Building on the Teachout Campaign
When the Chapter leadership began the endorsement process for the 2014 New York governor’s race, the notion of backing anyone but Andrew Cuomo seemed preposterous.
Cuomo had amassed more political power than any sitting governor in the nation and the lead-up to the fall elections seemed more like a coronation than a campaign. While the chapter clashed with the Cuomo administration on multiple issues over his first four years, his conservative challenger Rob Astorino’s pro-fracking, anti-environment platform presented few viable alternatives.
 Zephyr Teachout |
So when long-shot Fordham Law School professor and anti-corruption advocate Zephyr Teachout asked the Sierra Club for an endorsement in the Democratic primary, the request was met with skepticism. But as we contemplated her pitch not to “leave power on the table or give power away,” a series of events shook Albany’s political foundations and reframed how we viewed the governor.
On July 23, the New York Times revealed that Andrew Cuomo meddled in the high-powered Moreland Commission’s investigation of Albany’s political corruption by using his surrogates to squash subpoenas and block probes that focused on the donors of his own $40 million campaign war chest and the internal workings of his own party. This new information shed light on Cuomo’s April decision to disband the commission, end the inquiry halfway through and declare victory on marginal campaign finance reforms.
The Sierra Club has long maintained that the toxic campaign money in politics may be the state’s leading environmental issue: without reforming how polluters can swamp elections with donations, no environmental measure of substance will ever get passed. Cuomo’s potentially illegal behavior in protecting his funders went against the grain of all the reforms he promised and, with issues like fracking hanging in the balance, it is hard to be comfortable with a decision-maker who sides with the money.
Equally concerning were the revelations that, in 2012, Andrew Cuomo played a central role in orchestrating a coup against a progressive resurgence by handing control of the state Senate from a Democratic majority to a Republican minority using the defection of five rogue Democrats. Until the news broke in September, Cuomo always denied any involvement in the coup while enjoying the benefits of a bipartisan legislature where he was the arbitrator on centrist issues and shielded from having to approve progressive initiatives. The outcome has been two years of Senate gridlock where important legislation dealing with renewable energy, fracking and fracking waste, campaign finance reform, and toxics in consumer products was allowed to languish.
Weighing heavily on our endorsement decision was also the six active Sierra Club lawsuits against the Cuomo administration for failing to comply with environmental laws. The laws at issue range from protecting water resources and preserving our wilderness lands from harmful development to addressing the dangerous crude oil transport across New York and unnecessarily expanding fossil fuel power generation where renewables could flourish. In June, the Cuomo administration even threatened to countersue the Sierra Club and a low-income housing complex if we continued our challenge of a tar sands offloading facility.
All these suits share the common thread of poor policy decisions that intersect with the interests of big political donors. While this charge may be less of an indictment against Cuomo and more a condemnation of the pay-to-play culture that has crippled Albany for decades, Zephyr Teachout’s resurgent campaign began to look more and more like an antidote to that dysfunction.
And the Sierra Club was not alone in having reservations about the governor. A wave of discontentment swept through his progressive base, which was outraged by a governor who consistently put his political ambitions before principled policies that could make a difference for everyday New Yorkers. The Public Employees Federation, the state’s second largest public union, endorsed Zephyr Teachout after years of being bullied at the negotiating table. Soon after, the state chapter of the National Organization of Women endorsed her campaign after Cuomo failed to pass a meaningful women’s agenda.
So when the Chapter’s endorsement of Teachout was announced, many of us instantly felt her improbable candidacy had the momentum to shock the political world. At the very least, it indicated progressives were no longer afraid of standing up to Cuomo and his reputation for retaliation.
The New York Times editorial board announced that it would not back Cuomo in the race due to his disregard for democratic principles and endorsed Teachout’s running mate, Tim Wu, for lieutenant governor. In the lead-up to the September 9 primary, the duo embarked upon a Long Island to Buffalo “Whistle Blowers Tour” highlighting failed government policies and their connection to special interest campaign contributions. They visited a fracking site in Pennsylvania where water had been contaminated. They met with struggling farmers, teachers, health care workers, and laborers who felt their voices no longer mattered in Albany. Sierrans were especially excited about the Teachout/Wu platform of a fracking ban and a vision to rebuild the Empire State through a robust, clean energy economy.
While the press openly mocked Cuomo’s refusal to debate Teachout – he famously quipped that such debates were “a disservice to democracy” – and his fear of unscripted public interaction, Zephyr’s intelligence and ability to connect with everyday people helped her win over citizens and editorial boards alike everywhere she went. Her articulate and engaging style won us over.
The Sierra Club does not endorse protest candidates. We believed if enough people could hear her message, Zephyr Teachout could win and, even more importantly, we believe she could lead New York out of its longstanding political dysfunction. It was also clear that, win or lose, she was going to play a big role in reforming New York politics – she is a future leader we should be encouraging now.
After the votes were tallied, Teachout had defied expectations and received 34 percent of the vote and had won 31 of New York’s 62 counties. Universally, her strong showing was seen a s rebuke of Cuomo by his progressive base. While Andrew Cuomo was able to win the primary by turning out the Democratic machine in select urban areas, Teachout dominated the Capital district, Hudson Valley and Southern Tier. These are regions where strong anti-fracking sentiment converged with disgruntled public employees who were well acquainted with the governor’s hardball tactics.
Considering that Cuomo spent nearly $11 million in television advertisements alone, compared with the $500,000 that sustained the entire Teachout/Wu campaign, the achievement was quite remarkable. If the publicly-financed campaign matching funds squashed by the Cuomo administration were available for this race, who knows? She may have even won.
It is hard to measure how much our endorsement of Teachout may have disadvantaged the Chapter in its relationship with Cuomo, who will clearly go on to win a second term. Because his administration seldom reaches out to the environmental community, the difference in access would be negligible. Some suggested that Cuomo would sour on advancing his own clean energy proposals if we failed to endorse him, but that now seems to be a self-defeating and unlikely form of retribution. Some have said that Cuomo will not forget the Sierra Club’s “snub” when he ascends to the presidency.
But by most accounts, the governor emerges from the primary as damaged goods. Cuomo must first find redemption within his own party, the public (and federal prosecutors) before he can think of advancing his political career. He needs to demonstrate that he is once again accountable to New Yorkers- not lobbyists and billionaires.
What we have seen in the wake of the Teachout insurgence is an Andrew Cuomo now attempting to rediscover his party’s roots. In the hours leading up to the primary vote, we saw him campaigning on progressive issues he had underserved or ignored in his first four years. He even promised to spend some time in Pennsylvania touring contaminated fracking sites. In mid-September, he announced a $5 billion commitment over the next 10 years to fund renewable energy programs.
Just as the Sierra Club has seen wilderness reclaim landscapes vanquished by human negligence, we, too believe in the redemption of people and the restoration of relationships. At the time of this writing, the Sierra Cub has made no endorsement in the general gubernatorial election, but with Andrew Cuomo we are always ready to continue the conversation that Zephyr Teachout started.