Democrat Cynthia Nixon had the floor to herself at the Golden Imperial Palace in Sunset Park last night at a gubernatorial candidate forum, and wasted little time before ripping into her opponent, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was invited, but didn’t attend the event.
Among the hosts were several Brooklyn Democratic political clubs including the Bay Ridge Democrats, the Brooklyn Young Democrats, the Independent Neighborhood Democrats and the New Kings Democrats. Gotham Gazette Executive Editor Ben Max and Politico New York Education Reporter Madina Toure served as moderators.
“For years, New Yorkers have bought Governor Cuomo’s lines about how we’re the most progressive state in the country,” said Nixon, an actress with elected political experience. “Well, we may have the most progressive voter base in the country, but we’re nowhere near not only California, but Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Minnesota. So many states are leaving us in the dust.”
Nixon proceeded to elaborate on all of the progressive reforms she intends to implement if elected, such as desegregating New York’s specialized high schools, addressing the systemic racism in the state’s criminal justice system, and eliminating loopholes in state rent regulations that allow landlords to gouge tenants.
All of these, said Nixon, are progressive goals that Gov. Cuomo has failed to deliver on, because he, at heart, is not a progressive. She asserted that Cuomo is a politician who “talks like a Democrat and governs like a Republican,” bringing up his tax breaks on New Yorkers earning more than $300,000 a year and his culpability for the mass defunding of NYCHA housing. However, she conceded that there was “plenty of blame to go around” for the latter problem.
She rejected the conceit that “any blue will do”, insisting that Democratic candidates have to give voters something to vote for, rather than just something to vote against. She claimed that the party could use someone from the outside who isn’t as entrenched in the dirty dealings of politics as the incumbent is.
“At this moment, what’s needed is an outsider, someone who isn’t beholden to special interests and corporations and industry, to come in and enact change,” said Nixon. “I’ve been going up to Albany year after year after year, demanding that Andrew Cuomo put those billions of dollars into education and he hasn’t. And the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Near the conclusion of the evening, Nixon was asked whether she fears that her campaign could incite “infighting” within the Democratic Party. She responded by saying that internal conflict is not just inevitable but also necessary, and that the party has to address its own issues before it can confront the right.
“We’re a family, the Democratic Party – and that means we have to have discussions, and we need to argue with each other sometimes in order to figure out what we really think, particularly what the vast majority of our voters think,” said Nixon. “Our party leadership is older, whiter and much more male than the voter base of the Democratic Party, and we need to… start listening to our actual voters.”
The primary is Sept. 13.
