Keep your eyes on Tim Wu. He’s a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of New York. He’s running in the Democratic primary against Governor Andrew Cuomo’s preferred candidate Kathy Hochul. You may remember Ms. Hochul as the politician who won a surprise victory in a May 2011 special election for the 26th District. Most people thought that Hochul won by campaigning against Paul Ryan’s plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system. She lost her bid for reelection in 2012 in part because her district was redrawn. While she was in Congress she did some things, like voting to hold Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, that most progressive Democrats are not inclined to forgive.
Mr. Wu won the endorsement of the New York Times and Daily Kos, and he’s polling well enough that the Cuomo team is freaking out. Hopefully, you are familiar with New York’s unusual ballot system that allows a candidate to run simultaneously on multiple party lines. That gets complicated when the Governor and Lieutenant Governor are running as a team.
Gov. Cuomo’s political operatives are eyeing 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.
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.
If you are familiar with the term “Network Neutrality,” you have Mr. Wu to thank. He’s running on a Teddy Roosevelt-esque platform of trust-busting. Hochul boasts about her 100% rating from the National Rifle Association.
This should be interesting.
anything bad for Cuomo is good for the rest of us. He’s slimy.
now I understand the remark I saw somewhere about trying to get the woman off the Women’s Equality ticket.
Beat me to it.
Anything that pins Cuomo down, makes him expend time, mindshare, and political capital just to run in place is excellent news for middle class people everywhere.
Was wondering when I wrote my diary on the NY Gov/Lt Gov primary/general elections if there was a legal way to replace Hochul as Lt. Gov on the three third party’s tickets should Wu beat her in the DEM primary. Never imagined that the means would be so extraordinary:
Would, however, expect the GOP to challenge such a move in court. It’s not as if Cuomo didn’t take such a stop to keep Teachout off the ballot.
Might be fun to see Cuomo-Wu v. Cuomo-Hochul v. GOP v. Green in the general election.
More fun would be Teachout-Wu (D) v. Cuomo-Hochul (WFP, Independence, Women’s Eq.) v. GOP v. Green.
Whatever would the national Democratic Party do in such an event? And the poor WFP stuck with the DINO ticket.
I’d be fascinated to hear an explanation of how the WFP came to endorse Cuomo. I recall reading somewhere, in the immediate aftermath, that the endorsement was the best deal WFP could get in a situation where Cuomo was holding a gun to the heads of the unions that provide the backbone for the WFP and that they got some important concessions having to do with getting the Albany Democrats to quit caucusing with the Albany Republicans. Yadda-yadda something-something; at that point my eyes rolled back in my head.
Whatever. It doesn’t look like such a smart idea now.
Not sure any more details than what you’ve described are necessary to grasp what happened. Cuomu bullied while whispering sweet nothings and the WFP caved.
Hard to say but in any situation that comes down to expediency vs. principles I know which way I’m betting.
The DLC/Democratic Party tends to go with its principles when challenged by a DFH. Saves “expedient” for contests against Republicans.
Not much I can do on this one but watch. All you folks registered in New York know what to do.
This should be interesting,for sure. Seems like Andrew might just get a lesson in what it means to be too clever by half. I plan on voting for Wu, Liu and Teachout in the primary. I’m not sure what to do in the general election in the event that Teachout wins the primary.