BERN’S NOT FEELIN’ GOV
Sanders aide mocks ‘lockstep’ claim speaking, I may drop out: GOPer
ALBANY — A senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders shot back Tuesday at Gov. Cuomo’s campaign for saying the two political leaders are in “lockstep.”
“The idea that Andrew Cuomo and Bernie Sanders are lockstep on policy is 100% Grade A American bulls--t,” Ari RabinHavt tweeted Monday.
Rabin-Havt was responding to a Daily News story quoting a different high-level Sanders source who said it’s “very unlikely” the Vermont U.S. senator would get involved in the New York gubernatorial primary race between Cuomo and actress Cynthia Nixon.
The source said Sanders was more focused on working to defeat Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate and in downballot races in order to fight President Trump’s agenda.
In response, Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Fashouer had said that “the governor and Sen. Sanders are in lockstep: Our focus is on passing progressive policies and 100% on beating Republicans to take back the House, and the state Senate here in New York.”
That appears to have prompted Rabin-Havt’s blistering Monday tweet.
Rabin-Havt did not address whether Sanders intends to get involved with the New York gubernatorial race if it tightens, as some New York progressive leaders said they are hoping.
After The News reported on his tweet, Rabin-Havt issued another tweet seemingly distancing his statement from Sanders. “It is amazing how my personal thoughts on Twitter become a tabloid story in New York,” he wrote.
Jeff Weaver, a senior Sanders adviser and his former presidential campaign manager, told The News on Monday that Sanders is “working hard to defeat the Trump agenda and to elect progressives from one end of the country to the other.”
“I do not anticipate he will be endorsing in the governor’s race in New York,” Weaver said. “The fact that a personal tweet goes out from a staff member does not change that.”
Nixon’s campaign and other progressives jumped on Rabin-Havt’s initial tweet. “Andrew Cuomo is trying to ride the coattails of the most progressive politician in the country,” said Nixon spokeswoman Sarah Ford, who once worked for Sanders. “But the comparisons fall flat.” Even without Sanders’ active involvement, Nixon could soon win the endorsement of the Our Revolution group he founded. An affiliate of Our Revolution — the New York Progressive Action Network — endorsed Nixon on Saturday and is set to formally ask the national organization to follow suit. Fashouer noted Sanders stood with Cuomo when the governor introduced a free public college tuition plan for some students. “The governor’s record of progressive accomplishment delivering real results for New Yorkers . . . speaks for itself,” Fashouer said. Cuomo and Nixon both supported Hillary Clinton over Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. ALBANY — State Senate Deputy Majority Leader John DeFrancisco indicated Monday that he’s reevaluating whether to stay in the race for governor. “We’ll see,” DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican, told reporters when asked if his campaign would continue. DeFrancisco’s reconsideration comes after the state Conservative Party’s executive committee voted Friday to back Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro for governor. “If the Conservatives and the Republicans are not united, it’s tough for anybody to win, so that’s why I have to sit down and look at it,” said DeFrancisco, who expressed disappointment with the Conservative Party’s decision. “I thought I had a good record with the Conservative Party,” he said. “But sometimes record and background is not as important as political analyses, and apparently the Conservatives believe that it was best for them to give the straw vote to Molinaro.”