Does the WFP Have a Soul?

Since its birth two decades ago, the Working Families Party has billed itself as a progressive movement that stands on genuine principles. It will soon get a chance to prove whether that’s really true.

Simply put: Will the WFP nominate for governor Cynthia Nixon, who’s long been in sync with the party’s platform and worked tirelessly on its behalf ?

Or will it play things safe and back Gov. Cuomo, the heavy favorite whose politics shift with the prevailing wind?

Or will it play it even safer by naming a placeholder and waiting to see what happens in the Democratic primary?

Nixon has made no bones about wanting the WFP’s support, and she has a legitimate claim: In 2014 she campaigned hard for the WFP against Cuomo’s bogus Women’s Equality Party. (Indeed, the WEP was formed expressly to steal WFP votes.)

Making things more interesting, last week Nixon refused to rule out an active general-election run on the WFP line if she loses the Democratic primary to Cuomo.

That places the WFP in a dilemma: Nixon on the ballot would siphon votes from Cuomo (assuming he wins the Democratic primary, as remains likely), helping the underdog GOP nominee.

Cuomo, meanwhile, also wants the WFP’s nod, which he won four years ago — thanks, ironically, to support from Mayor de Blasio (which he won’t be seeing again anytime soon).

That explains his sharply leftward lurch in recent years and his eager courting of the unions who once held sway over the WFP. But several major pro-Cuomo unions have dropped out of the party in disputes over the Cuomo endorsement and its support of Bernie Sanders in 2016.

If the WFP truly is a party of principles, it shouldn’t hesitate on endorsing Nixon. Backing Cuomo would suggest it’s just another minor party motivated by patronage and soulless deal-making.

We’ve long urged an end to the system whereby minor parties can cross-endorse major-party candidates. Only the Green Party has shown the backbone to always field a separate list of candidates.

This is a defining moment for the WFP. Does it really stand for something?