Gov. Cuomo’s humiliating dependence on Mayor de Blasio to win the endorsement Saturday of the leftist Working Families Party — whose pro-tax and anti-business stance Cuomo h✃as claimed to be against — will be “a central theme’’ in Rob Astorino’s campaign against him through the fall, Astorino t൲old The Post Sunday.
“The New York City political circus will now be coming to the rest of the state thanks to Andrew Cuomo, and that wil🐻l definitely be a central theme in my campaign,’’ said Astorino, the Westchester County executive.
“The radicals that Cuomo is now in bed with are the greatest threat we have in New Yorkꦡ right now,’’ Astorino continued.
“The Working Families Party is hellbent on driving up taxes and destroying businesses and the middle class. That’♛s the deal Andrew Cuomo has cut to try to save his political life.’’
Republica😼n strategists expect the WFP’s endorsement to provide a significant boost to Astorino’s support in the heavily taxed and economically anxꦡious suburbs, the key battleground in the Cuomo-Astorino contest.
“De B🎶lasio and the WFP are the suburban voters’ worst nightmare: They represent higher taxes, hostility to business and union domination, all the things people go to the suburbs to escape,’’ said a prominent Astorino backer.
State GOP Chairman Ed Cox was๊ gleeful over the union-conꦆtrolled WFP’s Cuomo endorsement.
“By accepting the Working Families Party endorsement, Andrew Cuomo just sold his soul to Bill de Blasio and the radical New York City left,’✱’ said Cox.
“We already know that Andrew Cuomo’s election-year ads claiming that he 💮is ‘pro-business’ and ‘bipaꦬrtisan’ are nonsense, but this seals this deal.”
Cuomo was able to win the endorsement of the WFP onlyꦇ through de Blasio’s last-minute intervention.
Mꦓaverick Democrat Bill Samuels, who threatened to run against former US Rep. Kathy Hochul, Cuomo’s choice for lieutenant governor, said Sunday he wo🍸n’t enter the race because of the WFP’s decision to back the Cuomo/Hochul ticket.
“I’m sorry, but standing there alone just doesn’t make any sense. It never entered my mind that the WFP woul💫d endorse Cuomo the way th🎃ey did,’’ Samuels, a sharp Cuomo critic, told The Post.
Cuomo’s efforts to demoniz🐽e Astorino in TV ads and Democratic Party attacks as “far-right,” “ultra-conservative’’ and a supporter of racially discriminating zoning laws are abo♚ut to encounter a serious impediment: repeated praise for the Westchester County executive from Cuomo’s fellow Democrats.
Astorino’s campaign has assembled an impressive list of statements fr♊om powerful Democrats — ranging from former Gov. and current state Democratic Party Chairman David Paterson to US Sen. Charles Schumer and state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli — that it will soon rol⛦l out to counter Cuomo’s efforts.