Andrew Cuomo's campaign against Cynthia Nixon took a hit after the Working Families Party opted to endorse the former "Sex and the City" actress over the two-term governor over the weekend.
This will all but secure Nixon a formal nomination and, even if she were to fail to dislodge Cuomo in the Democratic primary this September, it gives her a critical line on the November ballot, Politico noted.
The weekend's events at the annual Democratic Rural Conference in Albany highlighted a growing rift among New York Democrats.
Speaking about her left-flank challenge, Nixon told gathering crowds that "the last eight years under Andrew Cuomo have been an exercise in living with disappointment and dysfunction and dishonesty," according to Politico.
"You are the heart and soul of the progressive New York that we want to create," she added.
Nixon was expecting the WFP endorsement after Cuomo pulled out of the running late Friday, giving her a 91.5 percent weighted vote and injecting a dramatic boost into her campaign, USA Today reported.
The WFP, a small but influential political organization which has its own general election ballot line, endorsed Cuomo four years ago, giving his campaign an advantage over then progressive primary rival Zephyr Teachout, New York Magazine said.
However, he may have jeopardized that relationship after backtracking on pledges made to the party and convincing several unions to end their relationship with the WFP and withdraw their financial backing in the process.
The weekend saw a repeat of the debacle when the major unions that have endorsed Cuomo pulled out of the WFP upon his withdrawal from the running and took to openly criticizing the party instead.
"The WFP was a good concept," said Mike McGuire, director of the Mason Tenders District Council, who left the party after 2014, according to Politico.
"Unfortunately, it was never allowed to become what it was supposed to be, because the agenda was always driven by the so-called progressives running the staff. In hindsight, it's easy to see the whole thing was just a scam, a cynical ploy to drive a radical agenda using the muscle and money of organized labor while widely ignoring the actual concerns of New York's working people. It's no wonder that they now want to be the disruptors, that the last thing they want to see is Democratic unity at a time when we need it most."
George Albro, a WFP founding member and co-chair of NYPAN, responded by stating that it was simply "unfortunate that the governor has chosen to have a tantrum."