GOV BROKERS DEM DETENTE
Andy brings breakaway pols into fold
With Cynthia Nixon attacking him from the left, Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday announced a deal to bring a group of rogue Democrats back into the fold in the fractured state Senate.
Cuomo brokered the reunification between the mainline Democrats led by Sen. Andrea StewartCousins and the eight-member Independent Democratic Conference led by Sen. Jeff Klein.
“We really are stronger and more productive for everyone when we work together,” StewartCousins said at a press conference in Cuomo’s Manhattan office.
With the schism repaired, Democrats in the 63-seat Senate hold 29 to Republicans’ 31, with two open.
If Dems win those two in special elections on April 24, the two parties would be evenly split — with perennial wild card Simcha Felder of Brooklyn serving as a tiebreaker.
The Borough Park senator is a Democrat but has caucused with Republicans and wouldn’t reveal which way he’d tip under the new arrangement.
“I’m only loyal to G-d, my wife, my constituents and New Yorkers. I don’t care about political parties and more and more New Yorkers feel the same way,” Felder said, according to the Albany Times Union.
Cuomo on Wednesday called Felder a “question mark.”
Under the reunification deal, Klein will become deputy Democratic leader under Stewart-Cousins — replacing Michael Gianaris, who is expected to receive another leadership role.
Nixon charged that Cuomo should have acted earlier to unify Democrats, considering that the IDC was formed in 2011.
“If you’ve set your own house on fire and watched it burn for eight years, finally turning on a hose doesn’t make you a hero,” she said.
But Cuomo said “it wasn’t simple,” and pointed to President Trump’s “attack on New York” as “the main driving force.”
Last year, the governor told reporters he didn’t have the clout to bring warring Democrats together.
“If they don’t want to marry, I have no power or role in forcing the marriage,” he said last July.
“There is no political shotgun-marriage equivalent of the old days.”
Senate GOP spokesman Scott Reif quipped that Cuomo bro- kered the deal because he’s “scared to death” of Nixon.
Seven Democratic challengers who were running to unseat IDC members vowed to continue their campaigns.
“New Yorkers will not be fooled into believing you are ‘Democrats’ when it is politically convenient for you,” the challengers said in a joint statement.
Also, the Working Families Party said it will continue to back the challengers.