Daily News and The New York Post Agree:
Andrew Cuomo Cannot Accept Working Families Party Line

Major Newspapers Join New Yorkers for Growth in Call on Cuomo to Reject Embattled Special-Interests Party

New York, NY-May 17...Soon-to-be gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo (D) cannot accept the endorsement of the embattled "Working Families Party" (WFP) and purport to be a reformer at the same time (who can?).  That is now the conclusion of two major New York daily newspapers - The New York Post  and the Daily News - and fiscal reform group New Yorkers for Growth, which has been urging Attorney General Cuomo to investigate the WFP since last May.

The WFP, which is closely associated with the radical group ACORN, is a collection of New York unions and special interest organizations that oppose virtually all efforts of fiscal reform in state and local government.  The WFP advocates higher state spending, dramatically higher taxes, borrowing, and more expensive union contracts, despite New York's deteriorating fiscal picture.  The WFP is currently under investigation by the United States Attorney for allegations of Election Law fraud, among other things.

 "Cuomo must renounce the party's support. Cuomo must refuse the party's endorsement - and its November ballot line. Cuomo must lead Democratic members of the Legislature in spurning the WFP's electoral resources," the Daily News editors wrote yesterday. (Full opinion link here.)

The New York Post editors wrote on May 10: "As we said last month, publicly and explicitly turning his back on the WFP would send a powerful signal that Cuomo means to be a real reformer, working to bring permanent change to Albany. Not doing so would be a signal, too -- of business as usual." (Full opinion link here.)
 
On April 26, The New York Post editors wrote: "If Cuomo really means to tackle the moral cesspool that is Albany, here's the first step he should take: Right up front, he needs flatly to refuse the backing of the morally bankrupt Working Families Party. The WFP is less a political party than a clearinghouse through which New York's public-employee unions buy and sell public officials. No governor who takes office beholden in any way to the WFP can hope to muck out Albany's stables." (Full opinion link here.)
 
The Wall Street Journal is also covering the call: "In recent years, the WFP-led by ACORN, the city's teachers union, the state's largest health-care union and other labor groups-has grown into a potent force in local politics. The party and its for-profit arm have faced questions about campaign-finance activities, drawing the attention of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office subpoenaed documents from the party and candidates it funded. Mr. Cuomo's association with the party could become a polarizing issue in a campaign that will test his willingness to chart a more independent course from organized labor," wrote the Journal's Jacob Gershman on May 12. (Full story link here.)

"Andrew Cuomo has a major decision to make: Does he reject the Working Families Party and its anti-taxpayer agenda, or does he cave into the special interests before he is even on the ballot for governor?", said New Yorkers for Growth spokeswoman Liz Feld, the former Larchmont, NY mayor.  "Attorney General Cuomo has been coy and uncharacteristically quiet on an issue of critical importance to all New Yorkers all year. One can only hope he will show backbone in the coming weeks." 
 
For more information about New Yorkers for Growth, please visit: www.newyorkersforgrowth.com
 
###