Possible Disruption of a Party Qualification System in NY

On September 9th, New York Democrats go to the primary polls and could change the political party qualification system.

The primary for Governor and Lt. Governor are separately selected in New York.

The Democratic primary for Governor is between:

- Cuomo, for his second term
- Fordham University Professor Zephyr Teachout
- Comedian/Activist Randy Credico

The Democratic primary for Lt. Governor is between:

- Kathy Hochul, former U.S. Rep. NY 26th Congressional District (Cuomo choice)
- Tim Wu, Professor of Law at Columbia Law School (Zephyr choice)

Gov. Cuomo’s political operatives are eying a “painful scenario’’ to dump Kathy Hochul, a moderate upstater, as the governor’s running mate for lieutenant governor amid growing signs that leftist law professor Tim Wu is picking up momentum in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.

Such an action could be needed because a Wu victory would result in a Cuomo/Wu ticket on the Democratic line in the November election but potentially disastrous Cuomo/Hochul tickets on the Working Families, Independence, and Women’s Equality lines, where no primaries are slated.

Under the state Election Law, votes for a Cuomo/Hochul ticket in November would not be added to the tally for the Cuomo/Wu ticket, potentially costing Cuomo hundreds of thousands of votes.

In New York, to get a ballot line and your ballot position, is determined by the number of votes you get in the Governor/Lt. Governor General Election, with 50,000 votes as the minimum.

Cuomo would have until Sept. 16 under the election law to swap Wu for Hochul, using a technique that would allow the former Buffalo-area congresswoman and lawyer to be nominated instead for a judgeship, according to an expert on legislative election law.

“This is the painful scenario being reviewed by the Cuomo people, who realize that there is an outside possibility that Wu could win the primary,’’ said a source close to the Cuomo campaign.

Meanwhile, Cuomo campaign operatives, nervous about the Sept. 9 primary, privately concede that he would suffer considerable national political damage if Fordham University Professor Zephyr Teachout, the governor’s hard-charging “progressive’’ challenger and Wu’s running mate, gets more than about 30 percent of the vote after getting endorsed by the state’s second-largest public employee union.

“About 30 percent will be a huge embarrassment to Cuomo on the national scene and would reinforce the sense that progressives don’t like or trust him,’’ said a prominent Democratic activist.

Randy Credico is projected to get single digit votes.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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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.”










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY K-14 thru P-TECH

Early College High School Program, known as P-TECH, extends schooling for students through grade 14, with graduates receiving a high-school diploma, a two-year college degree and a promise of being “first in line” for a job with a partnering private company.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office announced Wednesday that sixteen schools across the state will be part of a partnership between colleges and private businesses that will give students an opportunity to obtain an associate’s degree at no cost.

About $4 million was included in the state budget earlier this year to expand the program, which started in Brooklyn in 2011, as a partnership between computer giant IBM, New York City public schools, and the City University of New York system.

The schools will be open to about 6,000 students and will be located throughout the state, while each individual program will come up with an enrollment procedure for students, according to Cuomo's office.

“This groundbreaking program will give students across the state the opportunity to earn a college degree without taking on significant debt from student loans while also starting on a pathway to a good-paying job when they graduate," Cuomo said.

All parties involved plan to spend the next year creating a program geared toward new ways for teaching math, science and technology to students who might otherwise not succeed in these areas.

Among the new P-TECH partnerships are:

Finger Lakes
Businesses - Genesee County Economic Development Center
Higher Education - Genesee Community College
K-12 - Regional consortium led by Genesee Valley Educational Partnership with fiscal lead Byron-Bergen Central School District

Businesses: Regional consortium led by Wegmans Food Markets
Higher Education - Monroe Community College
K-12 - Rochester City School District

Hudson Valley
Businesses - Avon, Fairway Testing, All Bright Electric, Hightech Security
Services and Wick Arborists
Higher Education - Rockland Community College, Westchester Community College and SUNY IT
K-12 - Regional consortium led by Rockland BOCES with fiscal lead North Rockland Central School District

Businesses - Hudson Valley Council of Industry
Higher Education - Ulster Community College, Dutchess Community College, Orange Community College, Sullivan Community College and SUNY New Paltz
K-12 - Regional consortium led by Ulster BOCES with fiscal lead Kingston City School District

Businesses - Fuller D’Angelo and Yonkers Workforce Investment Board
Higher Education - Westchester Community College
K-12 - Yonkers Public Schools

Southern Tier
Businesses - Lockheed Martin MS2, Rockwell-Collins, Delta Engineers, Architect & Land Surveyors, P.C., Bothar Construction, Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital, Inc., and United Health Services Hospitals, Inc.
Higher Education - Broome Community College
K-12 - Regional consortium led by Binghamton City School District

Western New York
Business - Catholic Health System
Higher Education - Trocaire College
K-12 - Regional consortium led by Lackawanna City School District










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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