A second former state Democratic chairman is calling on Gov. Cuomo to refuse the endorsement of the scandal-scarred Independence Party, while a Democratic activist is threatening to challenge Cuomo in a primary, The Post has learned.
And in a third sign of growing disillusionment with Cuomo by Democrats and others on the political left, Working Families Party activists, furious over Cuomo’s alliance with Senate Republicans, are threatening to back someone other than the governor in the November election, a move that would aid GOP gubernatorial contender Rob Astorino, sources said.
“Cuomo treats our members and our issues with contempt, and it’s really an open question as to what the party is going to do,’’ said a WFP source.
Some in the WFP, a union-controlled New York City-based party, even fear that with Cuomo at the top of their ticket, they won’t get the 50,000 votes needed for legal recognition because of voter anger over the governor’s refusal to support Mayor de Blasio’s plan to tax high earners to fund universal pre-K.
John Sullivan, the former executive chairman of the Democratic Party and a one-time deputy Medicaid inspector general, told The Post he had decided to join Jay Jacobs, state chairman under Gov. David Paterson and, for a year, under Cuomo, in urging the governor to reject Independence support.
“I think the Independence Party has become a sham,” Sullivan said. “It doesn’t stand for anything. It’s a commodity, it’s corruptive in terms of the election process.”
Sullivan said Jacobs, who last week called the Independence Party “a political cesspool,’’ was “absolutely on the money,’’ adding, “I believe the governor needs to step up to the plate on this.”
Cuomo, whose Senate GOP allies often receive Independence backing, has repeatedly refused to say if he’ll accept Independence support. He won nearly 147,000 votes on that line in 2010.
Sullivan was recently hired by EffectiveNY, a liberal-oriented reform group founded by Democratic maverick Bill Samuels.
Samuels, a former chief fund-raiser for state Senate Democrats, blasted Cuomo for allegedly selling out Democratic values, saying the governor should run for re-election only “as a Republican.’’
During a lengthy interview with The Post, Samuels threatened to run against Cuomo if the governor fails to win approval in the Legislature of a system of publicly financed election campaigns.