Cuomo Deliberately Widens Rift With Liberal Base In Waning Days Of The Campaign

Since your reading this blog, I know you already know how Andrew Cuomo took deliberate and conscious aim at teachers and public schools in the last week and let us all know he's coming for us in the next term.

Ken Lovett in the Daily News reports that's not the only rift Cuomo has consciously widened with the liberal base as the campaign winds down:

Cuomo in the past two weeks:

— Created a furor among educators by referring to the education system as “one of the last remaining public monopolies.”

— Pressed New Yorkers to vote for him on the Women’s Equality Party ballot line he created — leading many progressives to believe it’s an attempt to kill or weaken the Working Families Party, which party publicly embarrassed him in May before he ended up getting the party’s endorsement after Mayor de Blasio helped broker a deal.

— Did virtually no campaigning for state Senate Democrats who are trying to take control of the chamber. Cuomo had promised to make it a priority.

Working Families Party co-Chairwoman Karen Scharff called the governor's actions “kind of puzzling.”

“Who does that before Election Day?” she asked. “I don’t quite get the goal. The public overwhelmingly supports our public schools, so it’s hard to understand why the governor would attack public education right before the election.”

What's Cuomo's goal?

Perhaps this:

"You would think that this is the time (Cuomo) should be bringing everybody back home," said one Democratic operative. "But this is the reason there is no enthusiasm at the top of the ticket and that can impact the down-ballot races."

Cuomo definitely wants a State Senate run the same way as it currently is - by an amalgam of Republicans and Independent Democrats who govern rightward - so that could be one of the reasons  he's taking on the base here.

Or it's possible that he just can't help himself.

In his memoir, he took on the left as well.

He seems to genuinely despise the base of his own party.

Not that teachers and public schools are "left" in any way for most people.

But for a politician who calls the public schools a "monopoly" that he plans to "break", I guess they just might be.

In any case, you should vote your conscience tomorrow and support candidates you can legitimately support and vote against the ones you can't.

I am supporting Howie Hawkins and Brian Jones for governor and lieutenant governor.