New York state politics at its finest (1199 is the big SEIU-affiliated hospital-workers' union in New York):
Cuomo-Hochul ‘First Priority’ For 1199/SEIU
Getting its members out to the polls and voting for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Rep. Kathy Hochul come Tuesday’s primary is the “first priority” for 1199/SEIU’s turnout operation, the labor union’s political director Kevin Finnegan said.
Finnegan who will be on Capital Tonight this evening, told me in an interview that the union’s much-vaunted GOTV campaign begins this weekend following a mail and telephone program.
“All of the staff will be completely dedicated to the various elections across the state,” Finnegan said. “The top of the ticket — the governor and Kathy Hochul — are first priority. We’ve done a mail program and a telephone program to our 275,000 members in New York.”
And why is a union - supposedly a bastion of liberalism - supporting a
corrupt,
Republican-enabling Governor?
The labor union is a key backer for Cuomo. It helped broker his endorsement from the labor-aligned Working Families Party in May after Cuomo sought 1199/SEIU’s input — literally giving the health-care union a seat at the table — during the process to overhaul the state’s costly Medicaid program.
Basically the Working Families Party is an 1199 access-to-power vehicle.