The Independent View: NY Gov. Cuomo Secures Support of Working Families Party

Defusing a tense and potentially campaign-changing challenge from the left, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo secured the endorsement of the Working Families Party on Saturday night, easing the popular Democrat’s path as he runs for re-election and solidifying his broader political prospects.

After weeks of negotiations and last-minute tribulations, Mr. Cuomo was able to mend rifts created by some of his centrist policies and ease the concerns of Working Families, a small but influential group of labor unions and liberal activists. in doing so, the governor, with rumored presidential ambitions, simplified a re-election campaign in which he hopes to win by a large, message-sending margin.

But the Working Families blessing was hard won, involving a full-court press by his political aides as well as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a fellow Democrat who lobbied on the governor’s behalf despite the two men’s often fraught relationship.

Mr. Cuomo reached out to the party on Saturday night with a video and a subsequent phone call, promising to pursue a raft of progressive goals, most critically changing the political dynamic in the State Senate, where Republicans share leadership with a five-member group of breakaway Democrats known as the Independent Democratic Conference.

The governor, who previously refused to support a Democratic takeover of the Senate leadership, promised to undo that arrangement, saying the group’s members should come back to the mainstream party or “face primaries this year from a unified Democratic coalition.”

In his remarks, Mr. Cuomo also suggested that he would work on a variety of other policy goals, including campaign finance reform; a higher minimum wage; and passage of the Dream Act, which would allow college students who are in the country illegally and meet certain criteria to access state financial aid.

Mr. Cuomo has made a series of legislative agreements, with the help of Republicans, that have alienated many on the left, including tax cuts for corporations and reduced pension benefits for newly hired state employees. Activists have also been disappointed by the governor’s unfulfilled promises to revamp campaign finance laws and bolster women’s rights, as well as a decision this year to dismantle a high-profile anti-corruption panel with little notice.

But the fight over the endorsement also appeared to be a rare moment of conciliation and political peril for Mr. Cuomo, whose administration has been noted for its canny, and sometimes cudgel-like approach to governance, winning deals with little worry about making enemies.

There was no doubt that the Working Families rank and file were angry.

WFP's Executive Director Dan Cantor explained his calculation:

“Listen, we’re making a bet that it’s in his interest now, as well as our own, as well as Mayor de Blasio, who played a very prominent role last night in Albany at this convention, to flip the state Senate. And not just to flip it to Democrat control, but to flip it to Working Families-style Democrats so we can actually get this quite important agenda on minimum wage, on public funding of elections, on marijuana decriminalization, on the Women’s Equality Act. … We will find out if we got rolled or will do the rolling in the spring.”