Dear Governor-Elect Spitzer...

An open-letter to Governor-Elect Eliot Spitzer (only a very slightly presumptuous form of address, in my view):

Dear Governor-Elect Spitzer,

I received an email from you today, sir that I must strongly protest. You asked me to "please consider voting for me on the Working Families Party line." No sir, I will not - nor should your name appear on that particular line in good conscience. Allow me to tell you why.

First, the short reason: as you noted in your email, day one everything changes.

Now, a bit more depth. Yesterday you stood by Andrea Stewart-Cousins in Yonkers and urged New Yorkers to vote for this impressive, progressive Democrat. President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, your running mate David Paterson, and Attorney General candidate Andrew Cuomo all echoed your call to elect Stewart-Cousins, an extraordinary turnout of party brass for a simple, local State Senate seat. As usual, your remarks were tough and to-the-point:

“You know who the most powerful legislator in Albany has been for the last two years? Andrea Stewart-Cousins. And you know why? You know why? Two years ago, when Nick Spano claimed to win by 18 votes, he was awaking from 18 years of slumber. He woke up and suddenly he said, you know what, I better be for reform. He had to look up the word in the dictionary. He still doesn’t know what it means. Here’s a candidate who has the audacity to say he’s for reform and stands by while the cops knock on doors to suppress the vote."

I feel the same way. It's time for the New York State Senate, so long gerry-mandered to keep it in Republican hands, to disenfranchise our cities, to change its majority leadership. Or as Cuomo put it yesterday, Governor Spitzer "doesn't need a State Senate working against him on Day One. He needs Andrea Stewart-Cousins with him on Day One.”

And yet you appear on the ballot on Line E, the Working Families Party, and send out an email urging me to pull to lever on that line. You say this is necessary as "we set out to make health care more affordable and cover every single child in the state of New York, and it's when we begin to fully fund education to ensure that for every New Yorker, the path to opportunity and prosperity begins in our schools."

Yet the Working Families Party clearly wants to keep the State Senate in Republican hands. That's why it's voted "no endorsement" in the crucial rematch between Nicholas Spano and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, when its endorsement of the Republican Spano pushed him over the top in their first race. That's why it's endorsed Republicans like John DeFrancisco, Dale Volker, and George Maziarz - all of who received dead-solid F's in the Drum Major Institute's five-year legislative scorecard measuring votes on issues vital to the middle class.

The Working Families Party clearly believes it can deal with the Nick Spano-Joe Bruno Republican Party in Albany. Despite its progressive charter, the WFP sees power in maintaining a Republican Senate while it collects IOU's from Republican legislators. It's a strategy, I guess - a strategy for those who believe their ideals on government can never carry the day in New York. It's a strategy for non-believers, for deal-cutters, for back-room operators who would stoop to keeping an experienced, progressive African-American professional woman in line in order to make deals with the right-wing party of George W. Bush.

But it's a strategy, sir, that I urge you to reject. I ask you to reject it because it's wrong for the Democratic Party, wrong for the progressive movement, and wrong for New York. And I believe you will repudiate this strategy because I believe your number one campaign pledge.

Day One, everything changes.

Remaining your enthusiastic Democratic supporter,

Tom Watson

UPDATE: Plenty of reaction to this around the Web. Steve Gilliard has two posts [here and here]. Ben Smith has item on the Daily News blog. The Times has a blurb that says I lay out "cynical, short-sighted reasons for the WFP’s decison to sit out the race." Quite right. Snappy did a short, tough post. And there are thoughts from Brendan. First, here's Gilliard's take:

In the city, they come to our communities and ask for votes and support. But when it comes to supporting the kind of black candidate that needs to be in the Senate, who lost by 18 votes in the last election, and is being outspent, they are not only missing in action, but helping her opponent. Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer think she needs support, but Dan Cantor doesn't think so, so he can have a little leverage with that assclown Bruno. They forget how he wanted to end rent control and destroy New York City.

And there's gold in Steve's comments too - no fewer than eight people said they were switching or rethinking their Line E votes. A few highlights:

Wow. I've voted on the WFP for ages now. I'll talk this over with my wife, but it looks like I'll vote straight D tomorrow.

It's all about patronage over principle. If a party organiztion can't get enough votes on it's own it shouldn't be able to parasite onto major party candidates to survive. And major party candidates shouldn't court other party endorsements that dilute the power of their own party. The whole system stinks.

I agree with Steve.  The WFP is little more than a patronage mill for so-called progressives.

Thanks, Steve.  I was going to vote WFP, but this merits some serious consideration. Looks like the WFP is taking their cue from the PA Greens.

Aw, crap.  The WFP is untrustworthy?  Why am I always finding stuff like this out the day before the election.

They endorsed incumbent state senators on the Dem and GOP lines that have everything BUT a real working family's interests in mind. When ever they endorse the corrupt machine that's what they are doing.

The WFP has moments of greatness as well don't get me wrong. But if anyone thinks that voting a straight WFP ballot or during the primary a ballot of straight WFP endorsed candidates they are undermining the reform movement. Its that simple

Good stuff. Here's a comment from the Daily News blog - where Ben wonders what's in it for Spitzer - in a similar vein:

People who support the WFP are a bunch of tools. The party pays lip service to progressive issues, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, they are nowhere to be found. They play the game like everyone else while their party apparatchiks reap in the dough.

Thanks, WFP, for helping keep the George Bush/Joe Bruno Republican majority in the State Senate!!

You miserable buncha humps.

Here's what Snappy had to say, again along the same lines:

I have always voted the WFP line when possible, and had been planning on doing so this year as well. As a matter of fact, I had just said to my wife and a friend, discussing the election, (right after "Vote straight Democratic," which in NY this year is pretty much a no-brainer) "And vote for them on the Working Families line where possible." But then I ran across this post. Vote Dem, but forget the Working Families line. I like my progressives progressive.

And I totally agree with Brendan - he nails it:

At a time when the utter dysfunction in Albany is a clarion call to voters in New York tired of the Albany gridlock, it's crucial for those who stand in principled opposition to do just that: stand in opposition.

Oh and one further note: silence from the WFP so far. And they refuse to approve my comments on their blog. Doesn't seem very open to me.

UPDATE II: My old partner Jason Chervokas calls me a hot-head - me?! - but also says my criticism of the WFP is spot on. And I really like his description of Andrea Stewart-Cousins:

The Democratic candidate in the 35th is precisely the kind of candidate the WFP should be backing. Andrea Stewart-Cousins grew up in the poorest parts of Yonkers--a post-industrial working class city on the Bronx border. A working mother, she raised herself up by her bootstraps leaving behind a professional career for the Westchester County Board of Legislators where she helped create a human rights commission with subpoena and enforcement power to protect against discrimination in employment, business, and housing.

Oh, and here's a sickening piece of campaign literature being distributed by the Working Families Party's "partners" in the Republican Party.

Meanwhile, Patrick Nielsen Hayden renounces his support (in a friendly and respectful way) for the WFP:

...I’ve been a supporter, albeit a low-key one, of the Working Families Party, generally voting for Democratic candidates on their line. I also donate a (small) amount of money to them every month, automatically charged to a credit card.

I won’t be voting on their line this year, and I won’t be contributing further money their way...

This year, the Working Families Party isn’t endorsing the disgusting, vote-suppressing Spano, they’re just declining to endorse at all—despite the fact that Stewart-Cousins is very credibly challenging him again. It appears to flow from the same logic: we need “friends in both parties” in order to have a seat at the table.

That’s the logic of an era in which there were decent Republicans. That era is over. I’m voting the straight Democratic line. Not because there aren’t Democrats who are hypocrites, cowards, idiots, and fools. But because the Republican Party, nationally and locally, is in 2006 nothing more or less than a criminal conspiracy to destroy our democracy and loot our country. Their candidates, for every office, need to be defeated wherever they run. If you don’t see that you don’t get my vote.

UPDATE III: Stewart-Cousins has won by 2%, but Bruno (er, Spano) still refuses to concede. Wonder if the progressive candidate had the support of the WFP if he'd be taking that position. Oh, an those conservative upstaters? All winners. So the Senate Democrats gained only one seat.

Comments

[Gary Paul Gilbert]

New York politics is a mess and very hard to keep track of. As a volunteer marriage ambassador with the Empire State Pride Agenda, I can say that Stewart-Cousins has been skittish on support for the right to marry for all couples. Empire State Pride Agenda endorsed Spano when he came out for legislation to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. Stewart-Cousins was outmaneuvered. Now she is saying she would be for whatever the New York legislature would be on the table for addressing the indquality faced by same-sex couples in New York State. She still doesn't believe we deserve equal access to marriage. ESPA is not just a one-issue group but has been weighing candidates' positions on the right to marry much more heavily this year. ESPA will not endorse candidates who only support civil unions. Hillary Clinton is not endorsed because she is against marriage.

On the other hand, Spano has been involved in this move to suppress minority voting in Westchester County.

I am glad I am not voting in that county and wish that ESPA had endorsed neither candidate.

I agree that Joe Bruno is a factor to consider in this race but at the same time politics is local. If both candidates are weak, why endorse?

I consider voter suppression a more serious issue and would probably have to vote for the Democrat.

[b tween]

I hate to see even a nominally progressive party behave so cynically. I've often said that the Dems, and by extension other progressives need to learn the lessons of the Republicans if they want to remain viable, but I didn't mean this. I meant microtargeting, aggressive responses to attacks - some lessons that they've learned well.. but this sort of "compromise" is just bad politics, and shows that even progressives can be out of touch. If they can't read the writing on the wall, and see that the state senate is also in play - and that this will come back to haunt them, the WFP has blown it.

[jbm]

Oh and one further note: silence from the WFP so far.

My post actually got a comment from someone who writes for a blog called WFP Blog, though I'm unsure from looking around it whether it's actually affiliated with the WFP. He does appear to have a WFP e-mail address, however:

To set the record straight, the Working Families Party HAS NOT ENDORSED Nick Spano this election.
Look at the WFP's 2006 endorsements at http://workingfamiliesparty.org/WFPendorsements2006.html

Then, help us elect D-WF candidates to Congress and the State Senate.

As I said in a reply, this is a cynical, deceptive semantic trick. They didn't endorse Spano, but neither did they endorse Stewart-Cousins.

[Betty Mallott]

Congratulations on your election. Now, I hope that you will REMEMBER your vow to OGDENSBURG, NY to look into and seek a solution to the awful SVP Unit that was foisted on us with no prior dialogue, etc. by the OMH Office and Senator Wright working behind the scenes with our Mayor - Bill Nelson....totally, a scam and a pay-off to the Mayor. We have lobbied and attended all of your meetings/breakfasts/lobbying events to share our message. NOW, it's YOUR turn. Let's see what YOU can do to put a stop to this insanity. Yes, we will/would take the SVP's if necessary, but not in a building on our most prize riverfront property. Please, please, help us out of this horrific dilmna for the future of our city and our kids! Most thankfully, Betty Mallott, educator, parent, grandparent, community activist, Chamber of Commerce Director, Board of Education Commissioner, Cemetery Trustee, United Helpers Board of Directors, etc., etc.

[Betty Mallott]

Dear Eliot, I am a Republican, but I handily supported your campaign, because I DO think you can and will make a difference in our GREAT State; So, please do NOT let me down. I'm too old for such disappointments. You and your staff listened to our plea re: relocation of the SVP Unit on our prized waterfront in Ogdensburg at Brideview Building. How much better to use this building for rehabilitating the youths from this area who are sent out of state at VERY HIGH costs to the taxpayers. AND, we know we could save some of these kids. SO, please review our literature, our letters, etc., etc. It's NOT to late for you and US to make a difference. It won't happen with Senator Wright and Mayor Nelson. They appear to be in bed together, unfortunately. I await your response and action. Many thanks, Betty Mallott, P.O. Box 518, Ogdensburg, N.Y., 13660 (315-393-7605).