Just tumbled onto this Daily News Story that cites a diary written right here yesterday by a former special counsel to the Moreland Commission:
Hillary Clinton Boosts Andrew Cuomo Ticket While His Former Moreland Counsel Shoots Against Him
This was the subtitle to the Story:
Clinton became one of the biggest Democratic guns yet to rally behind Cuomo’s ticket this week, part of a strategy to overwhelm Teachout and her running mate Tim Wu with party firepower. Meanwhile Janos Marton wrote a scathing column for DailyKos.com Friday denouncing Cuomo
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This is the Diary by the Moreland Special Counsel, Janos Martin, in case you missed it. I missed it entirely even though it did make the Rec list.
Why This Former Special Counsel to the Moreland Commission Supports Zephyr Teachout
Governor Cuomo's behavior during the Commission is emblematic of this cynical approach to governance. During the life and aftermath of the Commission, Governor Cuomo repeatedly made comments and pressured Commissioners to make comments that Commission staff knew to be blatantly untrue. The Commission staff did not realize that Governor Cuomo viewed them as chips in a misplayed poker hand, a gambit to be discarded via press conference. Only after being browbeaten for months did we acknowledge the farce of investigating any target that could even tangentially set off Cuomo or his senior staff. I learned of the Commission's shutdown over Twitter, two days before the budget was due. By then the Commission was a shell of itself anyway.
Without someone challenging this Albany mindset, it is no wonder most New Yorkers are completely cynical and disengaged from their state government. Indeed, if Zephyr Teachout's campaign has achieved nothing else, it has shown that someone with political courage can stand up to any elected official, criticize him and offer a better vision, without suffering retaliation. That is what democracy is
More discussion beneath the orange doodad
The Daily News Story is interesting because it repeatedly says that HRC supports the Cuomo "ticket" and not Cuomo himself. Her robocall is described as urging support of his running mate Kathy Hochul.
Aha! I discovered the text for the robocall at Politico:
Hillary Clinton Robocalls for Andrew Cuomo
And it's true, Cuomo is mention only once at the very beginning and the entire focus of the call is Hochul.
Kos made his opinion of Hochul clear here in his diary from yesterday Andrew Cuomo Creates Fake Woman's Party And Puts Himself In Charge
And of course, one of those two women is Cuomo's lieutenant governor candidate Kathy Hochul, who loved to brag about voting with the NRA and against Obamacare dozens of times. Oh, well. The funny thing is, legislation focusing on just that, women's equality, would've passed the state Senate had it not been for the Republicans that Cuomo directly empowered.
As to Cuomo himself, Kos opined:
It's weird to have a governor so afraid to run on his actual record that he refuses to debate, doesn't take media questions, and resorts to schemes like this one to ... to what, exactly? To try and preserve the fiction that he'll be president someday? Unfortunately for him, for all our faults, Democratic presidential primary voters have shown little inclination to nominate corrupt assholes.
So the obvious question here is - why is the Democratic "Party Firepower" as the NY Daily Post describes it, so firmly in the Cuomo camp? Why is Hillary? What does Kos know that Hillary Clinton doesn't?
I'm curious at this point to wonder what would happen if Teachout pulled a surprise and won the primary a la Ned LaMotte vs Lieberman, what would Cuomo do? What would the Dems do? Teachout is obviously from the Elizabeth Warren side of the party. What would a win by her say to the party elders? What are her chances realistically?
UPDATE
Now this is some interesting inside baseball! It becomes more clear why the Dems are so desperately trying to shore up Hochul support - if she doesn't win her slot she could cause a lot of hurt to Cuomo because -
Remember that "fake" women's party that Kos diaried about- The Women's Equality Party? Cuomo may have reason to file its creation in the "Too Clever By Half" folder if things go terribly wrong and Hu wins the Lt. Governor race. According to this story in the New York Post by Frederic Dicker Cuomo May Dump Hochul Fearing A Tim Wu Primary Win if Tim Wu wins Cuomo may be forced to dump Hochul because:
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.
Ho, ho ho. Wu is the real wildcard here - he has been coming up strong and got the NYTimes endorsement for Lt. Gov. I wonder if he would be strong enough to have coatails for Teachout?