Corey backs foes of Dem rebels
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson on Thursday endorsed four challengers taking on state senators who were part of a breakaway Democratic faction aligned with Republicans.
The candidates are taking on former members of the Independent Democratic Conference, which until it dissolved in April, had allied with Republicans to run the chamber.
Johnson threw his support in the primary behind Alessandra Biaggi, who is running against ex-conference leader Jeff Klein in the Bronx; Robert Jackson, who is taking on Sen. Marisol Alcantara in upper Manhattan; Jessica Ramos, who is running against Sen. Jose Peralta in Queens; and Zellnor Myrie, who is challenging Sen. Jesse Hamilton in Brooklyn.
“The IDC spent nine years enabling a Republican majority, and not allowing progressive legislation to be passed in New York State,” Johnson said as he stood with the candidates on the steps of City Hall. “When you decide to throw your political support behind candidates, and go against incumbents, you look at what those incumbents have done - and not what they’re saying now.”
The breakaway faction’s decision to rejoin mainline Democrats did little to dampen the anger against them among the party’s base.
The challengers got a boost when another insurgent progressive challenger, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, scored a stunning upset and defeated Rep. Joe Crowley, the Queens Democratic boss, in Tuesday’s congressional primary.
Gov. Cuomo and Crowley had brokered a deal saying that if the conference members returned to the fold, Senate Democrats would refrain from backing primary challenges against them. Johnson is one of the biggest names in the party to throw his support behind the challengers.
Johnson - who became speaker in large part due to Crowley’s backing - insisted the timing was unrelated, saying he had been discussing an endorsement with Jackson for months and decided to include the whole group.
“When you see what’s happening across America, when you see what’s happening across New York State, when you see what’s happening in our city, there is a real deep desire and hunger for transformational change, and I believe that these four candidates stand for that,” he said.
Critics have also hit Cuomo, saying he has long enabled the Democratic conference and its Republican allies.
But Johnson, who has endorsed Cuomo for re-election, declined to criticize the governor’s role.
“I don’t totally understand, nor will I ever totally understand, how Albany works. And I can’t go back in time and tell you exactly, ‘This should have happened and that should have happened.’” he said. “What I can say is I never supported the creation of the IDC...I want it to go in the dustbin of history and to have candidates who will never think about joining a renegade group.”
Biaggi, who also got the endorsement of City Controller Scott Stringer Wednesday, said the group has been emboldened by this week’s primary results
“The country needs change that reflects what the community looks like, what the community needs,” she said.
As the Senate races heated up, incumbent Peralta got an endorsement Thursday from District Council 37, the largest city workers’ union, while New York Communities for Change, which had backed Hamilton in the past, endorsed his challenger Myrie.
Meanwhile, Johnson brushed off any suggestion that the defeat of one-time kingmaker Crowley would undermine his own power.
“I hope not. I stand as my own person,” he told reporters later at City Hall when asked whether he would be viewed differently after Crowley’s fall.
Candidates vying for the speaker’s job scrambled for the support of the Queens and Bronx party organizations and especially Crowley, who ultimately picked Johnson. But the speaker dismissed the idea that Council members would be more likely to buck his leadership with the party boss dethroned, saying Crowley has not been involved in the workings of the Council since he took office.