ALBANY–A long time Democratic political strategist and current member of the state party is urging Gov. Cuomo to forget about the Working Families Party and focus on creating his own liberal third party.
Hank Sheinkopf told The Post it would look bad if Cuomo sought and accepted the line given the party’s current state.
“The guy who put Hevesi in jail could be part of a party under investigation,” Sheinkopf said speaking about a 2009 federal probe into the party regarding campaign related services.
Cuomo, when he served as AG, investigated then Comptroller Alan Hevesi for his role in taking gifts in exchange for granting preferential treatment to a California businessman.
Sheinkopf, a well know Democratic strategist, said he was speaking not on behalf of the state party–where he was hired to do consulting work—but rather on his own.
Officials with the minority party fired back at Sheinkopf remarks.
“The idea that reviving the corrupt Liberal Party that endorsed [Rudy] Giuliani as a progressive alternative to the Working Families Party won’t fool a single person,” said Khan Shoieb, New York Communications Director for the Working Families Party.
The Cuomo administration declined comment; however the state party was quick to respond.
“That’s not the position of the party, and all decisions about endorsements are premature,” said party spokesman Peter Kauffmann.
Accepting the WFP line, in its current state, would give Cuomo’s challenger, republican Rob Astorino, real ammo in the campaign, Sheinkopf said.
Instead Sheinkopf believes Cuomo should form his own liberal party minority line “a party that doesn’t put pressure on the middle class”.
“He has the popularity and resources,” Sheinkopf said of Cuomo’s potential to garner the necessary 50,000 votes to keep a smaller liberal party line in future elections.
Gov. Cuomo and the WFP have been at odds in recent months over Cuomo’s agenda. The party says Cuomo is not acting progressive enough, pointing to what they call his watered-down version of a public financing bill, and to his creating a rift between himself and Mayor de Blasio over charter schools.
A chess match between Cuomo and the WFP has been going on since the spat began. Shortly after the tension started to mount between the two Cuomo let on he was trying to revive the Liberal Party.
But of late reports have surfaced that the Governor’s people are quietly talking with WFP heads behind closed doors.
The party, who will nominate a gubernatorial candidate at a May 31convention, has not ruled out picking someone other than Cuomo.