The Working Families Party, a small party in Néw York state, will hold its convention Saturday in Albany.
At that time, the party will decide whether to endorse Governor Cuomo for re-election or run its own candidate. Polls show that Cuomo wins easily if he does not face a credible challenger on the left. He has lined up Mayor Bill de Blasio’s support and is wooing labor leaders who are active in the WFP.
Many on the WFP executive committee have expressed interest in the candidacy of Zephyr Teachout, a professor at Fordham Law School with an impressive record as a champion of ethics in government.
There is likely to be a heated floor fight.
Governor Cuomo has been a disaster on education issues. He has cut state aid, and districts are not allowed to raise their own school taxes above Cuomo’s cap of 2% unless they get a supermajority vote of 60%. A vote of 59.9%, and your budget goes down to defeat. He has ably represented the 3% of students enrolled in charter schools, because their allies on Wall Street are major donors to Cuomo’s campaign. He just doesn’t care much for public schools. Large numbers of parents and educators are looking for an alternative to Cuomo, who will speak up for public schools and reduce the state’s obsession with high-stakes testing.
So who is Zephyr Teachout?
Here is a testimonial by a law professor at Duke Law School, where she earned her law degree and graduated summa cum laude.
Here is her official Fordham University bio.
And here is the statement she released today:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MAY 30, 2014
STATEMENT FROM ZEPHYR TEACHOUT ON SEEKING THE WORKING FAMILIES PARTY NOMINATION FOR GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Contact: Zephyr Teachout, info@zephyrteachout.com
New York, NY — Gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout released this statement Friday on her decision to seek the Working Families Party nomination for Governor of the State of New York:
“I’m seeking the WFP nomination because New Yorkers deserve an economy and democracy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected. The system is rigged for the rich and powerful, and as part of that broken system, Andrew Cuomo isn’t going to fix it. People’s voices aren’t being heard,” said Gubernatorial Candidate Zephyr Teachout. “Cuomo not only failed to do anything real to prevent wealthy and corporate donors from buying our politicians, but proposed severe cuts in education funding while giving massive tax breaks to bankers and billionaires. I am strong supporter of public education, a democracy responsive to our voices, and an economy grounded in good jobs and many small businesses, not a few powerful corporations.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Best wishes to Professor Teachout!
I don’t know much about New York poiitics, but I certainly think Cuomo has turned out to be a disappointment to those who amired his father’s tenure as New York’s governor.
His father needs to put him over his knee and give him a good whuppin’!
Andrew believes he is a prince. His father knows better than to admonish his princely son…..to bad. Mario had moral principles. His son, Andrew, well….
The current budget calls for a 5% increase in state education spending and it is the third budget in a row that’s seen an increase. New York State spends more per student than any other state in the country. Of course this doesn’t mean that some individual districts have had funding cuts.
I was hopeful that a legitimate third-party candidate would emerge to challenge Cuomo and Astorino, but I’m not sure that Teachout is that person. Cuomo’s message that the schools are already adequately funded is one that resonates with New York voters of both parties; Astorino has experience running a county that’s bigger than a handful of small states and his not-so-subtle support of active segregation will appeal to many suburban/exurban voters. To compete a third-party candidate needs either a big name or a lot of experience successfully running a large organization.
If the goal is merely to reduce Cuomo’s margin by 100-200,000 votes, I guess she might fit the bill. But that’s a small, small goal, and I don’t think Cuomo would be a true presidential contender even if he won 70% of this vote.
NY has one of the most inequitable funding systems in the nation.
That may very well be the case, but even the least-funded districts in New York spend about $16,000 per student, and New Yorkers–regular, non 1%-er New Yorkers like me–bear the highest tax burden in the United States. If a district can’t cobble out a decent free and appropriate education for its kids on $16,000 / year, especially in the low cost-of-living regions where such districts tend to be located, then I’m pretty sure inequity isn’t the problem.
Tim,
NY could save many millions by cutbacks in testing and consultants.
Amen, Diane? No unfunded mandates, which includes testing and consultants.
This 5% increase represents just a portion of the monies he stripped from districts early in his governorship. Small city schools and rural districts took a pretty hard and disproportionate hit. Factor in the ever increasing number of unfunded mandates, the skyrocketing costs of implementing the Common Core (and technology required for PARCC testing), plus small but real increases in the cost of living and Cuomo’s budget is just a figment of his imagination. Let’s not forget that nearly 20,000 teachers who lost their positions, had reputations damaged, and careers derailed under this presidential wanna-be’s watch. And the opportunity cost inflicted on our students by turning once vibrant public schools into hollow, dreary, test prep factories (thanks to his rush to win RTTT money) has been incalculable.
I have nothing but the deepest contempt for this man.
I want to see a WFP ticket of Ravitch-Teachout.
Wish I lived in New York. I would mount up and work for Zephyr
Zephyr. 1, A gentle breeze.
ENOUGH TO BLOW CUOMO RIGHT OUT OF HERE!
Prof. Teachout’s Fordham U. postings and her colleague’s testimony present an accomplished, ethical, decent, and politically experienced person with bona fides to be a candidate. She has a strong background in public sphere advocacy and activism which are encouraging. Can I please ask, Is she an effective public speaker? On paper, someone with strong credentials can turn out to be a weak candidate because their public speaking smarts are limited or their stage presence is awkward or their people-fretting skills are detached—how to address all kinds of constituencies in language that is legible and meaningful? How to turn the tables on your opponents to use their own words against them, to use their record against them, to pick and choose the items where Cuomo is most vulnerable, relentlessly hammer away at Cuomo in terms legible to the electorate. How to get the electorate’s attention? How to manage a hostile corporate mass media which already has Cuomo in the White House? Has Prof. Teachout run a tough campaign against long odds, with small funds, and unexpected dirty tricks financed by Wall Street money men? She is an attractive candidate on paper–who can post info on her political toughness to wrestle a slick billionaire’s propped up by billions, macho arrogance, and mass media? Finally, Is there anything compromising in Prof. Teachout’s resume that Cuomo’s gang can use effectively against her? How does she compare to Howard Hawkins the Green Party candidate for Gov of NY who got 59,000 votes in 2010 and has run in other campaigns, and is running with a strong public school advocate for Lt. Gov, Brian Jones?
good questions, all
When the oligarchs decided to run their wind-up toy Barry Obama, they had a problem with the well-known facts that he had done drugs in the past–marijuana and cocaine–in places and at times where use of both were felonies. So, Barry O fessed up to both in Dreams from My Father. Best to be honest about anything like that right up front.
I should have said, “they had a problem due to the easily discoverable fact that he had done drugs in the past–marijuana and cocaine–in places and at times where use of both were felonies.
Yikes. I really need to edit before posting. One more time:
I should have said, “They had a problem due to the easily discoverable fact that he had done drugs in the past–marijuana and cocaine–in places and at times where use of either was a felony.”
There are ALREADY amazing and very legitimate candidates running for Governor and Lt. Governor! They are Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones of the GREEN PARTY!! Howie Hawkins came in 3rd running for Governor in 2010. When people saw him in the televised debate with Cuomo that year, they could not believe how much sense he made and the result was that the Green Party gained ballot status and is now a legal ballot status party in the state of NY.
Howie Hawkins has been pounding the pavement for months speaking about so many important issues, but of course important to this audience is the issue he has been
highlighting, EDUCATION! And this time around Howie is running with the well-known educator, activist, and socialist, Brian Jones (who among many other accomplishments, narrated the film: “The Inconvenience Truth Behind Waiting for Superman”).
So, why are so many overlooking the Green Party’s amazing candidates!?!? It really boggles my mind. I don’t understand it. But I think it is very illustrative of how corrupt our
electoral system is and how the two parties (really one corporate party!) have hijacked
democracy!
I am a parent with a third grader at The Brooklyn New School. I was part of a group of parents who organized to get 80% of our testing population to Opt-out this year. In my mind there is no other choice but to support the Hawkins/Jones ticket of the Green Party.
Unfortunately the Working Families Party has failed in its stated efforts to seriously challenge the corrupt corporate parties (hint hint, the Democrats and Republicans!). The WFP is way too tied in with that corruption. To my mind, the WFP really serves as a way to fool progressives into never REALLY challenging the Democratic Party. How can you challenge them when you just nominate the same horrifying candidates?!? And don’t let this dog and pony show of a supposed “challenger to Cuomo” fool you. The WFP may play a game for a while that they might possibly support another candidate. Unfortunately however, that is not what will happen in the end. History will tell you what the WFP will do They will endorse Cuomo!
The Green Party takes NO CORPORATE FUNDING and we answer to no one but our conscience. The Green Party is in it for the long haul to reform our corrupt electoral system, to fight for social justice, and to save this planet. We are not here just for one election.
Our world is in deep crisis like never before. I am worried that my 9 year old won’t be able to live out his life on this planet without tremendous suffering. Already so many are suffering. There is no time for games and trickery. The time has come to take REAL action and vote Hawkins/Jones – Green Party!!
In Peace and Hope,
Daniella Liebling
Brooklyn, NY
Thank-you, Daniella, for posting the Green Party information. I voted for Howie last time and hope to have the opportunity to do so this time as well. If all parents and teachers who care about preserving public education were to do so as well, he would actually stand a chance of winning!
May there be a rebirth of academic freedom in New York!
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye . . .
Oh how I long for a third-party candidate to win one of these state elections! What a wake-up call that will be for the venal Dimocrats and Repugnicans!
And this is most likely to happen in some state that is dominated by a single party that has a candidate that has taken a really stupid, anti-populist position.
Hope springs eternal. No tyranny endures as do those ephemeral things–the cloud, the spring breeze, the wave of the sea, which return again and again. The people and their dreams for their children, generation after generation, endure. There are more of us than there are of them. And all distant tyrannies are stupid and corrupt and so contain the seeds of their own destruction.
Can a third party appeal sufficiently to the dreaded, dangerous, down state liberal Democrats? Where will BDP throw his support? Can a third party get poor and working class people to the polls? Are we doomed to another quixotic Peace and Freedom Party?
Oh yes, Cuomo is bad business for the 99%, but dumping him may just require deus ex machina intervention. Regardless, we hope. I will pack my bags and travel to NY from MA to do necessary leg work.
My vote will fall with the strongest pro labor candidate, which I assume will be The Green Party or WFP if they run Teachout. We need to hear more in her labor background.
I’ve seen Zephyr Teachout on “Up w/ Steve Kornacki” on MSNBC. She’s impressive.