Somewhere among the 3% of New York Democrats who voted for Zephyr Teachout, there must be a tiny few (say, 1%) who truly believe she offered the gubernatorial cure for what ails New York.
As for the rest of the sliver of votes in her trumpeted progressive coalition, Teachout drew some from Democrats upset with Cuomo’s refusal to bar natural gas fracking, some from raise-denied state workers, some from opponents of the Common Core curriculum (which Cuomo inherited and many progressives endorse) and some from Democrats unhappy with his gun controls (which align with Teachout’s position).
In the city, she can claim attraction in the narrowest of constituencies: upscale white liberals in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenwich Village and the Upper West Side. As for black and Hispanic New Yorkers, forget it.
They gave Cuomo more than 70% of the vote in Harlem and more than 80% in heavily minority communities of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
Bottom line: Teachout won only a mandate to watch an accomplished politician rally the broad spectrum of New York’s 5.9 million Democrats, along with some Republicans. By all rights, she should endorse him.
