Editor’s Note: Errol Louis is the host of “Inside City Hall,” a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Story highlights
Errol Louis: Election upended idea NY is bastion of de Blasio-like progressive politics
Cuomo, Democrat with presidential sights, re-elected, but GOP took 3 House seats
He says GOP tightened grip on state Senate; progressive initiatives will have trouble
Louis: Cuomo the centrist fended off fight from left but faces tough legislative session
Election Day demolished the notion that New York state, which tends to vote Democratic in presidential elections, is a bastion of the brand of progressive politics embodied by Andrew Cuomo’s sometime-rival, the high-profile mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.
Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, won re-election with 53% of the vote on the same day gubernatorial candidates were getting trounced in Democratic strongholds, including Massachusetts, Illinois and Maryland, which is a solid victory he can brag about. In fact, his victory sets the stage for what Cuomo’s aides have quietly hinted could be the prelude to a run for president.
But at the same time, New York Republicans flexed political muscles – and Democrats engaged in destructive infighting – in a way that suggests the Empire State, which might seem solid Democratic blue on the outside, has deep streaks of Republican red on the inside.
Even as Cuomo and his Democratic ticket mates for lieutenant governor, attorney general and state comptroller were racking up wins, the GOP flipped three congressional seats from Democratic to Republican – nearly a quarter of the estimated 14 to 18 seats Republicans added to their House majority nationwide – and unexpectedly came so close to ousting Rep. Louise Slaughter, a 14-term Democrat, that the race remains too close to call.
Equally important, Republicans deposed enough state legislators to take firm control of the New York Senate. That will make it hard, if not impossible, for de Blasio to win an increase in the minimum wage, college scholarships for undocumented immigrants, legal limits on rent increases, equal-pay legislation and other state-controlled policies loudly championed by the New York City mayor and his allies among labor leaders and community activists.
Cuomo, a centrist in many respects, shows no signs of objecting to this state of affairs. Although the governor pushed through New York’s same-sex marriage law and a tough gun-control measure, he remains a fiscal conservative dedicated to tax cuts and limited government spending.
That hasn’t sat well with progressives, such as de Blasio’s allies. Earlier this year, Cuomo fended off a challenge from the left wing of the Democratic Party when an upstart law professor, Zephyr Teachout, came from nowhere to win 30 of New York’s 62 counties.
Cuomo ignored Teachout, going to sometimes comical lengths to avoid debating her, speaking her name or shaking her hand. The governor also went on to publicly disparage and weaken the influence of the Working Families Party, the political organization that recruited Teachout. And in a masterpiece of political payback, Cuomo created a new ballot line, the Women’s Equality Party, that siphoned off votes from the Working Families group and clearly gave Republicans a chance to take advantage of Democratic infighting.
“Governor Cuomo promised to take back the State Senate. Instead, he squandered millions on a fake party, and left millions more in his campaign account as New York Democrats in the legislature and in Congress withered on the vine,” said Bill Lipton, the executive director of Working Families, in a blistering statement hours after election results became clear.
Cuomo will now face a tough legislative session, with angry liberals clamoring for an agenda that the Republican-dominated state Senate will likely stall or block altogether. Cuomo will also be pressed by progressives who believe that de Blasio’s management of New York City represents a national turning point.
In an article titled “The Zeitgeist Tracked Down Bill de Blasio,” one of the mayor’s labor allies claimed that New York City progressive politics were in tune with the spirit of the age (the zeitgeist), and that “shifting demographics and the social liberalism of young people portend a long period of Democratic dominance in national politics.”
The midterm elections results suggest that judgment may be premature. As Cuomo, the victorious centrist, has been saying all along.
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