Randi Weingarten Robocalls For Andrew Cuomo's Pro-Gun, Anti-Immigrants' Rights Running Mate

From Daily Politcs:

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, has done a last-minute robocall for former Buffalo-area Rep. Kathleen Hochul, Gov. Cuomo's preferred lieutenant governor candidate.

Weingarten's call comes a day before the primary between Hochul and insurgent liberal Democratic candidate Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor. Political insiders say Wu has a shot at pulling an upset.
Weingarten is a well-known name in New York as she used to head the powerful city teachers union.

She said she was calling as a "fellow Democrat" and in her role as a National Democratic Committee delegate.

Her support for Hochul comes even as the state and city teacher unions have not endorsed in the race for governor and lieutenant governor.

First off, let's dispense with this jive that the AFT, NYSUT and UFT aren't helping Cuomo out in his re-election bid.

It's true that they never endorsed Cuomo officially, but the work the leaderships of the AFT and UFT did behind the scenes last spring to ensure that Cuomo got the Working Families Party ballot line was a big help to him.

It's one thing for Cuomo to have to worry about his Democratic Party Primary opponent Zephyr Teachout take 20% of the vote in tomorrow's primary.

It's another thing for him to have to worry about her taking 20% of the vote in the general election in November, as might have happened had she gotten the WFP ballot line.

Add the 20% Teachout could've garnered in the general election to the 38% GOP candidate Rob Astorino can be expected to get and suddenly Cuomo's winning re-election with a lot less than 50% of the vote.

But the AFT/UFT/NYSUT leaders made sure that wouldn't happen when they joined a contingent of union leaders who threatened the WFP with dissolution if they endorsed Teachout.

Now here's AFT President Weingarten robocalling for Cuomo's running mate, the very conservative pro-gun, anti-immigrants' rights Kathy Hochul.

Hochul, btw, was a one term member of Congress who's been working lately as a bank lobbyist.

She's got a stellar report card from the NRA for her pro-gun rights stances and an abysmal record on immigrants' rights issues.

Here are Hochul's own statements about her record and issue positions:

I've heard from a lot of Republicans ... they think I'm a different kind of Democrat, and I'll take that as a compliment.

I don't think that many people know that I've always had the Conservative Party endorsement every time I've run for office.

I did not support Obamacare 100 percent, of course. I voted many times to repeal it, so you just need to look at my record.

I led the fight against giving illegal immigrant drivers' licenses.

I voted with Speaker Boehner against the President's policy on Libya .... I'm one of 20 Democrats in the entire country who supported the energy bill.

I support the Keystone Pipeline, unlike the President and his administration.

I'm one of the few Democrats to receive the NRA endorsement.

I've become very conservative in my voting record.

I've talked to hundreds of people—many, many conservatives and Republicans, and they are with me on the issues.

Hochul now claims to support the DREAM Act, but given her past stances on immigrants' rights issues, you can certainly be skeptical of her conversion to pro-DREAM Act.

That Weingarten, who claims to care about gun control and the DREAM Act, is robocalling for Hochul shows you just how much work the teachers union leaders are doing to help Andrew Cuomo in this election cycle.

It also exposes Weingarten's hypocrisy that she can robocall for a candidate as abhorent to Weingarten's own views on gun control and immigrants' rights issues.

But that's par for the course with the teachers unions leaders in general and Randi Weingarten in particular - saying one thing publicly while doing behind the scenes work to bring about an opposite outcome.

Remember Weingarten's robocalls for the bank lobbyist with the A+ NRA report card and the abysmal immigrants' rights record the next time Randi jives in public about guns or the DREAM Act.

And know that whatever it is Weingarten is saying about the gun or immigrants' rights issues she doesn't really mean it.

Know that all she cares about is power and access - even if that means robocalling for a right-wing pro-gun, anti-immigrants' rights bank lobbyist that Andrew Cuomo wants as lieutenant governor.