Some big news today out of New York:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday endorsed Zephyr Teachout for New York state attorney general, potentially giving the Fordham University law professor a boost for Thursday’s election.
“Zephyr Teachout is running an exciting campaign to transform the office of attorney general,” Sanders said in a statement. “I am confident that she will combat corruption wherever it hides and will be a strong and independent voice in Albany.”
Teachout has won the support of progressives around the country with her reputation as a staunch anti-corruption advocate. She has vowed to use the attorney general’s office to break big finance and big real estate’s power over public spending priorities.
Teachout has also proposed opening investigations into major corporations chartered in New York as a way to fight the Trump administration on policies ranging from climate change to predatory lending.
I’ve always like Teachout and I like the profile piece The Nation has written about her:
No single election result could send a greater chill up the spine of Donald Trump than the nomination of Zephyr Teachout for New York attorney general in Thursday’s Democratic primary. If Teachout is nominated this week, she will be elected in November and move swiftly to do what Congress has refused to do, and what special counsel Robert Mueller has so far been too slow to do: Hold a dangerous president to account.
“The New York Attorney General has a unique role to play as the single most important law enforcement agency with the power to force the Trump administration, and the Trump Organization and Trump Foundation, to follow the rule of law,” says Teachout, who just days after Trump took office was part of a team of top lawyers that sued Trump for his violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution. As attorney general, Teachout says, “I will be relentless, independent, ethical and swift, acting without fear or favor. I believe that we in New York can and must do more, because Trump’s businesses are here, giving us jurisdiction to investigate, restrain, and where necessary dissolve corporations founded on fraud.” And she promises that “I will be fully ready to prosecute any associate of Trump who is pardoned in a self-serving pardon under state law.”
The Nation endorsed Teachout when she launched her campaign for attorney general because it was clear that she alone, among a field of impressive Democratic contenders, had the combination of skills and courage to utilize the full authority of the office—authority that includes the power to check and balance corrupt officials at every level of government. The prospect that this power might be wielded by Teachout, a former national director of the Sunlight Foundation and current Fordham Law School professor who literally wrote the book on corruption (Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United), frightens Republicans and Democrats—including Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Albany politicians who have colluded with him over the past eight years.
Thursday is the big election day and we need to make sure Progressive Democrats win big in New York. Click below to donate and get involved with Teachout and her fellow Progressive Democrats’ campaigns:
Zephyr Teachout for Attorney General
Jumaane Williams for Lt. Governor
Cynthia Nixon for Governor