NY Democratic candidate for governor targeted by own party with anti-Semitism mailer

Ahead of New York’s Democratic primary, someone within the party has paid for a mailer accusing progressive gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon of anti-Semitism.

Approved and paid for by the New York State Democratic Committee, the mailer accuses Nixon of remaining “silent on the rise of anti-Semitism,” and supporting BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), a worldwide movement to boycott Israeli goods. Nixon, it argues, “won’t stand strong for our Jewish communities.”

The mailer was delivered to 7,000 New York households, and cost around $11,300, according to journalist Zach Fink. It was sent out on Saturday, one day before the start of Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year.

Nixon accused rival Democrat and incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo of approving the mailer, and called it an “attack not only on my family, but on all New Yorkers.” The former ‘Sex and the City’ actress added that the grandparents of her two children with Danny Mozes escaped the Holocaust.

Cuomo denied any responsibility for the mailer’s contents, according to his campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith. New York State Democratic Party committee executive Geoff Berman did not admit responsibility but issued something of an apology, saying that the mailer was “inappropriate” and that it “will not happen again.” The person responsible will be “dealt with,” Berman said.

Nixon’s fellow New York progressive, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, demanded to know why the Democratic party was taking sides in a primary in the first place, and whether it would take any action to compensate Nixon before Thursday’s primary vote.

Berman promised some sort of compensation, but any corrective action would need to be taken fast, as Nixon faces off against Cuomo on September 13. The incumbent governor is leading Nixon by 41 points and across all demographics, according a poll published Monday.

The last-minute mailer comes as the Democratic party struggles with a national identity crisis. After Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election loss, the party has seen its platform shift leftwards, driven by progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), and New York congressional hopeful and avowed socialist Ocasio-Cortez.

The progressives have pushed for a platform that includes raising the minimum wage, establishing universal single-payer healthcare, gun control, and immigration reform. All have called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a position that would have been anathema to the party establishment just a few years before.

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Save for some local issues, like fixing New York’s subway system, Nixon’s platform is identical to those of this new breed of progressives.

Within the party establishment, some have embraced this leftward shift. After her shock primary victory in June, Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez called Ocasio-Cortez “the future of our party.” Others have been less warm to the progressive agenda. Veteran Democrat and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) cautioned that Ocasio-Cortez’s primary victory was a local phenomenon, and warned the party not to get “carried away.”

Hillary Clinton's failure at the polls in 2016 has been widely attributed to the DNC’s decision to muscle out Sanders in a primary that many thought, and WikiLeaks confirmed, was rigged in favor of Clinton. The rest was history, with Democrats failing to win the presidency or dent the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.

It is unclear why someone in New York Democratic Party thought a smear mailer against Nixon was necessary, given her establishment opponent’s 41-point advantage. However, if the recent string of victories for outsider candidates across the country is anything to go by, the suit-and-tie establishment within the DNC may well be expecting the unexpected.

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