How Gov. Cuomo derailed the progressive wave
A funny thing happened to New York progressives on their way to a total takeover of politics and public policy in the Empire State on Tuesday. Reality intruded.
It was only a year ago that the progs were presenting themselves as an irresistible force, about to transform New York from merely a reliably blue state into a pulsating cobalt beacon.
After all, Bill de Blasio running with a hot-pink City Council slate and backed heavily by the (putatively) progressive Working Families Party had just buried 20 years of middle-of-the-road municipal government under a 73%-of-the-vote landslide.
Havana on the Hudson had arrived. Next stop, Albany!
Or, as hard-left icon Bertha Lewis put it: Were baaaaack! The right wing will have to deal with it!
Well, as it turned out, not so much.
Polls suggest that the New York lefts principal strategic goal unambiguous control of the state Senate and with it, the catbirds seat in Albany seems all but unobtainable going into Tuesdays general election.
Its always-tenuous relationship with Gov. Cuomo is in tatters.
And its high hopes for sweeping victories in on-the-margin New York congressional districts have long-since faded; far greater is the likelihood of substantial Republican House gains in the state.
So what the hell happened?
Read the original here:
How Gov. Cuomo derailed the progressive wave