feats. Democratic takeover of the State Senate in either scenario would have been inevitable, either by the influx of voters in the general election given a real choice between status quo candidates and a truly viable insurgent in Teachout or Cuomo deliver on this new hypothetical deal and transfer of the set amount of campaign cash to WFP to target not only the open seats in the state senate but towards the challengers of incumbent Senators who voted for Majority Leader Skelos (including the IDC senators). Even if the senate isn't taken over by the Democrats (who already hold a majority of seats, and only due to the IDC are in minority) in 2014 the Democrats would win the senate and eventually make the IDC irrelevant in 2016 or 2020 presidential election. 

DeBlasio: Kathy Hochul Is Progressive, Just Ignore Her Donations To Pro-Life Preacher And Her Bragging About How Conservative She Is

Kathy Hochul, former Congresswoman from the Buffalo area and first time candidate for public office without the endorsement of the New York State Conservative Party, is running for Lieutenant Governor with incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo. In the Democratic primary liberal lions (Rep. Jerry Nadler, Mayor DeBlasio, etc) circled the wagons around Hochul to protect her from the accurate claim that she is a conservative Democrat. The New York Observer yesterday reported that from her release of tax information she has made donations to a Texas evangelical preacher whom has had a long career of unambiguous hatred of abortions and has never been welcoming to birth control of any sort. As the highest female running on the Women's Equality Party ticket (the party name which is misnomer since 7 men are running on the ticket and only 3 women) this is embarrassing to say the least since raison d'etre of the party is to pass the tenth point of the 10 point Women Equality Agenda of unrestricted access to abortion as a legal right in New York State. Andrew Cuomo has been airing ads to encourage people to vote for him and Hochul on the WEP ballot line assuming that vast majority of the electorate will vote for him on the Democratic party line without prompting. Which begs the question, if Andrew Cuomo doesn't intend to vote for himself on the Working Families Party, nor respect the Deblasio negotiated deal that landed him the endorsement of the WFP why should anyone else? Why should a deal that was dismissed by the governor even before newspapers had a chance to put the story to print be honored by the activists and high info voters that typically vote WFP? Should the 142,000 voters that voted for Cuomo on the WFP line in 2010 return the favor in 2014 when there was not even lip service paid to keeping the commitments of the deal that delivered WFP line, and a clear path to an unobstructed general election, just to say "at least progressives have a seat at the table"?

To think that WFP has any influence, when the governor whose social policy has been adequately to the left but whose economic policy has been pure voodoo supply side and tax cuts for the wealthy and public service cuts for the rest, currently is being snookered by the top of the ticket actively working against the WFP with his own alternative faux reform third party is delusional. Though it is unlikely to be anything but a coronation of King Cuomo to another term in office, thoughtful progressives or anyone that is concerned with integrity of our elected officials should withhold their vote from either of the major candidates and vote for a 3rd party this November. For those New York State voters that are left of the aisle Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins; for those on the right Libertarian Party candidate Michael McDermott.

Cuomo Unavailable, Bring On the Astorino vs Teachout Debate!!

If Governor Cuomo Is Unable or Unwilling, I Will Debate Zephyr Teachout from Rob Astorino on Vimeo.

There are plenty of New Yorkers that would like to see Cuomo be challenged within a gubernatorial debate, but he seems afraid to let any challenge or public criticism even be in the same room as him (see the Moreland Commission). GOP gubernatorial presumptive nominee, Rob Astorino has offered to debate viable Democratic challenger to incumbent Governor Cuomo, Zephyr Teachout since Cuomo rejects the possibility of being on the same stage as Ms, Teachout.

Cuomo avoiding being seen anywhere near the Fordham Law Professor is a consistent activity of the governor, as he also refused to attend the Working Family Party's (WFP) State Convention while also assuming that the anti-establishment party would inevitably kiss his ring. Ms. Teachout also challenged him for the nomination of the WFP, while she actually attended the convention, speaking to the state delegates after being introduced by one of the party's co-founders Bertha Lewis, Governor Cuomo had to strong arm delegates to support his re-nomination by former WFP political director and Deblasio Campaign Manager Emma Wolfe. While the 1st term of Cuomo has shown him to be duplicitous and disingenuous proponent of the Democratic agenda, his promises to be committed to the Democratic Party and to assist Democratic conference wrest control of the State Senate from the Republicans (which is currently reliant on 5 senators that were all elected as Democrats but currently caucus with the Republicans as "Independent Democratic Conference") which would be the easiest litmus to anyone who self-identifies as a Democrat-- but Cuomo needs to be brow beaten to agree to support Democrats. Zephyr Teachout as the alternative in the gubernatorial primary will be heads and shoulders for average New Yorkers, as she is bent carrying out populist agenda if elected governor, a public debate with the GOP nominee, if Cuomo is too afraid to put forward his case to his fellow Democrats, benefits everyone but the scaredy-cat Governor: both Astorino and Teachout would receive greater name recognition and the voters would be able to see differentiation between moderate Republican and a truly progressive Democrat. If the conventional wisdom is right and Teachout is defeated in the primary then the New York electorate will be able to see 2 moderates debate both of whom are right of center, Astorino a bit more right than that of Cuomo.

I Endorse Zephyr Teachout For Governor, Tim Wu for Lt Gov In The Democratic Primary

“I believe in democracy,” Ms. Teachout said, “not donors.”

People aren't happy with "concentration in the media industries and tech industry into political strength," Wu says.

These are the sentiments that will never come out the mouth of Governor Cuomo and the reason why Cuomo should not have received the WFP endorsement and should not receive Democrats vote in the upcoming September primary. Concentration of wealth, influence and political power is an anathema to our constitutional republic and our democratic institutions. On the right side of the aisle, there is feigning of outrage that the government is overreaching with regards to economic intervention but calls for unilateral restraint in the side of the least powerful. On the left side of the aisle, there is a predetermination of who gets the benefits of the government action but since it is not equally implemented it is intrinsically unjust metered out. Zephyr Teachout, admittedly by herself, is an underdog in the campaign to be governor it should not disqualify whether or not one is too vote for her. The prognosticators that assumed Eric Cantor's primary was a foregone conclusion were proven wrong, and I hope that Ms. Teachout and Mr. Wu will overcome poor odds and claims that it is quixotic to even attempt but our democracy is all that more stronger the more opinions that are expressed and the more ideologically diverse our candidates for public office are.

Even she does win the primary, she would then need to run a three way race against Rob Astorino and Andrew Cuomo yet again but the Governor would be depending on the Independent and WFP line.    

Should liberals vote for Rob Astorino?

There's been a lot of buzz recently about New York's next race for governor, and speculation about whether a progressive challenger will run against Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Here's how The New York Times described what's going on:1
    Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has won significant support from traditionally Republican constituencies, including business executives who like his tax cuts and Wall Street financiers delighted with his support of charter schools. But this courtship has come at a price: As he begins his bid for a second term, he is struggling to hold on to support from the left wing of his own party.

We want to know where New York MoveOn members stand. This isn't a formal endorsement vote—just a statewide membership survey to get a sense of what New York MoveOn members are thinking as a potential race shapes up.
Do you think a progressive candidate should run against Gov. Andrew Cuomo this year?
    Yes, I want to see a progressive challenger to Andrew Cuomo.
    No, I support Andrew Cuomo.
After we tally the responses, we'll report back to MoveOn members across the state and share them with the media—so they know what progressives are thinking as the gubernatorial election gets under way. 

 -MoveOn.org Email Subject: New York Member Survey: Progressive challenger for Gov. Cuomo? (May 27th, 2014)

Friend,
Gov. Cuomo pushed through tax cuts for the super rich, repealed taxes on banks, and slashed funding for local schools -- all ideas Republicans really like.
It's no wonder there's been speculation about whether a true progressive will challenge him in the race for governor.
The New York Times: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has won significant support from traditionally Republican constituencies, including business executives who like his tax cuts and Wall Street financiers delighted with his support of charter schools. But this courtship has come at a price: As he begins his bid for a second term, he is struggling to hold on to support from the left wing of his own party.
We want to know where our New York members stand.
Do you think a progressive candidate should run against Gov. Andrew Cuomo this year?
We'll report back to you and share the results with the media -- so they know what progressives are thinking as New York's gubernatorial election gets under way.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.

-Bold Progressive's Email Subject: New York survey re: Cuomo (May 28th, 2014)

This Saturday night, Working Families Party State Committee members from across New York will gather in Albany to make one of the most important decisions we have ever faced.
Should we support Governor Andrew Cuomo's re-election or endorse a progressive challenger?
I’ve been with the Working Families Party for 15 years and know firsthand that the power of our organization comes directly from empowering supporters like you to make important decisions and take meaningful action.
That’s why it’s so important our State Committee Members hear from you before they make this important decision.
Let us know if you believe the Working Families Party should endorse Governor Cuomo’s re-election or endorse a progressive challenger to run against him.
While Gov. Cuomo deserves credit for winning marriage equality and passing gun reform, many New Yorkers are frustrated with his tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations and dramatic cuts to education.1
Since we last wrote about this race, another poll came out showing over 22% of New Yorkers would support a Working Families Party alternative this November — within the margin of error of Republican Rob Astorino’s 24%.
But before this decision is made, we wanted to reach out again to see what you thought our next step should be. Share your thoughts here:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9926
We’ll be in touch over the next few days to keep you up-to-date on the latest news and information about this decision.
Thank you for making your voice heard,

-Working Families Party's Email Subject: Endorse or challenge Andrew Cuomo? (May 29th, 2014)

The proceeding three emails, were a selection of progressive organizations seeking feedback on whether or not Cuomo should receive each organization's support and especially whether or not a WFP should back Cuomo for re-election. They each allude to significant opposition within the self-identified liberal/progressive movement that Cuomo innately faces. WFP state convention occurred, and with lots of arm twisting by Mayor DeBlasio and his aides, the nomination was delivered to Corporatist-Centrist Democrat Cuomo.

The following emails I received in response to the Cuomo nomination by the WFP:

Sean,

Last night, we secured a major win. Not for the Working Families Party, not for Governor Andrew Cuomo, but for the working families of the state of New York.
Faced with a challenge from Zephyr Teachout -– a Working Families Democrat if there ever was one -- for the Working Families Party endorsement, Gov. Cuomo declared for the first time that he will join the effort to secure a Democratic-Working Families majority.
We have disagreed a lot with the Governor's economic and education policies over the last four years. On many issues, he has not governed as a progressive. But we do agree with the platform he committed to fighting for last night, which will help transform the lives of millions of people, and even set the stage for still further gains:
    *passing comprehensive public financing of elections to fight the influence of big-money in our democracy
   * passing the Dream Act, so all New Yorkers can access higher education
    *decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, so we can stop jailing our youth, especially young people of color
    *passing the full 10-point Women's Equality Agenda, to protect and ensure women's equality
    *raising New York's minimum wage to $10.10/hour, indexed to inflation, and allowing cities and counties to raise wages 30% higher than the state level
    *increasing the state's investment in community schools to improve educational opportunities in high-need districts. But the Governor still fell far short of what's needed -- we need to comply with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity court order and fully fund our schools.

     

The Governor's pledge to fight for this vision of New York is why the WFP State Committee voted last night to endorse Andrew Cuomo for Governor of New York. 

Now, the hard work begins. We will hold the Governor accountable to his commitment, but we'll need your help. Can we count on you?

Yes, count me in. I will work to hold Governor Cuomo to the promise he made for a more progressive New York. 

-Working Families Party Email Subject: Our commitment to New York (June 1st, 2014)

Progressives won a big victory in New York last weekend. The Working Families Party forced Gov. Andrew Cuomo to drop his support for Republican control of the State Senate and made him commit to a populist agenda to fight income inequality. In return they agreed to back him for a second term.
Gov. Cuomo didn't want to do it. We forced his hand. Our survey of New York DFA members last week found 82% of those who responded said they would back a progressive challenger to Gov. Cuomo.
We shared those numbers with the Working Families Party, helping give them confidence to support a challenger if Gov. Cuomo didn't meet their terms. It also showed Gov. Cuomo that we were serious about a challenge, forcing him to commit to a progressive agenda.
DFA was willing to back a progressive challenger in order to hold Gov. Cuomo accountable and to push him to the left. His agreement to support the Working Families Party agenda validates that strategy. But it's not the end of the story. DFA members are going to hold Gov. Cuomo to his promises. We will not let him backslide. We will not let him side with Wall Street and the rich. 

Democracy for America Email Subject: How Andrew Cuomo caved to progressives (June 6th, 2014)

Dear New York MoveOn member, 
Recently, we shared survey results with the media showing that 73% of responding MoveOn members in New York State want to see a progressive challenger to Gov. Cuomo.
Here are some highlights of Gov. Cuomo's commitment to progressives:¹

• Support for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 and letting localities across New York—including New York City—set their own higher wages up to more than $13/hour

• Support for the Dream Act 

• Support for passing the full 10-point Women's Equality Agenda

• Support for decriminalization of marijuana

• Support for public financing of elections

• Commitment to working to elect a Democratic State Senate to turn these proposals into law, and a demand for the so-called Independent Democratic Caucus lawmakers to return to the Democratic Party

As with all political agreements, we can't take anything for granted, and follow-through will depend on two things: 1) Democrats must win the State Senate in November, and 2) there needs to be meaningful accountability to make sure Gov. Cuomo delivers on the agreement.
That's where all of us come in: Together with allies, we're helping form a Cuomo Accountability Team to make sure Gov. Cuomo knows progressives are watching closely and demanding follow-through on the commitments he has made.
Will you sign up for the Cuomo Accountability Team to make sure promises turn into action? Click here to join:

Here's an update: In order to win the endorsement of the Working Families Party—and faced with pressure from MoveOn members, law professor Zephyr Teachout, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, DFA, and other allies across New York—Governor Cuomo agreed to support a set of demands that progressives been making for years. 

 -MoveOn.org Email Subject: Update re Gov. Cuomo (June 13th, 2014)

Each of the emails after the WFP convention claimed victory and asked for donations (links to donation pages removed), but they also acknowledged that exact goal before the WFP convention (having an alternative progressive challenger to Gov. Cuomo) was wildly popular. There is such a thing as 'moving the goal posts' but this not 'moving the goal posts' but instead deciding there was never goal posts but if there were goal posts they were really popular goal posts if they ever existed. I know I stretched the analogy a bit far, but metaphysical twisting of logic to pull out a win from Cuomo eliminating any viable progressive challenger is equally a stretch.

Which brings me to the point that my title alludes to, if the progressive activists that were excited about a possible challenge to Cuomo (since he was characterized in May as a Republican Lite, but in June a strong fighter for the Liberal cause), couldn't they ensure that 4 years down the road that unseating a Astorino Governorship with a real progressive be better than handing over all progressive credibility to a Republican Lite Cuomo who have the WFP nomination as trophy of the Big Liberal Game Hunter when he runs for president in 2016? Should the 73%-82% of participants in the poll that wants a real progressive to challenge to Cuomo be better served by holding their nose and voting for Astorino rather than holding their nose and voting for Cuomo? Astorino, even if 200,000 people agreed with me and voted against Cuomo for the betterment of the Progressive movement, wouldn't win the governorship; but it would send a loud message to all those Democratic elected officials that presume they have to kowtow to the opposition's base because the Tea Party won't go along with compromise, that the Progressives are tired of being the only side that gives anything in political negotiations. That 200,000 vote number I'm using is a significant number only in that is the number of votes, if withheld from the WFP, would cause the WFP to lose their ballot access and have to wait 4 years to get it back. The requirement of 50,000 votes for governor on a party's line, and in 2010 WFP recieved less than 250,000. Even if somehow Astorino did win and Cuomo kept to his promise to beat both Independent Democratic Conference State Senators and poachable GOP state senators' seats, it would be assuredly better to have both houses safely held by real Democrats than the Potemkin village setup where the Republicans hold the majority and play bad cop to Cuomo's good cop.

Progressives lost when Cuomo received the WFP nomination, and the Progressive panhandling organizations (DFA, MoveOn.org, Bold Progressives, WFP, etc) irrespective of whatever the outcome turned out to be was going to ask for money to get "real progressive change." We've got big mountain to climb if we are going to get challenger Bob to defeat Cuomo! But there was no challenger so we get instead: Cuomo has really let us down, but if you give money now that will show him to change his ways and keep the promises that he begrudgingly made under duress. What is the difference, I don't think even the Progressive panhandlers know or care. 

The likeliest of the good scenarios is that the WFP losses it's ballot access it is narrow race (I'm indifferent to whether or not Cuomo wins re-election), with the narrative that would get widely reported is that the left were too unhappy with it's lone choice voted for protest write-in candidate or Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins getting a surprising segment of the vote.

Zephyr Teachout for New York State Governor

The following is an email I sent to Zephyr Teachout yesterday after Cuomo's allies denied her the WFP endorsement and thereby denied the state a viable liberal alternative to Cuomoccio who has balked at every turn regarding progressive economic policy.


Subject:I implore you to run for Governor in the Dem, WFP primaries and as an Independent 

Ms. Zephyr Teachout, 

I know that a stranger emailing you to ask you to run for Governor of
New York state is quite the non-sequitur, but New Yorkers like myself
need you to be our next governor. New York state is the birthplace of
expanding civil liberties from suffragettes of Seneca Falls to LGBTQ
equality rights activists of Stonewall;  religious freedom under
Flushing Remonstrance and the freedom of the press of the Zenger case shows that New York State is home to those that challenge the conventional wisdom even before the American Revolution; Governors have a tradition of bucking the status quo and being muscular in intervening on behalf of the little guy whether it be DeWitt Clinton, Al Smith, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We need you as New York's next governor.

Though I admit I could be incorrect about this, you could collect 175
signatures of WFP enrolled voters and force a primary against Cuomo on
the WFP line while also running on the Democratic line after collecting
15,000 signatures. Also to assure that you appear on the November ballot collect 15,000 signatures of voters in August to run as an independent candidate.

I have included my resume that shows my extensive experience in
electoral campaigns especially here in New York. I first became aware of you as a volunteer for Howard Dean, though you are only first becoming aware of me, I have been aware of the good work you have done for more than a decade. I hope to be able to help you become the next governor of New York and look forward to hearing a response in the very near future.

Working Families Party: Like the Party's Name Constantly Being Duped By Elected Officials For the Sake of Uber Wealthy

This past weekend the Working Families Party (WFP) held their convention to endorse state wide office seekers and provide access to their fusion ballot line (candidates in New York are allowed to appear on multiple parties' ballot lines, when I ran for Clifton Park Town Council I was on both the Democratic and WFP ballot lines). Typically this is a mundane affair, but in recent weeks and months public polls (Quinnipiac and Siena) showed that an unnamed WFP candidate would take 20% or more support in the general election pulling down Cuomo from astronomically high margin of victory to a mere plurality. This is response to Cuomo's triangulation in a state that gets pejoratively put down for it's liberal tendencies despite the fact to the past 30 years that have shown right-wing plutocratic policy has been deleterious to Middle-American family but the conventional wisdom in the halls of power continues to hold that those that were successful in business or the progeny of those successful in business has special knowledge and wisdom when discussing how communities or nations should be organized (surprise they put themselves on top). 

We have seen on a national level in the previous 5 years Obama being elected on the electoral promises that you can't expect change by sending the same people to elected office and that he was going to change the game and not just play it better which in the wake of the Great Recession sounded intuitive-- then proceeded to carry out policy exactly in line with his predecessors; we have seen on the state level 4 years ago Andrew Cuomo was chosen as the Obama's preferred candidate and won election against far right-wing Tea Party backed Carl Paladino-- what could have easily been a clear repudiation of that mindset was instead taken by Cuomo as needing to given excessive deference to the point of view that he was instrumental  to ensuring GOP control of the State Senate relinquishing a vestigial and repudiated world view to be remain as an opposition for the sake of opposition; we have seen on the city level that Bill DeBlasio's being elected on an electoral promise to end domination of the economic elitism and raise up those in outerboroughs that have been dismissed, through policies like stop and frisk that routinely harassed young men and teens of color like his own son-- what might have been expected had the Mayor followed the intentions of the electorated that just hired him would be an immediate suspension of stop and frisks, what we got was hiring Bill Bratton who initiated the program under Rudy Giulliani.  What we might have also expected that the universal  pre-k that was promised to be funded by those earning more than $500,000 a year in the city that just chose him in large part because they wanted to see those that earned a disproportionate income while never receiving their justified comeuppance from their role in the creation of the Great Recession was bamboozled by the governor with a promise of temporary revenues from other parts of the budget (ie. promised matching funds for campaign finance) that could be yanked away at the whim of Cuomo or any other future governor rather than permanent source of revenue to ensure a permanent universal pre-k.

I provide this background not as to make a case as to how consistent elected officials' hypocrisy is but show how the institutionalization of policy making is directly in rebuttal to the will of the people. A minor party like the WFP would be expected to not ever be able to bring enough sway to anything about this situation, and with the eroding union membership the establishment left should be powerless to anything about this trajectory; and yet the WFP along with SEIU 1199, SEIU 32BJ, RWDSU, and Hotel Trades Union have made a concerted effort in getting the electoral promises to be more and more left of center. With WFP's endorsement of Cuomo at the behest of Bill DeBlasio and his top political aide Emma Wolfe (former Political Director at WFP) has commited a critical blow to the progressive/liberal movement. Though the promises continue to be leftward leaning, the delivery of those promises are never to come to fruition. The elected officials decided to pantomime shared beliefs with those self identify as left-wing and those that are activists, but when it comes down to brass tacks they are the Washington Generals to the right-wing plutocrats' Harlem Globetrotters; all the effort to show that they are attempting to win policy implementation but the game is rigged and the end results are already decided against the will of the governed. If the it is inevitable that the WFP will collapse, then they might as well flip the bird to those are decimating the party as they go out the door rather than being courteous and deferential to those will see to it the party no longer exists. The 40% of the state committee that voted to endorse Fordham Law Professor and campaign aide to Howard Dean, Zephyr Teachout might have had this in mind, it is a shame that she did not win the endorsement. I will likely vote for her as write-in candidate both in the primary (if there is one) and the general election.

Why would true believers still volunteer for WFP candidates when they refuse to withhold support after it has been demonstrated those elected officials dismiss demands of the activists the moment they are elected? Why would anyone continue to contribute money to the WFP of that money is going to be spent on candidates that are never to be held accountable, and actually work against WFP states goals? If Cuomo's unspoken threat that if the WFP were to withhold their endorsement would be that he would persuade the unions that supply much needed resources to the WFP to withdraw from the WFP altogether, then what good is endorsing an overt backstabber who has no loyalty nor any shared principle? Cuomo was central to the collapse of the Liberal Party when it was too late to get his name off their ballot in his 2002 aborted run for Governor, Cuomo withdrew from the Governor's race which ensured the Liberal Party wouldn't receive enough votes to retain ballot access, so it is well within Cuomo's modus oprendi to follow a 'Scorched Earth' policy in regards to his allies, but oddly not his opponents (at least not conservative opponents). If Bill DeBlasio knows that he will not receive full hearted support from Cuomo (as demonstrated by Cuomo killing any guaranteed revenue for universal pre-k) why work so hard to ensure attain the ballot line of third party if not squelch real progressive change?

If Cuomo thinks that a winning presidential strategy is to deride the left's most vocal activists, I'm not sure who's votes he's expecting to win in the primary, but I know it is not mine!