Rob Astorino says that as a Republican candidate for governor, he would not accept the endorsement of the Independence Party, which he labeled a “shakedown operation.” Good for him.
But will Gov. Cuomo follow suit?
Astorino was responding to a call by former state Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs for both major-party nominees to refuse the Independence line. From the governor, who has far less to lose because he’s an incumbent far ahead in the polls, there’s been nothing but silence.
Four years ago, we called on Cuomo to spurn both the Independence and the Working Families parties. In the end, he accepted the support of both parties and won easily. In a similar manner, Astorino would today be helped tremendously by having the Independence line in this campaign.
Minor parties once served a useful purpose here as an ideological check on Democrats and Republicans. No longer. The Conservative Party is little more than a patronage mill; the Working Families Party is a clearinghouse through which elected officials are bought by the public-sector unions; and the Independence Party stands for nothing at all, having spent much of the last few years under investigation.
Governors’ races are key to the survival of the minor parties, because they must draw at least 50,000 votes for governor to retain their lines on the ballot — and the influence that gives them — for the next four years.
Rob Astorino has taken the first step. But we’re still waiting for the candidate for governor who will refuse any second ballot line, something Cuomo refused to do it in 2010. Perhaps both could do it this year.