Cuomo v. Teachout

[bedstuy]

The following people were handing out leaflets in Bed-Stuy this morning:

Teachout-Wu (affiliated labor unions, I think)
Wingstop
Jehovah's Witnesses
Furniture discount store
Brazilian Scam Artist Megachurch

But, didn't see any Cuomo-Hochul people. 

Interestingly, the leaflet was only about Tim Wu and didn't mention Teachout except in the logo of Teachout/Wu.

[bedstuy]

Why is Teachout doing so much better upstate?  I don't understand it.  Perhaps, it's just how racial and transactional NYC politics tends to be.  If Teachout had unions to do GOTV and some black and Hispanic support, this might be interesting.  Or maybe upstate is boring enough that people have time to read the paper and find out how terrible Cuomo is.

[bedstuy]

Why is Teachout doing so much better upstate?  I don't understand it.  Perhaps, it's just how racial and transactional NYC politics tends to be.  If Teachout had unions to do GOTV and some black and Hispanic support, this might be interesting.  Or maybe upstate is boring enough that people have time to read the paper and find out how terrible Cuomo is.

those counties may lack a functioning Dem machine so only nerds who cared showed up to vote.  the numbers are very low.

That's true for some places.  But, then there's Albany.  I'll bet that people there actually follow state politics the most because that's the only thing going on in Albany.  So, they know how terrible Cuomo is. 

People in NYC are too busy taking disco naps and going to Chelsea Piers to notice Andrew Cuomo acting like a svelte Chris Christie.

[bedstuy]

I think this proves that Cuomo deserved a more robust challenge. 

Imagine if someone like Hakeem Jeffries had run against Cuomo.  Cuomo would lose for sure.

[bedstuy]

Teachout can't concede to Cuomo because he didn't give her his number. What an asshole.

That would require acknowledging her existence, which I doubt is any more likely to happen tomorrow than it was yesterday.

I don't know. He may kind of have to after this.

You think? I can picture Cuomo flipping tables and ordering his lackeys to hit the streets and crack some skulls a lot more easily than I can imagine him uttering Teachout's name in public. But I'll be very happy if my imagination is misleading me.

Tomorrow's schedule:

9am-noon:  Scream at staff
noon-1: Lunch
1-2:30: Give Ken Lagone a deep tissue shiatsu massage
2:30-2:31: Phone call to Teachout
2:32-4: Corruption
4-5: Planning cuts to every program that helps poor people
5-6:  Planning out new tax cuts for Wall Street fatcats

[bedstuy]

Primarying people aside, New York politics is terrible.  We need actual grassroots progressive organizing.  We've never created that infrastructure because we never needed it to win statewide.  Relying on these corrupt unions and machine politics might be fine in an general election, but it leaves us with no strength to hold these bums accountable.

[bedstuy]

Primarying people aside, New York politics is terrible.  We need actual grassroots progressive organizing.  We've never created that infrastructure because we never needed it to win statewide.  Relying on these corrupt unions and machine politics might be fine in an general election, but it leaves us with no strength to hold these bums accountable.

Dem party is, primarily, urban. You have any problem with that?

I don't know what you mean.

[bedstuy]

Minority communities killed her.

It's too bad.  I guess people in the Bronx just believe that they need their welfare cut so those millionaires in the Hampty Hamps can get their property taxes cut.  But, those nice rich liberals don't even want the tax cuts, they want to help the poor folks.  It's like an O. Henry story.

[bedstuy]

I'm kind of surprised everyone thinks that NYC Dems are all progressives rather than minorities and the working class.

Who says minorities can't be progressives?

It's an interesting question, can you win working class minority NYC by running as a progressive?  Isn't that what Bill De Blasio appeared to do when he won black neighborhoods running against Thompson in the mayoral primary?  I would agree that De Blasio is basically the same as any NYC pol, but he definitely seemed to run on left-leaning issues.  On the other hand, the more conservative candidate Thompson tended to win the election districts with black housing projects if you look closely. 

I think it's just the case that many minority areas in NYC still run based on machine politics.  You need to pay the right people and have the connections.  Plus, it's just usually the case based on pure racial politics that the black candidate gets the black votes and the Asian candidate gets the Asian votes, etc.

[bedstuy]

Cuomo's new book is a total flop (despite the New York state Democratic party using their email list to promote it).

In its first week, apparently it has sold 945 copies.  That correlates to #7,680 in Books on Amazon, where out out of 524 Amazon reviews, 493 gave it one star.

[bedstuy]

Also Hawkins does not sound like I expected him to at all.

You mean, sometimes he has a southern accent which cuts in and out.

[bedstuy]

I could see Cuomo losing a lot of margin upstate and in contested Congressional races, but remaining more stable in the areas where nobody is paying attention.  That is, I expect the pattern will have Hawkins mimicking Teachout's areas of support.