Here’s a good one: Some Democrats are looking to force breakaway state senators from their own party to come back — or be cut off financially.
The group of Dems, which calls itself the NY Progressive Caucus, wants the state committee to demand that breakaway members return to the fold or lose all support — i.e., state-party donations and help from local Democratic clubs. They even got the committee to schedule a vote on the issue Wednesday.
Now, it’s no surprise that mainline Democrats are irked at the breakaways — known as the Independent Democratic Conference and headed by state Sen. Jeff Klein. The IDC generally makes common cause with Republicans and avoids the mainline Dems.
What’s more, the progressives seem to regard the addition of three minority senators — Marisol Alcantara, Jesse Hamilton and Jose Peralta — to the formerly all-white IDC caucus as a particularly hurtful betrayal.
But the bid to pressure the IDC is laughable. For starters, there’s really not much the progressives can do. After all, the IDC doesn’t need — and usually doesn’t get — financial support from the committee.
Moreover, Gov. Cuomo, who heads the Democratic Party and who himself often sides with the IDC and Republicans, has yet to express any support for the effort.
Still, the progressives — and other Democrats sympathetic to their cause — continue to look to make trouble. Recently, the mainline Dems tried to sic Albany DA David Soares and the US attorney on IDC members over legislative stipends.
Thing is, ever since their failed leadership of the Senate a decade ago, most of the mainline Dems have proved themselves unwilling to work with their Republican colleagues (or the IDC) in the broader interests of the state.
If anyone should be cut off, it should be the mainline Democrats — not a group like the IDC that’s willing to work cooperatively with the other party and put New Yorkers’ interests first.