What's The [Data] Point? Episode 49 -- $17 billion with Jamison Dague of CBC on the MTA's preliminary budget for 2019 [You can download What's The [Data] Point? wherever you get your podcasts, including on iTunes]
The MTA recently released its preliminary budget plan for 2019 (the MTA has a fiscal year that is the calendar year), with continued growth, up to $17 billion, and a variety of other noteworthy aspects. Jamison Dague, CBC's resident MTA and infrastructure expert, joined the podcast to break it all down and connect this budget plan to the larger operations of the MTA, the upcoming MTA capital budget that must be negotiated, the new transit president's plans to rescue the subways and buses, and more.
Listen to the conversation and let us know what you think: Ben Max of GG (@TweetBenMax), Maria Doulis of CBC (@MariaDoulis). Listen below or download wherever you get your podcasts!
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by Ben Max, Gotham Gazette
@tweetBenMax @GothamGazette
New York City Hall
What to watch for this week in New York politics:
There’s a state fundraising deadline on Thursday night, meaning candidates -- especially those in competitive party primaries -- for statewide and state legislative positions will be holding events and soliciting donations online for much of the week, hoping to bolster their abilities to get their messages out and affect the narrative around their candidacies and races heading into the final weeks before the September 13 primary and months before the November 6 general election.
The primary is just five weeks from this Thursday.
At this point, perhaps the most interesting and competitive statewide race is the Democratic primary for Attorney General, featuring four qualified candidates: Letitia James, Sean Patrick Maloney, Leecia Eve, and Zephyr Teachout. The candidates all shared a stage for the first time last week and attention on the race continues to heat up after a recent Siena poll showed that 42 percent of likely primary voters were undecided in the race. There’s a televised debate scheduled for August 28 on NY1, but Teachout and Eve are calling for a handful of other broadcast debates. (The candidates have each been appearing on the Max & Murphy podcast from Gotham Gazette and City Limits, with Rep. Maloney scheduled for this week. Hear interviews with Teachout; James; and Eve.)
The Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor also appears wide open, despite the fact that there is an incumbent, Kathy Hochul, running. The Siena poll showed almost 50 percent undecided between Hochul and Jumaane Williams.
It’s unclear, though, if polls are capturing the likely voter pool, especially given the energy on the progressive left, which would appear to be a boon for Teachout, Williams, and gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon, who was far behind incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Siena poll, which took into account “likely” primary voters in its modeling, though the Nixon campaign still questioned the sample Siena contacted and raised the question of whether even a better sample would truly gauge the electorate in today’s climate. We’ll know a lot more on September 13.
We’re awaiting news on one or more debates between Cuomo and Nixon. The governor has vaguely said there will be a debate, but has not agreed to a specific one as of yet. Williams and Hochul appeared on the same stage recently, it is unclear when they may have one or more broadcast debates. The primary has become increasingly nasty, with criticisms over one another’s past issue stances, but also Hochul calling on Williams to release five years of his taxes, as he has pushed for President Trump to do, and releasing an ad attacking Williams for his personal financial troubles, including debt related to an unsuccessful small business and a home loan. Williams has responded by calling Hochul an out-of-touch elitist who has been silent in the face of corruption in state economic development programs, while others have also criticized Hochul’s ad targeting Williams’ finances. (Listen to the Max & Murphy interviews with Williams and with Hochul.)
And there are, of course, also quite a few competitive legislative primaries, including the challenges being waged against the former members of the Independent Democratic Conference of the state Senate. Six of the eight IDC districts include parts of New York City. The two candidates in one race, Manhattan’s Senate District 31, appeared on this past week’s Max & Murphy show on WBAI. Listen to Senator Marisol Alcantara and challenger Robert Jackson discuss their race. And this week on Max & Murphy, Senator Tony Avella and challenger John Liu will appear (after Rep. Maloney).
There are few Republican primaries across the state, as the party has coalesced around its statewide candidates and is not seeing the type of infighting that Democrats have playing out this summer. The GOP is trying to hold onto its last bastion of statewide power in control of the Senate, while also attempting to win a statewide race for the first time since Governor George Pataki won his third term in 2002.
While the elections will increasingly be the focus as we head toward September, there is also governing and policy happening, including related to the MTA, NYCHA, NYPD, housing and neighborhood development, the taxi and for-hire vehicle industry (industries?), marijuana legalization, and more. Keep an eye out this week for news related to a federal monitor of NYCHA, movement in the NYPD departmental trial of two officers involved in Eric Garner’s death, and more, including for-hire vehicle regulations and land use decisions likely being passed by the City Council.
There are also several interesting panel and other events to be aware of -- see our day-by-day rundown below.
***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
e-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***
The run of the week in detail:
Monday
"On Monday, Mayor de Blasio will deliver remarks at the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees board meeting. This event is closed press." Later, at 4 p.m. at City Hall, "the Mayor will hold public hearings for and sign seven pieces of legislation: Int. 399-B, to require the Department of the Aging to report annually on senior center costs and utilization; Int. 411-A, to require annual inspections of senior centers that are also food service establishments; Int. 510-B and Int. 724-A regarding a bill of a rights for those seeking bail bond services; Int. 741-A, requiring the city to provide free domestic telephone service to individuals within the custody of the department of corrections; Int. 779-A, requires the Department of Correction to issue reports on the use tasers; and Int. 981-A, requires online short-term rental platforms to report data about those transactions to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. The Mayor will also hold a public hearing on Int. 157-C, which reduces permitted capacity for certain waste transfer stations in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. This event is open press. There will be no Q-and-A." And, in the evening, the Mayor will appear on NY1’s Inside City Hall in the 7 and 11 p.m. hours.
On Monday at 11:30 a.m., "Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and Council Member Mark Treyger will lead a community rally denouncing a pattern of anti-Chinese graffiti found at several sites in Bensonhurst, urging the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to investigate and designate these acts as hate crimes. Joined by leaders in the Chinese-American community, as well as elected officials such as Assembly Member William Colton and District Leader Nancy Tong, they will address the profane graffiti discovered over the weekend and a greater trend of bias-based crimes that have been committed across Brooklyn in recent days, including an alleged subway attack on a South Korean national last month on a Coney Island-bound N train."
At noon Monday, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will visit Judith C. White Senior Center in Manhattan with Senator Brad Hoylman.
At 2 p.m. Monday, New York Taxi Worker Alliance "app driver members, along with fellow NYTWA members who drive yellow, green, livery and black cars, will rally in Long Island City" in support of for-hire vehicle legislation in the City Council and to respond to the ad campaign by Uber and Lyft.
This week's What's The [Data] Point? podcast from Gotham Gazette and Citizens Budget Commission will be recorded and published on Monday, and will focus on MTA finances.
On Monday, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney will launch "30 town halls across New York State in the next 30 days," beginning with a telephone town hall Monday evening, in his campaign for Attorney General of New York.
At 7 p.m. Monday, gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon and lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Jumaane Williams will join activist Ady Barkan, journalist Shaun King, City Council Member Brad Lander, and others at Barkan’s “Be A Hero” forum in Brooklyn. Speakers will discuss “rejuvenating our democracy and mobilizing the progressive movement to make bold, systemic changes in New York.” The event is being hosted by Working Families Party, Make the Road Action, NY Communities for Change, Center for Popular Democracy Action, and the Be A Hero Fund, and will take place at the Green Building in Gowanus.
Tuesday
At the City Council on Tuesday: The Committee on Consumer Affairs will meet at 10:30 a.m. to discuss a proposed law allowing businesses selling tobacco products (save for cigarettes) 180 days to obtain a tobacco retail license if they have not done so already.
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Republican nominee for Attorney General Keith Wofford will join the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce to discuss his candidacy, as part of the Chamber’s “Attorney General Roundtable” series, open to Chamber members.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Board of Standards and Appeals will hold a public hearing at Spector Hall.
On Tuesday, “Congressional Candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and NYS Attorney General Barbara Underwood will be appearing at the Immigrant Arts Summit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. AG Underwood will be delivering a keynote address at 10AM and Ocasio-Cortez will be participating in a panel on mobilizing and organizing women through the arts at 10:30AM,” among other aspects of the summit.
Tuesday night is National Night Out Against Crime, with events all over the city, often in conjunction with local police precincts.
Wednesday
The City Council will hold a stated meeting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Speaker Corey Johnson will likely host a pre-stated press conference at about 12:30 p.m.
Also at the City Council on Wednesday:
--The Committee on Finance will meet at 10 a.m. to discuss resolutions calling on the state to give the city design-build authority for capital projects, calling for “additional financing by the Hudson Yards Infrastructure Corporation,” and “approving the new designation and changes in the designation of certain organizations to receive funding in the Expense Budget.”
--The Committee on Rules, Privileges, and Elections will meet at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the nomination of Health & Hospitals President Mitchell Katz to the City’s Board of Health.
At 8 a.m. Wednesday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board and New York Law School will host a panel on “improving NYC’s campaign finance program.” Frederick Schaffer, the CFB Chair, will give introductory remarks, which will be followed by a panel consisting of Citizens Union Executive Director and former Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, former City Council Speaker and current President of Women in Need Christine Quinn, and City Council Members Ritchie Torres and Eric Ulrich.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday, Democratic Attorney General candidate Zephyr Teachout will join the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce to discuss her candidacy, as part of the Chamber’s “Attorney General Roundtable” series, open to Chamber members.
At 10 a.m. Wednesday, the City Planning Commission will hold a public meeting at 120 Broadway.
At noon Wednesday, the New York State Board of Elections will hold a commissioners’ meeting in Albany.
At 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Civilian Complaint Review Board will meet at 100 Church Street in Manhattan.
This week's Max & Murphy radio show/podcast will first air Wednesday from 5-6 p.m. on WBAI, 99.5FM and streaming at wbai.org, and will feature three interviews: with U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democratic candidate for New York Attorney General (Hear recent interviews with Maloney's opponents: Zephyr Teachout; Letitia James; and Leecia Eve.); State Senator Tony Avella of Queens; and Avella's Democratic primary challenger, former city Comptroller John Liu.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon will join a roundtable with Asian-American community leaders at Bellozino in Jackson Heights.
On Wednesday at 6 p.m., “U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will host a town hall meeting at The Riverside Church in Morningside Heights. Gillibrand will take questions from constituents on issues ranging from health care to jobs and the economy. Last summer, Gillibrand hosted eight town halls across New York State, and this event will be the third of several more town halls Gillibrand will host around the state this year as part of her commitment to hearing from as many New Yorkers as possible.”
Thursday
At 8 a.m. Thursday, the Association for a Better New York will host a “Power Breakfast” discussing “how we’re spending” New York’s $89 billion budget and “what it means.” Panelists include Melanie Hartzog, the Mayor’s Budget Director; Carol Kellermann, President of the Citizens Budget Commission; Latonia McKinney, Director of the City Council’s Finance division; and Preston Niblack, the Deputy City Comptroller. David Goodman of The New York Times will moderate the event at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown.
At 9 a.m. Thursday, City & State will host its “Diversity Summit & Awards” at 36 Battery Place in Manhattan, discussing New York’s diversity initiatives, particularly in the realm of contracting and partnerships between state and local government. New York Secretary of State Rossana Rosado will deliver the keynote address. Other speakers will include City Council Member Mark Gjonaj; State Senator James Sanders; Jonnel Doris, Director of the Mayor’s MWBE Office; Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services; Lisette Camillo, Commissioner of DCAS; Michael Garner, Chief Diversity Officer for the MTA; and others.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, the New York City Campaign Finance Board will hold a board meeting at 100 Church Street.
Friday and the weekend
Mayor de Blasio may make his weekly appearance on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show on Friday at 10 a.m.
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Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).
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by Ben Brachfeld and Ben Max
@GothamGazette
Cynthia Nixon (left), Alessandra Biaggi (top right), Bill Lipton & Jumaane Williams (bottom)
The Working Families Party celebrated its 20th anniversary last month at Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg, with its rank-and-file cheering on a line up of politicians that have served as standard bearers, past and present. But it’s the future of the party that is especially uncertain as the upstart liberal organization lays it all on the line in backing insurgent candidates in state elections this year.
In doing so, especially in its decision to take on Governor Andrew Cuomo by backing Cynthia Nixon, some the party’s longtime allies have turned adversaries, portending a potentially diminished presence in the state’s political landscape if its gamble does not pay off over the next several weeks. At the anniversary celebration, which featured Mayor Bill de Blasio, among others singing the party’s praises for its push to create a more fair and equal New York, there was little sign of uneasiness about its bold choices this election year; an atmosphere of revelry prevailed, possibly the sign of progressive activists happy to be going for it all instead of triangulating with Cuomo and other more centrist Democrats as it had in the past.
There is also a sense among WFP leaders and supporters that the party is already where the Democratic Party is heading, and where it needs to be, with a more progressive vision of left politics reflective of a new post-Clinton, post-Cuomo Democratic era.
Created by community advocates and labor unions with a vision of pulling Democrats to the progressive left, the WFP has played a prominent role in championing the bread-and-butter issues that most affect working, low- and middle-income Americans. Through activism and advocacy around policy and funding, the party battles inequity, whether it be in housing, employment, wages, criminal justice, education, environment, or electoral access. In local and state elections, Democrats eager to brandish their progressive bonafides have coveted and sought the WFP’s endorsement, and the party’s vocal leaders and active network of members and volunteers.
But after years of being let down by elected officials they propped up, the WFP’s leadership made a drastic decision this year to endorse underdogs in key Democratic primaries. They backed Nixon’s challenge to Cuomo, a two-term incumbent seeking reelection, and New York City Council Member Jumaane Williams in his attempt to unseat Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul; and they are fiercely rallying behind progressive candidates who are trying to replace Democratic state Senators who until recently made up the Republican-allied Independent Democratic Conference (IDC).
The reaction to the WFP’s moves has been significant, and potentially crippling. Several unions that had filled the party’s coffers for years pulled their support for fear of angering the governor, who made explicit threats against anyone who would stay, according to a WFP leader. But advocacy groups and a progressive activist base rallied, resolute to take on Cuomo, whom they no longer trusted after a 2014 deal went bad, and the former IDC members, who had betrayed their Democratic party-mates.
While acknowledging its newfound vulnerability, WFP leaders and supporters also had a sense that they were on the right side of history, pursuing their true vision of where the Democratic Party should be (with the necessary help of the WFP), representative of the national trendlines -- the WFP did back Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary -- a feeling only bolstered in recent weeks by events like the shocking congressional primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whom the WFP had not endorsed over Rep. Joe Crowley, but quickly sought to align with thereafter.
“I think the unions are dismayed by the way the Working Families Party has chosen to operate this cycle,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, in a phone interview. RWDSU was among those unions that left the party this year and Appelbaum is one of several labor leaders who say that Cuomo deserves to be reelected.
“They’re diverting energy and resources from the effort to send more Democratic congresspeople from New York to Washington, [and] our prime responsibility is to work to take back the House of Representatives…Our concern is that the WFP no longer is representing, in its current rendition, the interests of working men and women, despite their name, and that is why unions felt it was necessary to disassociate themselves.”
WFP leaders and allied elected officials say the party made a calculated wager, riding a groundswell of progressive sentiment that has moved the state’s political center, and that no matter how the chips fall on September 13, primary day, the party has already won.
“This is the party they founded 20 years ago...to pull the Democratic Party to the left and with a coalitional approach to building power,” Brooklyn City Council Member Brad Lander told Gotham Gazette at the WFP’s anniversary gala. Lander spoke of the “radical but also practical vision” of Jon Kest, the progressive organizer who founded the WFP as well as the advocacy groups New York Communities for Change and its predecessor, the now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
“The WFP’s always contained this dynamic tension,” Lander said, between “the strength of voice of grassroots activists” and “established but still progressive” institutions such as labor unions. “At this moment, given shifts in the broader zeitgeist...and of course because of the way the governor has approached this, the party is in a more activist movement space,” he said. Like the WFP, Lander is backing Williams for lieutenant governor and several of the challengers to the former IDC members.
Surely, if the WFP notches wins in the many primaries it is involved in -- the WFP offers a general election ballot line, but does much of its work backing its preferred candidates in their Democratic primaries -- it will strengthen the party, and conversely, losses will set them back, Lander said. Though, given the state of New York’s politics, “There’s no choice,” Lander said.
For nearly eight years, the WFP has cried foul about Democratic recalcitrance as key progressive policies have failed to pass the state Legislature. The WFP continues to advocate for issues that include healthcare for all, ending the school-to-prison pipeline, fair wages, fixing the city’s subways, increasing funding to under-resourced schools, the DREAM Act, campaign finance and voting reform.
Cuomo and the members of the erstwhile IDC largely claim to support that agenda and have repeatedly blamed the Republican-controlled Senate for thwarting its planks. But Cuomo tolerated, if not supported, the presence of the IDC, and critics hold its members up as a major obstacle to full Democratic control of both legislative chambers. Democrats have a comfortable majority in the 150-seat Assembly but, with the return of the IDC to the mainline Democratic conference, hold 31 seats in the 63-seat Senate.
And though the State Democratic Party, at Cuomo’s behest, is focused on recapturing the Senate, which necessitates flipping seats in the general election, groups like the WFP insist on replacing rogue Democrats with candidates who better embody progressive values and they trust to not flee for a deal with Republicans.
The party is taking a “big risk,” Dorothy Siegel, WFP treasurer, conceded on the sidelines of the gala, where Nixon, Williams, de Blasio, and Ben Jealous, the WFP-backed Democratic nominee for governor in Maryland, took the stage one by one to celebrate the WFP’s history. “Because, the power structure doesn’t like to be challenged...and the WFP is a really small organization,” Siegel said. “The people who control the levers of power win. Individual people never win.”
Siegel lamented her belief that the state’s politics, the governor, and state Legislature are powered by special interests, largely real estate developers and Wall Street executives (she left out the extensive influence of labor unions). “The WFP is not powered by any of those powerful people. We’re only powered by people who pay us $5 a month,” she said. “It’s a true David and Goliath situation. If we lose the governor’s race, we run the risk of very powerful people being very angry. They can do a lot of things to us that would make our lives difficult.”
Siegel pointed to the investigation involving the WFP that stemmed from alleged campaign finance violations in the election of City Council Member Debi Rose on Staten Island in 2009. Two campaign workers were accused, and later cleared, of charges that they worked with the WFP’s consulting firm, Data and Field Services, to circumvent campaign finance law. The years-long episode cost time and money that the WFP could ill-afford. “Lots of people got laid off. We almost went out of business,” Siegel said. “They could do that again. Do not underestimate the power of super-wealthy people to trample people who want to take away their power.”
Is it worth the risk? “Absolutely. 100 percent,” she said.
One of the most consequential possible effects of the WFP backing Nixon over Cuomo -- who they endorsed in 2014 after he promised to bring the IDC to an end and enact many of the same policies he’s promising again this year, which he did not follow through on -- is that it could cost the party automatic ballot access. A “third party” like the WFP needs at least 50,000 votes for its candidate for governor to maintain its ballot line into the future, which Nixon could easily attain in the general election. But Nixon losing the Democratic primary would put the WFP in a tough spot. Its leaders claim they won’t play spoiler and risk electing a Republican by drawing general election votes away from Cuomo. The party could feasibly get behind Cuomo while removing Nixon from the gubernatorial ballot line. A back-up plan is in place to move her to an Assembly race, in which she would not run, they say.
[Read: The Cynthia Nixon-Working Families Party Back-up Plan]
“We’re confident that Cynthia’s going to win and that the insurgents running against the IDC are all going to win,” said Bill Lipton, NYWFP political director, in a phone interview. “There’s a progressive wave coming. In the unlikely event that she loses, Cynthia’s agreed to meet with the leaders of the WFP and we’ll have an important decision to make. We’re very confident about any of the possible scenarios.”
A Nixon win would shock the political world, and catapult the WFP to never-before-seen power for a minor party. While initial polls show Nixon losing badly, her campaign argues that polling has been skewed and that polls are unable to capture the insurgent energy among Democrats and behind her candidacy. On the other hand, polling shows Williams to have a very real shot at unseating Hochul, which would also strengthen the WFP and cause major headaches for Cuomo (candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run separately in the primary, but as a ticket for the general election).
If Lipton had concerns about the WFP’s undertaking in this election cycle, he betrayed none of them. “We’re not taking a risk. We’re fulfilling our mission. The risk would be for us if we stray from our mission,” he said, critiquing the Democratic establishment for relying on the same wealthy donors as their Republican opponents. “The mission of the WFP is to break up that cozy relationship between these parties and these oligarchs and demand that there be a party that is truly fighting for working people,” he added. “And Cuomo and the IDC fundamentally made the problem worse by not just taking money from the same wealthy donors that fund the Republican attacks on working people but actually openly supporting and aligning themselves with the Republicans. The danger for us would’ve been not standing up to these Trump Democrats. That would’ve been the greater danger.”
The WFP hasn’t been a pure supporter of every progressive candidate, as evidenced by its choice of Cuomo over Zephyr Teachout in 2014, among others. Though the party derived momentum after the recent primary victory by Ocasio-Cortez, the young democratic socialist who defeated ten-term incumbent Rep. Crowley in Queens, its backing of Crowley left many questioning the WFP afterward. Lipton said the party was now fully behind her and that their earlier decisions owed to the fact that Crowley was moving to his left and the party had already committed to challenging former IDC state senators. “In retrospect, we clearly made a mistake. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has inspired us and working people around New York and the nation,” Lipton said.
The party also hasn’t made an endorsement in the state Senate District 18 race where Julia Salazar, also a democratic socialist, is posing a primary challenge to Democratic Senator Martin Dilan, an eight-term incumbent. Although, Lipton did not close the door on the prospect of an endorsement. “As of now, the WFP has made no endorsement in the race,” he simply said. The party is backing Andrew Gounardes in a competitive Brooklyn Democratic primary with Ross Barkan, the winner of which will try to unseat one of the few Republican elected officials in the city, Senator Marty Golden.
[Read: Running for State Senate, Julia Salazar Attempts Progressive Primary Upset]
Karen Scharff, co-chair of the NYWFP and, until recently, longtime executive director of Citizen Action of New York, an activist group and member of the WFP, insists the party will come through September 13 with several victories, similarly citing Ocasio-Cortez, among other progressives, who prevailed in the congressional primaries.
“The headline that came out of June 26 was not ‘Democratic establishment wins big.’ It was quite the opposite,’” Scharff said in a phone interview. “I think really that Cuomo and the IDC and the establishment Democrats took a major risk themselves by ignoring the growth of the progressive movement as it really built up steam over the past seven years going back to Occupy Wall Street and then Bill de Blasio’s election in New York City, the Black Lives Matter movement, the Bernie Sanders momentum, and they’re showing that they realize it.”
She noted that Cuomo has moved to his left in the last few months on several fronts, owing to the shifting dynamics of the Democratic base. “I think that the risk we’ve taken in our endorsements this year have already paid off in moving the dominant issues in our state in a direction that is gonna meet the needs of working families instead of the needs of hedge fund donors and real estate donors,” she said, insisting that the governor and state Legislature, no matter who wins, can ill-afford to ignore the WFP’s agenda next year. “I think this is the direction the electorate is moving in and the Democratic Party’s going to have to either move with it or risk being left behind,” she said.
“I don’t think WFP is out on a limb by itself here,” Scharff continued. “This is really part of the establishment versus the entire progressive and resistance movement….We’re definitely acting as part of a broader movement with a lot of allies.”
Public Advocate Letitia James, who first got elected to the City Council on the WFP line in 2003, also attended the 20th anniversary gala, though her presence was more muted. Despite being a longtime WFP poster star, she did not speak to the gathering, choosing to mingle on the sides. James is running for attorney general with the governor’s support and eschewed the WFP’s endorsement, which the party has reserved for either James or one of her primary opponents, Zephyr Teachout, hoping that one of the two prevails September 13. Asked about the party’s risky endeavors this year, which include the challenge against Cuomo, James demurred. “I was with WFP when they had fundraisers at churches and if you didn’t get there early enough, all the cheese and crackers were gone. They’ve come a long way,” she said.
“They took a chance on me several years ago,” she said, “and they are voting their values. I just wanted to come because they are my friends and because when I needed a party to run on, the Working Families Party was there and that’s something I’ll never forget.”
Theodore Hamm, associate professor and chair of journalism and new media studies at St. Joseph’s College and longtime Brooklyn politics watcher, struck an optimistic note about the state Senate candidates that the WFP has endorsed, though he said that Nixon and Williams are unlikely to win. “The question, I guess, is if those people win but Cuomo holds on, then how will the new state Senate take shape with the some of the IDC figures no longer there and the challengers now taking those seats,” he wondered. “But that would certainly give the WFP influence, to a much greater degree than they’ve had thus far in the state Senate. That really should be where they put their energy.”
Even Hamm admitted, though, that after Ocasio-Cortez’s shocking upset, “There’s no certainties anymore of what will happen in the future. In the wake of her victory, even though they didn’t support her, it made it seem like their gamble was worth at least pursuing.”
At the WFP gala, Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke early and eagerly. His association with the party goes back to his years as a City Council member from Park Slope. “People try and bet against the Working Families Party all the time, the status quo loves to discount them,” the mayor said to whoops and applause. “But guess what? The Working Families Party is here to stay.”
[Read: New York Democrats’ Season of Choosing]
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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
@samarkhurshid @GothamGazette