Mayor de Blasio may talk the progressive talk, but he didn’t walk the progressive walk in Tuesday’s primary, says a furious Tim Wu.
Wu, whose insurgent run for lieutenant governor fell short, says de Blasio dealt his campaign a major blow by endorsing Gov. Cuomo’s running mate Kathy Hochul.
“There was an effort to elect a progressive to the lieutenant governor office, and the greatest impediment to that was the Mayor Bill de Blasio,” Wu said Wednesday after he and running mate Zephyr Teachout were defeated by Cuomo and Hochul.
“He personally did more than any other actor to ensure that the lieutenant governor would go not to a progressive but to a conservative.”
Wu said he was not surprised to see de Blasio endorse Cuomo’s ticket. “But there’s an endorsement and there’s fighting hard,” he said. “He fought hard against a progressive candidate.”
Teachout was more politick in her comments. “I wish Mayor de Blasio had endorsed our campaign, but I’m happy to have a progressive mayor,” she said.
A City Hall spokesman declined to comment.
Despite his anger, Wu said that overall he was happy not to don a suit on Wednesday and was returning to the classroom at Columbia University this week.
He has no immediate plans to get back into politics. “Maybe in the long future, something in the general office of the Attorney General, that would be appealing to me,” he said.
For her part, Teachout said she was up for another run, but her first priority was stumping for a Democratic Senate in Albany.
“I’d love to run for office again,” she said. “I don’t see any particular openings right now.”
Teachout spent the day after the primary speaking with consultants, elected officials and “institutional organizers” calling and emailing to help her figure out what’s next, she said.
“There’s a moment here that’s exciting,” she said.
Some Democratic leaders said a fresh voice would be welcome in a political scene desperate for new blood.
“The way they ran their campaign gives them a credible future in the party if they choose,” said Jay Jacobs, Nassau County Democratic party chair and former State party chair, who supported Cuomo in the primary. “I like new, fresh people in the process. [Teachout] is articulate, she’s passionate, those are things politics needs today.”
Others saw Teachout and Wu as here today, gone tomorrow.
“The only thing we know from polling is that she still was not known to the voters,” said Jefrey Pollock, president of Global Strategy Group, who works as a pollster for Cuomo. “She was not very well known by the time we had primary day.”