How the left has made progressive change in Albany, by EricLevitz
We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images If you’re a progressive looking to revive a flagging faith in American politics , just turn your eyes to the shining city on a hill that is Albany, New York.
Last week, New York’s state government wrapped up a historically productive — and progressive — legislative session, which included the passage of 20 major laws. Some of these were almost inevitable from the moment Democrats won control of the State Senate last fall. Strengthening gun-control laws, abortion protections, and LGBT rights has long been part of Andrew Cuomo’s agenda, and the legislature passed important bills on all those fronts, as well as voting rights, by January’s end.
All this invites a question: What happened to New York’s Democrats? How did a party that ceded the State Senate to Republicans — and the Big Apple’s skyline to absentee billionaires — find the backbone to put disenfranchised immigrants above xenophobic police bureaucracies, the global climate above parochial fossil-fuel interests, and low-income tenants above James R. Wacht and his associates?
In 2012, the turncoats of the Independent Democratic Caucus helped Republicans retain effective control of the Senate in defiance of the electorate’s will. In 2018, the Working Families Party and other progressive organizations launched a campaign to oust every active Democrat who had participated in the IDC. They ended up beating six out of eight, including former IDC leader Jeff Klein, who outspent 32-year-old lawyer Alessandra Biaggi ten to one and still lost to her by more than eight points.
Nearly all the voters at the Bronx poll site who backed Ms. Biaggi cited Mr. Klein’s role in the I.D.C. as a motivating factor.
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