Primary Tests Governor
Tuesday’s Democratic primary in which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo managed to defeat a progressive insurgency from Zephyr Teachout, a first-time candidate, was a stunner to which New York’s old-line power brokers should pay close attention.
Over all, votes for the challenger can be read as messages of dissatisfaction with the governor’s approach to leadership, agenda, and priorities. Ms. Teachout landed a solid blow when she counted among her qualifications, vis-a-vis the governor’s, that she at least was not the subject of a federal probe; Mr. Cuomo’s role in dismantling his much-heralded anticorruption commission is being looked at by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Ms. Teachout’s relative success also came from her bootstrap campaign’s mastery of social media and, by extension, much of the news cycle. If Twitter, the online message platform, were the polls, she would have won in a landslide. During the lead-up to Tuesday’s primary, tweets from her and her supporters dominated feeds; the governor’s were few and perfunctory.
Two negative aspects of Mr. Cuomo’s first term stand out: the 2-percent tax increase cap, which imposed austerity on school spending that harms students, and a lackluster effort on environmental protection. Both, it appears, come from overarching political ambition, which by Mr. Cuomo’s reckoning requires that he govern from the center if he wants to have a run at the White House at some point. The 2-percent cap actually shrinks government as well as school spending because it fails to keep up with inflation. Inevitably, as choices are made to cope with the cap, it often will be less-wealthy state residents and disadvantaged areas that suffer the consequences.
On the environment, this year’s state budget contained a paltry $157 million for the environmental protection fund, a sum that has been described as not enough even for basic programs. Part of the problem has been the state’s skimming money supposed to go to the environment for other purposes — drastically shortchanging the Department of Environmental Protection, for example. Under the governor’s watch, Albany also has failed to lead, either with money or from the bully pulpit, on climate change, alternative energy, and coastal resiliency.
Unfortunate, too, has been Mr. Cuomo’s increasingly ludicrous way of dismissing challenges. He ducked multiple calls to debate Ms. Teachout, calling some he has participated in the past a “disservice to democracy,” and apparently forgetting the single most bizarre example, a nine-person clown show, which was set up at his behest as a way to minimize opposition. Then there was the embarrassing spectacle of him and his running mate’s, Kathy Hochul’s, refusing to shake Ms. Teachout’s hand during a Labor Day parade. Only on Governor Cuomo’s Planet Albany does this kind of thing make sense.
Progressives nationwide were watching Tuesday for indications in Ms. Teachout’s numbers that a new chapter could be dawning in New York. They also were paying close attention to how Tim Wu, Ms. Hochul’s opponent for lieutenant governor, fared. Only time will tell, but that there was wide interest in Ms. Teachout and her message is something that politicians across the spectrum might ignore at their own risk.