(3rd) party over for gov
Working Families bigs back Nixon
ALBANY — A defiant Working Families Party delivered a rebuke to Gov. Cuomo on Saturday by endorsing actress Cynthia Nixon’s campaign for governor.
Party leaders voted overwhelmingly to endorse Nixon and City Councilman Jumaane Williams for lieutenant governor despite bitter divisions within its ranks.
The endorsements came a day after two pro-Cuomo unions that are also major funders of the party withdrew from the organization in protest of the likely Nixon nomination.
“This has been a rough week for the WFP,” state Director Bill Lipton said at the start of Saturday’s party gathering in Albany. Lipton, however, remained defiant.
“I believe we are building something powerful and I believe over the long haul the WFP and the progressive movement will be stronger than ever,” Lipton said.
Nixon, who entered the room just after the endorsement vote, praised WFP members for standing up to Cuomo.
“I am indebted to you today and every day because you are the heart and the soul of the progressive New York that we want to create,” said Nixon.
“This is not a time to sit on the sidelines,” Nixon continued. “This is a time to stand up, and that’s what every person in this room has done today. You have stood up.”
The endorsements came at the end of a lengthy meeting of the Working Families Party state committee that often devolved into an airing of grievances against Cuomo, with Nixon’s supporters attacking the governor for failing to deliver on goals like early voting and a Democratic-controlled state Senate.
“We don’t have early voting in New York State, but we do have growing inequality in New York State,” said Zephyr Teachout, who lost to Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic primary and now supports Nixon.
Cuomo’s campaign announced Friday it would not seek the party’s endorsement.
In a statement Saturday, Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Fashouer touted the governor’s “progressive” record, citing the adoption of a $15 minimum wage, marriage equality and gun safety laws.
“The schism between the progressive unions who founded the WFP and some of its member organizations is unfortunate, but in that divide the governor stands with the unions who have left the WFP and no longer feel it represents the interests of middleand working-class New Yorkers,” Fashouer said.
Union leaders Saturday continued to attack Working Families Party leaders for their support of Nixon.
“Our members worked hard two decades ago to create the WFP,” said Mike McGuire of the Mason Tenders District Council and a founding member of the party.
“It’s a shame to see the dishonest brokers who control the party — not the members, but the top staff that are the tail wagging the dog — turn it into an irrelevant, impotent, money-hungry engine for their own personal agenda, instead of benefiting the working families it was supposedly formed to help.”
Saturday’s endorsements paved the way for the party to officially nominate Nixon and Williams at its full convention on May 19.