Tuesday, November 22, 2016

N.Y. Dems try and regroup behind Cuomo after the Clinton debacle

Gov. Cuomo

Fallout from the Clinton debacle.

N.Y. Gov. Cuomo, is not wasting any time. He's positioning himself for 2020 and trying to prevent a takeover of the party by progressives.

Daily News' Kenneth Lovett reports:
Gov. Cuomo this past week met separately with a group of powerful union leaders and a group of donors to talk about how to move forward in the Donald Trump era...
...Among those in attendance were SEIU Local 1199 President George Gresham, Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York head Gary LaBarbera, state AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento, Hotel and Motel Trades Council President Peter Ward, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Appelbaum, and Transit Workers Union head John Samuelsen...
...Also present were city teachers union president Michael Mulgrew and his predecessor, Randi Weingarten, who now leads the American Federation of Teachers. Both were warring with Cuomo just two years ago...
...And he told the group he discussed with California Gov. Jerry Brown that if the two states and their federal delegations banded together “they can really make a huge difference from the coasts.”
Strategic plan include keeping control of the party apparatus, stopping Trump on Supreme Court appointments and taking power back the Congress in the midterms. Cuomo will also have to decide if he'll run for gov again in 2018.

Look for similar moves here towards a new "united front" here in Chicago, to take down Gov. Rauner.

One question is, can this bloc unite with Schumer/Sanders/Warren/Ellison/deBlasio to keep the party together? It's doubtful. Without their progressive base, Dems are headed for more defeats. Look for sharp inner-party struggle in the next few weeks, months, years.

Who can lead? Buckle up.

3 comments:

  1. Went to see Bernie in Naperville last Friday. Inspiring, as usual. He's all over the place--not just on a book tour (& he doesn't shill for his book--he continues to stay on message--ie.e., what he'd say at every debate & town hall), but he is now all over the place--back on the msm political shows,late night tv (honestly, out of everyone--&--kudos to him, HE'S not even a journalist--Seth Meyers did the best interview of Sanders I'd seen)& all over the place. People want to hear his message (which is "Do not despair...you don't have the (luxury) of being hopeless...democracy is not a spectator sport..."), have some comfort & some guidance from someone who could have--should have--been our president-elect. That having been said, the Dem Party continues the same-old-same-old--Chuck Schumer--please--& throwing doggie bones to Bernie (as Ed Schultz more eloquently put it). Sanders/Warren & Ellison (or someone on equal footing w/the first two--there's a question about a charter school bill he'd supported/pushed--?)need to LEAD the party, not Chuck Schumer. & we can do w/o the rest of the old guard (esp. Cuomo), as well. As U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky said Sunday, "The Dems need to be PROGRESSIVE; big money needs to stay out of politics."
    THAT'S how to move forward in the Donald Trump era. Otherwise--let's face it--Dems (& union leaders who continue to support the same old Dems)--there will be no moving forward, as proven by the last election
    (popular vote be damned--Bernie won all those states that HRC lost, which lost her the Electoral College votes). Lesson should be learned.

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  2. Just heard, today (not through "fake" news--I don't read all the stuff out there on social media, etc., &, when people send me "info.," I often go to Snopes to check, that Schumer was on-board for backing Rep. Keith Ellison for DNC Chair. That's a surprise, but a welcome one, if, indeed, true.

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  3. Yes Retired. I allude to that in last paragraph. Cuomo and Schumer not playing on the same team right now. Warring camps with the Democratic Party.

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