Liz is reporting that the Working Families Party may be about to throw their support to Dan Squadron, who is running a primary campaign against my state Senator, Marty Connor.
A source who was on hand last night at the Working Families Party Coordinating Council said the organization voted to endorse Dan Squadron, a political neophyte and former aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is mounting a primary challenge to veteran Democratic Sen. Marty Connor.
The next step is a meeting of the party's executive council, which is scheduled to get together on March 14 at the Crowne Plaza in Albany.
According to my source, several unions represented by the labor-backed party stuck up for Connor last night, but the local South Brooklyn club and ACORN had the majority of votes in the room and wanted Squadron.
While this is certainly good news for Squadron, it's truly terrible news for the man who WFP backed in the 2006 primary against Connor, Ken Diamondstone, who has also been making noise about taking another run at Connor this year. In fact, if WFP backs Squadron, it may keep Diamondstone out of the race altogether.
Diamondstone said he is "seriously considering" getting into the race and that the WFP's support "is and has been very important" to him. He said he has been assured the party has not made a final decision on an endorsement, adding:
" I would welcome their support this time around. Failing that, I would certainly need to evaluate what the loss of support by WFP would mean for our campaign. But I'll determine that should that occur."
I don't know Diamonstone personally, but I have met Squadron a few times and have had the chance to speak with him at length a few times. I'll just say that I can easily see why a healthy portion of the WFP membership would be interested in backing him. Dan is very bright and has an excellent grasp of reform issues and of how state government actually works here. He's exactly the kind of smart, young progressive that are now coming out to run for state Senate knowing that they'll be able to go to Albany and actually, ya know, do stuff and make an impact. I say all of this because I truly believe it and not because Dan once said that the Albany Project was The greatest blog (I've done an interview with, so far).
Interesting developments in my SD... |
