From Ballot Access News:
The State of Politics blog has this story, which says some leaders of the Working Families Party of New York are thinking of running party founder Dan Cantor for Governor, instead of cross-endorsing Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The New York Working Families Party, from its first year on the ballot in 1998, has always before nominated the Democratic nominee for Governor.
From the article cited, written by Liz Benjamin:
This source described the room as “unreceptive” to the idea of endorsing Cuomo for re-election without a “big” campaign win – like, say, creation of a public campaign finance system, or giving municipalities the ability to raise the local minimum wage, neither of which looks terribly likely this session.
The room was receptive to a proposal that the WFP run someone else for governor on Row D – a gamble, given the fact that the party risks losing its hard-won ballot placement if its candidate doesn’t perform well, and could lose its ballot status altogether if the candidate fails to win at least 50,000 votes.
When discussion turned to who might be able to raise enough cash to mount a credible campaign and also attract a sufficient number of votes, the name of the WFP’s national director, Dan Cantor, was floated. According to the source, the room was “receptive” to the possibility of a Cantor candidacy, though no formal vote was taken.
“There was a discussion about whether to explore giving him the line, and then someone noted that Dan is the embodiment of the party, and people were like, ‘That’s a great idea!’ But there was no motion and no vote,” the source said.
Let’s hope not, but you are probably correct.
I say after this temper tantrum settles down they end up endorsing Cuomo.
Wow. The WFP might actually show a little backbone and not just endorse the statist Democrat.
My opinion of them will go up 1,000,000-fold if that is true.
Of course, Deran may be correct that this is just a ploy to get Cuomo to agree to give them a perk in exchange for the line.
I wonder how much of this talk within the WFP is meant to be pressure on Cuomo to produce something in the state legislature that the WFP wants? Personally, I would be surprised if the WFP did this. Although Cuomo’s vote on the WFP line in 2010 was no where near his huge margin over the Republican. I’d still be surprised. Unless Cuomo does something exceedingly reactionary in the next few months.
Further evidence that Andrew Cuomo has been better than the usual big government Governor of New York.
That would be real news! Not tripping over to endorse Cuomo.