It may be the most principled stance in the Working Families Party’s 20-year history — and it may be suicidal.
The WFP took a genuine stand back in April when it nominated Cynthia Nixon for governor. But now that Gov. Cuomo’s beaten her for the Democratic nomination, she’s set to quit campaigning.
That puts the party, founded as an alliance between hard-left activists and various unions, at risk: It needs 50,000 votes for its gubernatorial candidate to keep its guaranteed presence on New York ballots for the next four years.
Usually, this would be only a minor inconvenience: Nixon would be picked to run for another office, opening up the WFP gubernatorial line. In fact, such a deal reportedly was in place, with Nixon tapped to be the party’s nominee against Assemblywoman Deborah Glick.
But now, The Post’s Carl Campanile reports, the activists who control the party have turned thumbs-down on that deal — and vow to stick with Nixon, whether or not she wants to stay in the race.
All this because Cuomo — spurned by the WFP, which had backed him in his last two races — pressured the party’s union backers to pull their financial support, leaving the activists in charge.
They’re plainly not bothered by the prospect of the WFP being a potential spoiler by siphoning votes from Cuomo (though party executive Bill Lipton clearly is).
After all, note the activists, Cuomo four years ago created a bogus Women’s Equality Party with the express purpose of denying the WFP its 50,000 votes; it didn’t work.
Nor is it certain that Cuomo would now accept the WFP line if it’s offered.
We’ve long considered the WFP yet another perversion of New York’s Byzantine election laws, with most minor parties simply cross-endorsing major-party candidates. But we have to give it a nod for finally refusing to play that game.
On the other hand, the WFP’s purpose was always to pull the local Democratic Party to the left — and after this year’s primaries, that mission has succeeded with a vengeance.
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