NYSUT Backs Indicted Senate Republican

Your union in action:

There was also no consensus among union leaders about the effort to flip the Senate into Democratic hands – a push that largely originated with unions during the labor-backed Working Families Party’s debate over whether to endorse Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Fordham Law Prof. Zephyr Teachout. In a deal brokered by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Cuomo ended up endorsing a Democrat-controlled Senate as well as the return of IDC members to the so-called regular Democratic conference.

But NYSUT members feel strongly that individual senators – both Republicans and Democrats – have been very supportive of their issues over the years, and they wanted to repay that loyalty with endorsements, Pallotta said. For example, NYSUT threw its support behind GOP Sen. Ken LaValle, longtime chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee; and another Long Island Republican, Jack Martins, who is among the Democrats’ top targets this year, even through it opted to take a pass in many of the Long Island districts – including the one represented by Senate GOP Leader Dean Skelos.

NYSUT also remained loyal to the Senate Republicans’ second-in-command, Sen. Tom Libous, of the Southern Tier, despite his indictment on charges that he lied to federal agents about helping his son get a job with a politically-connected law firm.

Okay, I get paying back Republicans like Martins, who has been good on education issues.

But why back the indicted Libous?

And the next time you hear jive about Working Families Party backing Cuomo so that the State Senate could be taken back by Dems, remember this sentence from Liz Benjamin:

There was also no consensus among union leaders about the effort to flip the Senate into Democratic hands – a push that largely originated with unions during the labor-backed Working Families Party’s debate over whether to endorse Gov. Andrew Cuomo or Fordham Law Prof. Zephyr Teachout.

I'm agnostic these days about Dems taking back the Senate - many of them are ed deformers and pro-Common Core, after all.

But I do want to point out the jive around the WFP endorsement.