As long as I live in Nixonland, I expect to have to vote for centrist triangutards in presidential elections. But I will be damned if I have to vote for Andrew Cuomo as governor of New York State. He’s slashed support for education, helped Republicans keep control of the State Senate, and, well, I just think he’s an asshole.
So I’m exited about the possibility that the Working Families Party will put a serious third-party candidate to oppose him. I will vote for that candidate, as long as it’s not Ralph Nader or someone like that, and probably do some volunteer work as well.
Right now, the candidate they’re talking about is someone named Zephyr Teachout. I don’t know that much about her. Kos doesn’t like her, albeit partly for Inside Baseball Judean People’s Front type reasons. I’m iffy on her as well and you may not like the reason: the name Zephyr Teachout sounds too much like a stereotype of a candidate crazy hippies would vote for (and I will vote for her if she’s the WFP candidate). I mean, it’d be a great name for someone mistermix discovered on that music blog he reads, but not for a politician.
Running against Cuomo is a great opportunity for the WFP. It’s a perfect storm — a very shitty Republican candidate and a right-wing Democratic candidate. The WFP candidate could easily finish second. They won’t get many opportunities like this. There’s no reason to think Democrats will nominate someone as conservative as Cuomo again and the Republican party suffering from Teamentia right now, but they could easily get their shit togetherish (as least to the point of breaking 40% in state-wide elections).
? Martin
You think?
But even if you don’t vote for her, she can probably help pull Cuomo a bit to the left if you organize support behind her. Just seeing some non-trivial percentage of the vote pulling left will be a wakeup call.
Paul in KY
Le Chic, I think?
Go for it Doug. IMO, I would hold my nose & vote for Cuomo, but your strategy probably won’t hurt him too much.
Villago Delenda Est
Cuomo sucks.
Balls.
That is all.
Paul in KY
Zeypher Teachout sounds like a name Heinlein would have come up with & then the publisher would have had him change it as it just sounded too sterotypical for even his novels.
DougJ
@Paul in KY:
Yes, le chic!
Betty Cracker
As long as there’s no chance that whichever hairball the GOP horks up would win on a split vote, I don’t see why you shouldn’t go for it.
DougJ
@Paul in KY:
A friend who knows more than me about NYS said until recently that we should consider voting for the Republican candidate in November (then the Republican candidate did crazy stuff so he took it up). Cuomo’s that bad.
SatanicPanic
Zephyr Teachout? I’m calling Poe on that name
David Hunt
New campaign slogan:
“Andrew Cuomo licks the sweat off a dead man’s balls.”
I have no idea what it means but it sounds very negative.
BBA
Cuomo makes Romney look principled.
If the WFP comes in second for governor, they replace the GOP on the state and local boards of elections. Unlikely, but it would be fun.
Samuel Knight
Second? WFP had a shot at winning.
When one major party nominates a nut case, the other nominate someone people, really don’t like, then you have a huge opening.
WFP or another party on the ballot nominate someone who’s credible and people can rally around, then you have a shot. Not a slam dunk, a shot.
Now in NY, that almost certainly would have to come from the left, since both major candidates have left that side of the spectrum open. So one could rally the left – if you had a candidate that they could rally behind.
And although it might sound like Judean People’s Front stuff, what Kos is saying is actually pretty prescient. You’ve got a shot, but this women has some big flaws that would prevent the base from getting excited. She ain’t it. So look hard now, because you have a huge opening.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Did NY Dems realize that Cuomo was a Republican from the get go and give him a pass because of the name and electability, or was he really that stealthy and all the shit has just now hit the fan?
@Samuel Knight: Agreed. “Zephyr Teachout” isn’t going to cut it, and this is an opportunity that doesn’t come along real often.
Paul in KY
@DougJ: I don’t know squat about NYS politics. Cuomo must be hella bad then.
Having a ‘D’ after his name, he must be for unions right to organize & progressive taxation or at least give lip service to those priniples, correct?
Yeggman
Ravitch would be an excellent candidate.
smintheus
Zephyr Teachout has been clinging to her 15 minutes in the limelight for what, at least 15 years now? Bad choice I think.
Bobby Thomson
Zephyr Teachout. Now there’s a name I’ve not heard in a long, long time. A long time.
I remember back in ’04 thinking that the name made it hard to take her or Dean’s campaign seriously, so your reason is not unreasonable.
BBA
@CONGRATULATIONS!: he knows where the bodies are buried.
BBA
@CONGRATULATIONS!: he knows where the bodies are buried.
Kim Jacobs-Beck
Zephyr Teachout is a professor–teaches law at Fordham. We academics usually tolerate unusual names, right?
Belafon
If she’ll get Krystal Ball as her campaign manager…
Bobby Thomson
@Paul in KY:
You really would think that, wouldn’t you?
Lee Rudolph
I won’t speak for “Zephyr”, but my grandmother’s fifth (and last) husband’s family name was “Teachout”—it’s an anglicized German name.
Cacti
What a luxury to have elected Democrats to complain about.
Not a problem we have at the state level here in desert Wingnutistan.
cmorenc
Be careful what you wish for DougJ – the R who’s worse than Cuomo might win if dems split between Cuomo and a third-party candidate (see: Gov. LePage in Maine for an example). I KNOW, I KNOW, it’s a classic Hobson’s choice, support 3p candidate Teachout and risk having a galactic-scale asshole R candidate win, or vote for Cuomo and a mere colossal asshole wins.
You know that old saying about sons of admirable fathers: “he’s a chip off the old block”? Well, Cuomo is a “shit off the old block”.
Lyrebird
@Yeggman:
I second or third or whatever this statement!
Pogonip
Years ago I read an article by a Terry Teachout–forgot the article but the unusual name stuck in my mind. I wonder if she (?) is related to Zephyr?
I think Zephyr is kind of a neat name. Better than being one of the horde of Debbies, Jennifers, or Emilys (depending on your age). And in these parts every other little girl I meet is called Hayley or Madison.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
What’s the deal with Cuomo? Wasn’t his father pretty liberal? What happened to the son?
Jewish Steel
@Lee Rudolph:
Let me guess, he wouldn’t eat the mushrooms?
Marc
And no one else.
If this is WFP’s one real shot at the big time, they owe it to themselves and their supporters to find a credible candidate. That name is going to look fucking horrible on a ballot. You might as well nominate Screaming Lord Sutch or Vermin Supreme.
Pogonip
I think a lot of parents go with the baby-name book advice that the name should sound good with “Senator” or “Federal Judge.”. Faugh, say I. What reporter wouldn’t like to interview Federal Judge Bubbles McSorley? (Although in defense of the books I will say that I knew a Bambi who never quite rose above her name.)
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Pogonip:
Ugh. Madison. And don’t forget Skyler (never Schuyler). What’s the deal with these names? Handing a kid a family name is one thing, if it’s a family name from the family doing the naming. But giving a kid some random family name from some other family seems weird to me.
I have a friend whose middle name is Parker, which was his mother’s maiden name, and when he and his wife had their first child a few years ago, they named him Parker. I always thought that was kind of a bold thing to do, since so many people would assume they named the kid that only to be trendy.
I have a weird first name. My mother’s maiden name, for which I’m unlikely to forgive her in my lifetime. Bad side is that it’s weird and made 3rd grade hell. The only good thing about it is that it’s so weird, people will never assume I got the name to be trendy.
Cacti
@Marc:
If this is WFP’s one real shot at the big time, they owe it to themselves and their supporters to find a credible candidate. That name is going to look fucking horrible on a ballot. You might as well nominate Screaming Lord Sutch or Vermin Supreme.
Some goofball parents don’t stop to think that someday little “Tula does the hula from Hawaii” is going to have to apply for a job.
smintheus
“The Working Families Party” name makes it sound like they represent migrant workers. If they want the votes of people who aren’t named ‘Joad’, they might begin by selecting a more inclusive name. Then move on to the question whether Zephyr Rain Teachout is the right name for the ticket.
c u n d gulag
I live in NY, and I also think that Andrew Cuomo SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He’s not a pimple on his father’s @$$.
Paul in KY
@Bobby Thomson: That’s my low bar a ‘Democrat’ has to pass.
Catherine D.
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I held my nose and voted for Cuomo – he was marginally better than horse porn guy.
Belafon
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): My mom was named after her great uncle.
James Gary
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Mario was indeed pretty liberal. The son chose the “Harold Ford-esque 1%er-friendly ‘centrist'” route.
constitutional mistermix
Yes to all who say Ravitch. I’d vote for her.
Also, Zephyr Teachout sounds like the lead singer of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
Paul in KY
@Pogonip: I know a ‘Bambi’ who is a beautiful woman, married to one of my cousins.
NonyNony
@smintheus:
Really? Are you a stockbroker or something that you don’t identify with having to actually work for a living?
DougJ
@smintheus:
In New York state, the WFP name works. People like labor here.
constitutional mistermix
@NonyNony: Better than the Street Working Family Party, a.k.a. The Aristocrats.
Samuel Knight
Used to have friends at HUD when Cuomo was there. He was pretty widely loathed because he just couldn’t stop being an intolerabe self-centered jerk. And those, well, tend not become let’s-help-other-people progressives.
The other flank he’s opened up is obviously De Blasio. The mayor can’t openly go after him, but boy does he have political incentive to see his little obstacle gone. And of course Ravitch fits that bill.
Not clear thought that she would be what people would perceive as the overall knowledge to do it though. But she might be as good as you’re going to get since there will be a real reluctance to go after the king.
Joe Buck
Zephyr Teachout was director of Internet organizing for Howard Dean’s campaign. Not sure what she did to piss off Kos.
Marc
@Cacti: Zephyr Teachout seems to have gotten a fine job – but then she works in a field (and, I’m guessing, comes from a class) where certain forms of affectation are not automatically disqualifying.
The Working Families Party, on the other hand, needs to win over more than just the Fordham Law School hiring committee.
low-tech cyclist
If Mario Cuomo wasn’t >80 years old, I’d say they should run him. Maybe he could kick some sense into that worthless corporate-whore son of his.
Pogonip
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): And SKYLAR. Double ugh. “So, Skylar, tell me about your family. All I know about them is that your parents were mindless trend-followers who couldn’t spell.”
Pogonip
@Paul in KY: A shout out to Bambi!
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Catherine D.: Okay. Well. Can’t say I blame you.
I’m just going to go with the theory that NY has something really wrong with the water supply and just leave it there.
Summer
She’s got a great name for a Democrat and it’s her name and she’s a friend of a friend, so I say embrace it and her. And this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jedediah-purdy/who-zephyr-teachout-is_b_5417299.html
FeudalismNow!
Cuomo is to the right of most ‘democrat’ governors. He wins because he has a massive campaign war chest, family name and can play Upstate off of the city pretty well. I think the risk of a rethuglican governor is worth getting rid of Cuomo. He is a cancer that wants to spread nationally.
burnspbesq
@Samuel Knight:
BFD. Suppose you’re right, and the WFP candidate wins. How do you propose to get any legislation passed?
smintheus
@NonyNony: “Working Families” sounds like entire families working. “Working Parents” would be more accurate, but I guess they don’t want to drive away single voters.
ruviana
I know nothing about Prof. Teachout other than what I just read here and what’s on her webpage at Fordham. So what’s the awful stuff about her? Her parents named her Zephyr? She did stuff for Howard Dean? So far these don’t sound awful
I live in non-downstate NY (I get into arguments as to whether or not it’s “upstate”) and while people here are generally pretty conservative, there is a plethora of really weird names and people do like labor so I’m not sure about what makes her so bad. Really, just asking for more info, not silly name bashing.
Cacti
@FeudalismNow!:
I think the risk of a rethuglican governor is worth getting rid of Cuomo
When did Ralph Nader start posting here?
Pogonip
Around here, at least, a lot of little working-class girls are being saddled with Nevaeh. Poor kids.
And why are we called the working class? Doesn’t everyone work? Or are we the suckers who are working while everyone else is sitting around drinking beer and watching TV?
Kay
I agree. There’s a strategic reason, too, IMO. If someone on the liberal side doesn’t grab “populism” it’s going to come out in a Tea Party version.
I think it’s out there and it’s a real thing, and there has to be a liberal expression of this or we’re going to hate, hate, hate their version.
I saw WFP say they are going into Wisconsin and another state (I don’t remember the other) and trying to get an organization going. I’m all for it.
DougJ
@burnspbesq:
I don’t think a WFP governor would have any more trouble getting stuff passed than a Democrat would.
DougJ
@Cacti:
There is almost zero difference between Cuomo and the last Republican governor, Pataki.
ruviana
@Pogonip: Mykaela. Justiss. Dakota. Just a few of the local names I see a lot of.
piratedan
@burnspbesq: all journey’s begin with a step, do they not burnsy? Getting elected would make a point, that yes, liberals can get elected and not everyone has to be a corporatist to be in office (or a screaming wingnut meemee). You never know until you try.
Kay
I also think hitting him on campaign finance was really smart. That’s a good government issue, and he looks like a hack when he resists it, instead of a “bipartisan problem solver job creator” which would have been his defense if they had done sick leave or some other identified “Lefty” issue as the main event.
Pogonip
@ruviana: Justiss? Yuck.
There are a lot of Texas names around here and we are nowhere near Texas. Austin , Houston, and Dallas are often Nevaeh’s brothers. I keep expecting to meet my first little Fort Worth soon.
Pogonip
P.S. there is also a town in Texas called Muleshoe. I haven’t met any little Muleshoes yet.
Emma
Congratulations. You have (mostly) all passed the John McCain test for selecting a candidate. What does it matter if she’s a law professor? And was an ally of Howard Dean? Or a director of the Sunlight Foundation? Qualifications? What qualifications? She sounds like a hippie!
Cacti
@DougJ:
There is almost zero difference between Cuomo and the last Republican governor, Pataki
How much difference is there between Pataki and the current GOP candidate?
That’s the question germane to this particular cycle.
Calouste
@Pogonip:
I’d like to think if I had three sons (not going to happen), I would name them Count, Duke and Earl.
Roger Moore
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I don’t know about Skyler (or Skylar, which a friend named his daughter), but Madison became popular after Daryl Hannah’s character in Splash. Seriously. It was never in the top 1000 baby names until 1985, the year after Splash came out, after which it jumped rapidly into the top 100.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Kay: It is out there, Dems are flat-out ignoring it, and we’re going to end up on the wrong side of both history and elections if we keep ignoring it.
Back in the 1930, we could have gotten either FDR’s version or Huey Long’s. We got lucky then. Luck is a phenomena that rarely repeats.
Cacti
O/T but Jay Carney is stepping down as WH Press Secretary.
To be replaced by Josh Earnest.
NonyNony
@smintheus:
Ah, so it’s the “Families” part you were objecting to, not the “Working”. Got it.
They could just call it the “Working Peoples Party”, but I suspect that would lead to a whole host of different objections.
Belafon
@CONGRATULATIONS!: That’ll never happen here.
NonyNony
@Cacti:
Folks around here are complaining about the name “Zephyr Teachout” when the President’s Press Secretary is going to be named “Josh Earnest”?
If I wrote a book and named the media glad-handling guy “Josh Earnest”, I’m fairly certain that my editor would make me rename him because the gag is a bit “on the nose”.
Bobby Thomson
@Cacti:
Speaking of improbable names.
Seriously, that’s Dickensian for a press secretary.
ETA: And Nony beats me to it by seconds.
Amir Khalid
@Cacti:
At first, I thought you were kidding abut the name of Carney’s successor. Then I read that Josh Earnest really is the deputy White House Press Sec.
priscianus jr
You know, in the midst of all this palaver, it might be worth checking out who this here Zephyr Teachout actually is. Doesn’t look too bad, frankly.
Oh, and yeah. Cuomo can kiss my ass.
http://law.fordham.edu/faculty/zephyrteachout.htm
Cacti
@Amir Khalid:
At first, I thought you were kidding abut the name of Carney’s successor
Understandable in a thread about Zephyr Teachout. ;-)
Amir Khalid
@priscianus jr:
For a white person, I guess … ;)
NonyNony
@Bobby Thomson:
Ha!
Sometimes, though, the way names just coincidentally line up with jobs makes me think we might just be living in the Matrix. I know it’s my primate brain attuned to pattern-matching that makes me notice the small collection of weirdly coincidental name/job alignments but it still brings me up short every time.
burnspbesq
@DougJ:
I think you’re kidding yourself.
But more to the point, what you’re saying, in effect, is that you’re OK with a WFP governor watering down his/her agenda and otherwise pandering to the Republicans in the Senate. If that’s true, than isn’t swapping Cuomo for a WFP governor just empty symbolism?
Roger Moore
@NonyNony:
You don’t believe in nominative determinism?
Bobby Thomson
From the GOS link in DougJ’s post, here’s the inside baseball stuff:
Schlemizel
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks :
That is a fine old Southern tradition, name the first born son for moms maiden name. It explains a lot of unusual names on the ol plantation.
DougJ
@burnspbesq:
Cuomo is probably to the right of the Republicans in the Senate on financial matters…which is why he’s never spoken out against the ridiculous manner in which Republicans control the Senate without a true majority.
Fort Geek
It’s spelled “Zephyr Teachout” but it’s pronounced “Throat Warbler Mangrove.”
Paul in KY
@Summer: Sounds like a fine person. Hope she endorses whomever the Democrats put up ijn 2016.
Paul in KY
@ruviana: Ok, ruviana, we will stop the silly name bashing.
Calouste
@NonyNony:
What? After Reagan’s press secretary was called Larry Speakes?
smintheus
@Bobby Thomson: For some, the personal is political.
Paul in KY
@Emma: She does have a name that sounds stereotypically hippyish. Zephyrr Johnson doesn’t sound bad. Neither does Amy Teachout. It is the combo that does it (IMO).
If she ran as a Democrat, I’d vote for her in an instant & if assured that the Republican scumbag would not get in, I’d vote for her over Cuomo.
Paul in KY
@NonyNony: He/she would probably make you do that!
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: Wouldn’t the WFP person have to pander to the Democrats, since I would expect the republicans to be agin anything WFP sponsered?
Pogonip
@Calouste: Duke, Duke, Duke of Earl, Duke, Duke…
Never say never. I never expected to have kids and now I have one who’s bigger than I am.
Gypsy Howell
I remember Zephyr Teachout from the Dean days, and then a little beyond. I don’t have anything in particular against her, but honestly, on what qualifications is she running to be governor? (I know, “But Sarah Palin yadda yadda yadda”)
And sorry, although she obviously can’t be held responsible for what her parents named her, the name has “hippie commune” written all over it. If you were on the fence as a voter, and (most likely) had never heard of Zephyr Teachout, would you be likely to vote for her in the primary?
Strange choice on the part of the WFP, to my mind. Was there no one more qualified or with higher name recognition?
gene108
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
The problem with post-1964 Democratic populism is it allows blacks to apply for and receive the same benefits as whites.
This is what undid the New Deal coalition in the 1970’s and afterwards.
I do not think Southern Strategy style race baiting is going to work as well a it did then, but there’s still a good chunk of whites, who will happily screw themselves so long as those people are screwed more.
DougJ
@burnspbesq:
Also too, a WFP person would be more likely to cut a deal with Republicans on reforming the state legislature. A lot of smart Republicans know that they’ll eventually lose the Senate and, under current rules, that would make them completely powerless.
Spitzer was serious about reforming Albany. Cuomo shows no interest.
ruviana
@Paul in KY: Lol. It is a screen name though. My *real* name is way more boring.
Betsy
I remember thinking just that about some guy named Barack Obama. 2007: I mean, he’s great, right?? But jeez, if only he had a different NAME.
Paul in KY
@ruviana: I like the screen name. Sounds like a Game of Thrones or LOTR name.
RSR
so funny; saw forecaster etan (or whatever, not factchecking duriong Philly beer week) mention her last night, and I knew that name
Back from the heady Howard Dean days; never even knew a sex for that name.
But law prof at Fordham is not insignificant,
I’m in.
Paul in KY
@Betsy: Touche…
Kay
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I agree completely. It has to be plus/and rather than either. The Tea Party version excludes “social issues” which they define as anything that might benefit/protect anyone other than white men.
We need an inclusive populism with a robust federal role, or we’re getting some horrible Tea Party “tear the whole thing down and send everything back to the states!” version.
Vlad
@Joe Buck: She essentially said that when the Dean campaign hired Kos and Jerome (from MyDD) for technical consulting work during the campaign, they did so with an intention of purchasing positive coverage on their respective blogs. Kos, naturally, took offense at this, and pointed out that he posted a disclosure of the nature and compensation of the work on dKos specifically to ensure that everything was above-board. See relevant posts from Zephyr’s (defunct) blog here: https://web.archive.org/web/20050218032837/http://zonkette.blogspot.com/2005/01/financially-interested-blogging.html and here: https://web.archive.org/web/20050519170924/http://zonkette.blogspot.com/2005/01/clarifications-and-thoughts-on.html
IIRC, she also was pushing a “blogger code of ethics” for a while, which makes me think that she’s kind of a ninny. She doesn’t belong anywhere near a ballot line.
Chris
@gene108:
Yeah.
I also think too many people in the Democratic Party even today have this absolute mind-block against thinking of “populism” as applying to voters other than working-class whites with socially conservative tendencies (i.e. the New Deal voters who went on to be “Nixon”/”Reagan Democrats”).
It’s why in the 2008 primary and general elections alike, and even since then every now and then, we kept being treated to stories about “Obama’s trouble reaching blue collar voters” – despite the fact that he’s far more popular among those Romney dismissed as “the 47%” than in VSP circles. “Blue collar voter” in our politics carries the unspoken connotations “white,” “male,” and “Christian, probably the conservative kind.”
Suffern ACE
@Catherine D.: Cuomo was sober. I didn’t like him because I thought it was rude the way the high hair Democrats decided to abandon the governor. Cuomo couldn’t wait his turn. Then he couldn’t control his party.
taylormattd
I think Markos is a dick sometimes, but he is right about ZT. The whole thing with Howard Dean was fucking ridiculous. She’s a fucking moron.
A non mouse
@NonyNony:
In Toledo there is a urologist named Richard Tapper. And yes, he uses the nickname Dick. Hearing him paged overhead as a resident always made me giggle.
RSR
@A non mouse:
reminds me of the mohel my in-laws utilized: Dr Diamond “nothing cuts like a diamond” on the card
Goblue72
@Vlad: Ninny about nails it. I remember her from the Fean campaign (back when I was a volunteer during the early primaries – though I’ve since list my orange hat).
She was emblematic of the kind of starry eyed lefties that joined the Dean campaign – and part if the reason his campaign ran into the ground. Nobody working on the campaign really seemed to know how to win anything. Joe Trippi worked on several Presidential campaigns – all losing.
Teachout thought she’d win the Presidency through Meetup.com. Total poopshow fail parade.
Stay far far away from Teachout. If WFP nominated her, she is going to lose BADLY.
negative 1
@Vlad: For what little this observation is worth, Kos has never that I remember or could find not explicitly backed a democratic candidate when there was an odd situation like this one. He’s actively soliciting support here in Rhode Island for Angel Taveras by calling him progressive. He’s not. I understand not liking She Whom Shall Not Be Named, but labor backs Pell and I defy anyone to find something progressive about Taveras since he has been mayor. I’m not saying Angel is a bad choice, there are certainly worse ones on the ballot, but it has always struck me as curious that Kos seems to back the party establishment choice in every instance. Additionally in 2010 when Frank Caprio (D) ran against Linc Chafee (I) Kos just flat out stayed out of it — although literally no progressive would have pulled the lever for Caprio, who ran on slashing pensions (yes even before SWSNBN) and cutting state worker salaries. Should have been an easy call for a progressive, but Kos decided not to help. I personally think of him as a pretty loyal Democrat, which is good, but one should realize where his biases lie. YMMV, I suppose.
Bill Arnold
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
He is essentially (*) a carefully calibrated Rockefeller Republican. He would NOT be welcome in today’s Republican party.
(Not exactly; e.g. he’s negative on unions to get republican crossover votes, unlike RRs who might have supported unions to get democratic crossover votes.)
Groucho48
@burnspbesq:
Well, for one thing, the WFP candidate almost certainly wouldn’t tacitly approve Dems in the Senate join the Rep caucus and allow the Reps to keep a majority there.
You also seem to think that Cuomo is proposing all sorts of liberal-y stuff that is being shot down by Reps, despite his best efforts. That’s not what is going on. Cuomo is pushing through all sorts of right wing, corporate-friendly stuff that Reps like and Dems aren’t all that happy with. That’s kind of why the WFP has a small but not insignificant shot at winning and a pretty decent shot at taking second place and knocking Reps off all those commissions and boards that shape politics in the state. Not to mention, if the liberal push-back is big enough for the WFP to win, that would mean Dems would probably take true control of the Senate, giving them both houses.
Vlad
@A non mouse: One of my professional colleagues at work is named “Dick Tucker”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Augie
Rob Astorino is not a terrible candidate at all. In fact, in another state, he would be a good candidate. He won by a lot in a Democratic stronghold and is not a Tea Party flame thrower. In most other states, he would be considered a liberal. He doesn’t have much of a chance to win, but he could come close if WFP siphon off a lot of votes from Cuomo. Anyone who thinks WFP will come in second is smoking lots and lots and lots and lots of dope. Lots of it.
Note: I don’t begrudge third party challenges. It’s done wonders for the GOP in pulling it to the right. I encourage strong candidates to the left of Cuomo. But let’s be realistic about the political environment here please.
Augie
@burnspbesq: Yes. Yes it is.
Augie
@Vlad: In the list of progressive sins, this ranks as #1,567,837.
Morzer
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
For my money, Cuomo is a somewhat incompetent careerist who doesn’t seem to care which party he belongs to, provided it gives Lil Andy a chance to rise ever upwards. He’s obviously not very bright, because Blue Doggery as a strategy has clearly worn out its welcome – and yet, there’s Andrew “Likes vintage cars and hasn’t got much to say other than that” Cuomo still humping Wall Street’s leg and rolling over with his tummy exposed when the plutocrats snap their fingers. It’ll be interesting to see whether he manages to slither away from his rather obvious connection to Chris Christie’s corrupt shenanigans, but my guess is that he’s just about got enough of the “right” people onside to escape lasting damage. Pity.
burnspbesq
@Paul in KY:
In that situation, you pander to the highest bidder, I suppose.
Morzer
@burnspbesq:
You panda according to what the market will bear.
Mnemosyne
@Morzer:
Panda kitten?
Groucho48
If the liberals in NY are strong enough to get the WFP candidate elected, they are strong enough to keep control of the Assembly and take back control of the Senate. In fact, the only reasons the Reps are able to control the Senate now is that a couple or three Dems, with Cuomo’s blessing, switched to voting with Reps AND Cuomo allowed the Reps to re-draw some districts to move them into the Rep column.
While Dems in control of both Houses doesn’t guarantee a liberal paradise, it would mean that pretty much everything would slide at least a bit to the left and at least a few things on the liberal agenda would get passed.
There are noises coming from the Cuomo camp that he wants to mend fences with liberals, but, his nominating Kathy Hochul for the Lt. Governor spot is a strong indication that it’s just noise.
For the WFP to even come in second is a fairly big deal as it would mean Reps are no longer a major party in NYS and they would lose a lot of patronage and policy positions, not to mention have to jump through extra hoops each election cycle to get on ballots.
James E. Powell
@burnspbesq:
I think the plan looks something like this:
1) Third-party candidate elected governor
2) ???????
3) Golden Age of Liberal Nirvana begins
Obviously, they’re still working on No. 2, but it’s a pretty good plan, no?
James E. Powell
@Betsy:
I remember thinking just that about some guy named Barack Obama. 2007: I mean, he’s great, right?? But jeez, if only he had a different NAME.
If Zephyr Teachout could go on TV and give a speech like Obama’s DNC speech in 2004, I’m sure she’d get over that name thing.
But I think her real problems are her past association with Howard Dean, which the corporate press/media will treat like membership in the Weather Underground, and the law professor thing.
Even other law professors think “pompous blowhard” when they hear “law professor.” In liberal law professor lovin’ Massachusetts the law professor that most resembles everybody’s favorite aunt trailed the black guy by 7 points.
And not being from New York, I have no idea how “Fordham Law Professor” resonates, i.e., compared with “Cornell Law Professor” or “NYU Law Professor” – really, I have no idea.
burnspbesq
@James E. Powell:
I think I want a little more visibility into 2 before I sign on.
PJ
@James E. Powell: Fordham Law is definitely below NYU and Columbia, but above New York Law School, and the Long Island law schools. I don’t know anything about her, and I’ve lived in NYC for 10 years and read the paper often enough, which means that the average New Yorker is also going to have no idea who she is besides the fact that she has an odd name. If the WFP is serious, they would nominate someone who has actually won an office in New York.
James E. Powell
@burnspbesq:
I think I want a little more visibility into 2 before I sign on.
You are stomping on a lot of peoples’
cherished delusionshopes & dreams.David Koch
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAH
Yeah, how did that work out, Nate
MaximusNYC
@smintheus:
Do you work? Do you have a family? Then you’re included.
The WFP is a great organization. They not only have sterling progressive credentials, they actually know how to make things happen. They’ve been responsible for some good stuff in NY state in recent years, including getting the minimum wage raised statewide, and getting paid sick leave enacted in NYC.
Vlad
@Augie: “Naive idiot” is never a good look, no matter how progressive you might be. I would have serious concerns about the judgment and priorities of someone who was willing to waste time and energy pushing something a self-evidently stupid as a Blogger Code of Ethics, as she did, rather than one of the ten million things other things that might have an actual impact on the world.
Ultimately, if you’re going to nominate someone for governor, you should pick a candidate who has the ability to govern. I don’t think Teachout does, so it’s as simple as that.