After years of fighting for environmental justice, I became increasingly frustrated at constantly running up against the brick wall of big polluter money in politics. To truly make progress on passing anything from a ban on fracking to progressive taxation, we need to first get big money out of politics. Passing Fair Elections is key to that effort in New York State.
Here is a letter I wrote to Citizen Action of NYC members who have been active in the Fair Elections fight (many of whom, like myself, were early champions of Zephyr Teachout and her campaign against corruption):
Dear friends & fellow activists,
This last year with Citizen Action has been one of incredible ups and downs. We kicked things off with Penny-A-Day actions on our Fair Elections campaign and dropped banners over the highway in Jeff Klein's district urging him to keep his campaign promises. We brought in Elizabeth Warren to give a speech on the intersection between inequality and money in politics -- and the resulting media hype was enough to pressure Governor Cuomo into putting public financing into his budget. We filled buses and went up to Albany to lobby for Fair Elections and demand the state legislature work for #AllofUs, not just the wealthy and well-connected. Some of you even got arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.
When Fair Elections failed to pass, we shifted gears. We began readying for a fight. I had long conversations with many of you about whether or not we should run our own candidate for governor. We decided yes. We already had the ballot line -- the Working Families Party (WFP), which Citizen Action co-founded back in 1998 to give the progressive movement some real estate on the ballot, as a tangible way to hold elected officials accountable to their promises. We found a candidate. An anti-corruption crusader by the unlikely name of Zephyr Teachout. We drew a line in the sand and told Governor Cuomo that unless he changed his tune significantly, we were going separate ways.
Some in the party wanted to endorse the governor from the beginning. But key leaders -- including our own Karen Scharff -- held out, refusing to back away from the demand for Fair Elections.
Then the unexpected happened. Governor Cuomo caved. At the last minute, he pledged to push through Fair Elections. And that wasn't all. He agreed to a minimum wage increase with indexing. He agreed to pass the full, 10-point women's equality agenda. He agreed to push through the NYS DREAM Act. He agreed to marijuana decriminalization. He even agreed, remarkably, to help flip the state senate and push for a reunification of the IDC and the Dems -- making it easier to advance a progressive legislative agenda in 2015.
There were those of us (like myself) who didn't think his promises were enough. Who argued passionately for Zephyr. Who were heartbroken and bitterly resentful when the WFP state committee voted -- in an admittedly transparent and beautifully democratic process -- to endorse Cuomo. It was, I believed at the time, a violation of our principles and everything we stood for as a party and as a movement.
Despite feeling somewhat vindicated by Zephyr's performance in the primary, I gradually came to understand that my position was a position of privilege. You see, I am blessed not to have to work for minimum wage. I don't have to struggle to make ends meet, to put food on the table. I don't have to worry about whether or not I will be able to afford college. If I am caught smoking marijuana, the color of my skin means I won't spend very much (if any) time behind bars. And so I began to realize that the endorsement I so resented wasn't at all the "selling out" of the party we helped to build. It was, instead, an emotionally challenging decision reached after many hours of difficult deliberation by a bunch of kind, caring, strategic individuals attempting to use their little bit of influence over the governor to make life better, in tangible ways, for millions of struggling New Yorkers.
Now, we are at yet another crossroad. Educated, progressive voters have two choices. You can throw your vote away on a protest vote for Howie Hawkins and the Green Party. Or, you can vote on the Working Families Party ballot line to hold Governor Cuomo accountable to his promises to raise wages, pass Fair Elections, and make New York State work for all of us.
As much as we all hate to hold our noses when we vote, and as tempting as it might be to vote green, this is a time when we need to be pragmatic more than idealistic. Governor Cuomo is going to win a second term. He is going to be governor for the next four years. The best way to get what we want is to vote on the WFP ballot line, sending him a strong message that we expect him to deliver on his promises to progressives.
Most importantly, there is no better vehicle for driving the Fair Elections fight than a strong Working Families Party. And the more votes on the WFP line for Cuomo, the stronger our bargaining position for public financing (not to mention women's equality, fair wages and DREAM).
So join me, in voting WFP. And in spreading the word. For voters. For workers. For women. For #allofus.
I'll be in touch, over the next two weeks, to talk about outreach and Election Day shifts. But for now, click here to show your solidarity with progressive voters from all across New York State.
With gratitude for all we've done and with the hope of accomplishing so much more together,
Kristina