UFT Planted "Kiss of Death" On Espaillat With Union Endorsement

From State of Politics:

In a statement sent out this afternoon, Sen. Adriano Espaillat conceded the primary for the 13th congressional district to incumbent Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel. He also declared his candidacy for re-election to the state Senate.

Espaillat had held off on conceding to Rangel, saying he’d wait until “every single vote” was counted before admitting defeat. This comes after the senator’s last attempt to knock off Rangel in 2012 ended in an extremely tight race. As affadavit and absentee ballots continued to be counted in that election, the race grew tighter, eventually ending in a victory for Rangel of less than 1,000 votes.

But it seems Espaillat’s camp realized the vote deficit was too much to overcome this time around. Earlier today, the senator called Rangel to congratulate him on his victory and his long career in the House of Representatives.

Two months ago:

The city’s teachers union, which backed Rep. Charlie Rangel for re-election in 2012, is now looking to unseat him.

The delegate assembly of the United Federation of Teachers voted today to urge the union’s state affiliate, the New York State United Teachers, to endorse State Senator Adriano Espaillat, the leading challenger to Rangel in next month's Democratic primary.

Two years ago, the U.F.T. recommended an endorsement of Rangel.

In a statement, U.F.T. president Michael Mulgrew credited Espaillat with having “been a vocal champion for pre-k funding” and “a leading voice for banning standardized tests for our youngest students,” along with backing a three-year moratorium on using the new Common Core curriculum.

Back during the 2013 mayoral election, Bloomberg called the UFT endorsement the "kiss of death":

The candidates vying to succeed him can "shill" all they want for the teachers union, but they may very well be wasting their time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters today, during a press conference at the education department headquarters near City Hall.

"The last time the U.F.T.'s endorsement got somebody elected was better than two decades ago, O.K.?" said Bloomberg. "It's almost the kiss of death."

Espaillat made a lot of mistakes in this race - the UFT endorsement was not literally the "kiss of death" that did him in.

I'm sure he garnered a few votes because of Mulgrew's endorsement, but let's be honest here.

The UFT endorsement is pretty much worthless.

The Rangel/Espaillat race is just one more example of that.

You always see the UFT described in the papers as the "powerful" teachers union.

"Powerful"?

Hardly.

Bloomberg's Endorsement Seen As "Kiss Of Death"

Yes, that phrase actually gets used in today's Times article on why not one candidate running for mayor has sought Bloomberg's endorsement  - not even the Republicans.

One GOP candidate took a poll with Republican voters and found that two-thirds had a negative view of Bloomberg.

In the Democratic Primary, de Blasio has surged to the head of the pack running an anti-Bloomberg-themed campaign:

It is a humbling and alien experience for the relatively popular mogul turned mayor, who is unpracticed in humility: in the race to lead a post-Bloomberg New York City, there is profound wariness of being viewed as, well, too much like Mr. Bloomberg. 

The arms-length approach to the powerful mayor demonstrates how thoroughly the campaign has been reframed by the fiery, anti-Bloomberg message and rhetoric of a single candidate — Mr. de Blasio, the city’s public advocate. 

Throughout the summer, Mr. de Blasio has portrayed the current administration, and its allies, as protectors of an unacceptable status quo that coddles the rich and overlooks the poor, elevates Manhattan and ignores its neighboring boroughs. In the process, Mr. de Blasio has forced his rivals to recalibrate how they talk about Mr. Bloomberg and the future of New York.   

“He has shown that you can succeed by complaining about Bloomberg,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College in Manhattan. “That was something that most candidates were afraid to do.” 

Now that the critique of the Bloomberg era has become so central to Mr. de Blasio’s surging candidacy, Mr. Sherrill said, rival campaigns are struggling to match it. “They are all playing catch-up — and it’s obvious.”

Quinn in particular wants nothin to do with Bloomberg or his once-coveted, now-debased endorsement:

Nowhere is the Bloomberg Question more freighted than inside the Quinn campaign, which has simultaneously sought to play up and soft-pedal her close ties to the mayor as speaker of the City Council, depending on the issue. A frequent ally of Mr. Bloomberg, Ms. Quinn ensured passage of legislation allowing him to run for a third term, and repeatedly shepherded his highest priorities through a once-fractious Council. 

 

But a mayoral endorsement of her, once treated as a foregone conclusion, now might cement her image among skeptical Democrats as the Fourth Term of Bloomberg — “the kiss of death,” Mr. Sherrill said. 

Ironic, isn't it, how the mayor said earlier this year that the UFT's endorsement of a candidate was the "kiss of death" (and given their track record in mayoral endorsements, he had a point), and yet now his endorsement is also seen as the "kiss of death" in both the Republican and Democratic party primaries?