MEMORANDUM

DO NOT FORWARD

From: Khan Shoieb, New York Communications Director, Working Families Party
To: Staff and State Committee Members
Re: Why WFP Won on Saturday Night
Date: June 2, 2014

On Saturday night, an unprecedented coalition emerged from the WFP Convention to elect a
Democrat-Working Families majority in the State Senate and commit to passing five key
progressive items of legislation that would tangibly improve the lives of New Yorkers across the
state. As a result of the formation of this coalition, and of Governor Cuomo's explicit
commitment to lead this coalition and his acceptance of five central planks of the WFP's
platform--the Working Families Party's State Committee voted to endorse the Governor Cuomo
for re-election for Governor of the State of New York.

In the last few days, the decision has seen critics from a number of corners who view the
endorsement as confirming their view that,
the Working Families Party "didn't get much--not even a face-saving deal"
the Working Families Party is a "union pragmatist" party which, when push came
to shove, chose pragmatism over principle
the Working Families Party has no "enforcement mechanism," thus allowing
Governor Cuomo to walk away with endorsement while WFP walks away with an
IOU
Taken together, all of these criticisms are wildly off the mark, either by misconstruing the
purpose of a political party, underestimating the historical and political significance of the
emergent coalition, or failing to grasp that the WFP was mere minutes away from endorsing
Zephyr Teachout for Governor in light of Governor Cuomo's failure to publicly commit--to the
exact word--to doing what would be necessary to convince the State Committee he merited the
endorsement.

First, the Working Families Party--like other political partiesare not supposed to "get"
anything in return for an endorsement. Political parties are expected to publicly declare their
legislative platforms and work towards forming the necessary political realities. On Saturday
night, a popular incumbent Governor that denounced a proposal to allow cities and counties to
raise their local minimum wage as leading to "a chaotic situation" that would lead to us
"cannibaliz[ing] ourselves"--a day after Mayor de Blasio called on Albany to pass it--endorsed
the very same proposal. On Saturday night, a popular incumbent Governor that had long
abandoned an effort to decriminalize marijuana elevated it to the top of his legislative agenda.
On Saturday night, a popular incumbent Governor that had "played a not so secret role in
crafting a breakaway faction of Democrats [IDC]", not only explicitly committed to helping


primary these very IDC Senators to dismantle the coalition and return the State Senate to sole
Democratic control, but also renewed his commitment to passing a robust, statewide system of
public funding of elections, the Women's Equality Act, and the DREAM Act. All of these
legislative items will safely and easily sail through the State Legislature should the coalition's
effort to secure a Democrat-Working Families majority be successful. Governor Cuomo, having
explicitly supported these precise bills just a few months before, would then have no choice but
to sign them.

On Saturday night, a popular incumbent Governor newly aligned himself with the Working
Families Party's key electoral and legislative priorities. What else was the WFP supposed to
"get"?

Second, in asserting that the WFP "caved" to its affiliated unions, these criticisms strongly imply
that the WFP's endorsement was a foregone conclusion for Governor Cuomo. This assertion
fails to grasp that the WFP's steadfast commitment to its values and priorities brought the party
mere minutes away from endorsing Zephyr Teachout for Governor, a fact confirmed by the
various accounts of the tense evening. Governor Cuomo's failure to commit precisely to what
WFP leaders had determined would be necessary to win over the State Committee, in earlier
versions of remarks and videos, might have very well lost him the endorsement. With the help
of Mayor de Blasio's leadership, Governor Cuomo finally delivered, over the phone--the
language that likely led the State Committee to vote to endorse the Governor. But absent the
phone call, the Working Families Party may very well have emerged from the Convention with
Zephyr Teachout as its candidate.

Third, in suggesting that Governor Cuomo's credibility is in question, and that the Governor
does not have to follow through on any of his commitments Saturday night, these critiques
identify the lack of an enforcement mechanism. Yet the enforcement mechanism is precisely
what Mayor Bill de Blasio pointed to when he spoke at the Convention--the depth and breadth
of the coalition: "I believe in this unprecedented coalition. I have never seen anything like this
in its reach and power." The effort to win the State Senate will succeed because of the deep
commitment and involvement of powerful forces like the WFP, Mayor Bill de Blasio, 1199 SEIU,
and others. Everyone vouched for each other on Saturday night. It's irrelevant whether the
press does or doesn't trust Governor Cuomo to follow through--everyone's credibility is at
stake, and everyone will push each other to ensure we make a Democrat-Working Families
majority in the State Senate a reality. To say that these were just words on Saturday night
sorely misses the historical significance of some of these commitments. Consider 1199SEIU,
widely considered one of the most effective labor unions in the entire state. In 2012, two-thirds
of their endorsements for State Senate were for Senators who are Republican/IDC today.
1199's commitment to a Dem-WF majority, empowered and amplified by the efforts of the
Mayor, Governor, WFP, and unions like HTC, 32BJ, and others, represents a tectonic, decisively
progressive shift in the character of New York State politics.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the criticisms fail to grasp the architecture of their own
reasoning. Under this logic, the WFP was wrong to have endorsed Governor Cuomo, even after


he fully aligned himself with the WFP's electoral and legislative priorities. After watching a
Democratic Governor prop up an IDC-Republican majority in the State Senate, after watching a
Democratic Governor accept contributions from David Koch and pass an estate tax cut worth
hundreds of millions of dollars, the WFP should have known better and endorsed Zephyr
Teachout, no matter what.

But what was the point of the Zephyr Teachout WFP candidacy? In the face of long odds and
Cuomo's $50 million in campaign cash nearly guaranteeing a victory, the animating principle
behind the Teachout campaign might have been to send a message, empower the progressive
movement, and move the political discourse in New York politics to more closely match the
values and needs of New York's voters. But Cuomo would have likely still won. In a best case
scenario, Cuomo would have realized the potency of the progressive opposition to his re-
election and worked to neutralize it by coming out in favor of progressive proposals like
marijuana decriminalization and raising the minimum wage. And Zephyr might have injected
state politics with a wake-up call about what New Yorkers actually cared about. But on Election
Day November 2014, we would have done little to retake the State Senate and would have
been absolutely no closer to actually changing the reality in the state legislature and improving
the day-to-day lives of real New Yorkers.

Instead, WFP stuck to its principles. It was the party's preparedness to run Zephyr for Governor
that moved Governor Cuomo to align himself with the party's key electoral and legislative
priorities. We are now closer than ever to lifting wages more millions of impoverished New
Yorkers, finding justice for young men of color and undocumented teens, protecting the
womens right to choose, and preventing the wealthiest donors from buying our politicians.
Wasn't that the entire point of this to begin with?