AG Andrew Cuomo’s campaign just announced the Democratic gubernatorial designee and his LG running mate, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy, have been endorsed by the 37,000-member state Conference of Operating Engineers in advance of the AFL-CIO conference in Albany Aug. 15-16.

“Andrew Cuomo and Robert Duffy are absolutely committed to standing up for the working men and women of New York and have the strongest agenda to put New Yorkers back to work,” said the union’s president, James Callahan.

“We proudly support them because we know they will always put the hard working men and women of this state first.

The press release includes a list of the unions that have endorsed the Cuomo-Duffy ticket to date:

- New York State Building Trades Council
- The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union
- District 15 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
- United Food and Commercial Workers
- The New York State Pipe Trades Association
- The New York State Council of Sheet Metal Workers
- District Councils Four and Nine of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades
- Building and Construction Trades Council of New York City

This comes on the heels of the decision by NYSUT to remain neutral in the governor’s race – and, interestingly the attorney general primary, too – in a demonstration of dismay over the more conservative aspects of Cuomo’s campaign platform, particularly the 2 percent property tax cap.

In a pragmatic recognition of the reality likely to come in Albany, NYSUT will not be actively opposing Cuomo at the AFL-CIO conference, which means the AG is likely to get the umbrella organization’s nod – a boost for him as he tries to deflect progressive concern that he is anti-labor.

Cuomo has been studiously working to lock down the support of private sector unions while eschewing the public sector organizations that seem to be included when he discussions the amorphous “special interests” that hold too much away over Albany and are driving the cost of government ever upwards.

Cuomo is clearly preparing to do battle against these interest – much in the same way former Gov. Eliot Spitzer tried, unsuccessfully, to do when he took on SEIU 1199 and its partner, the GNYHA, during his first budget battle.

After a prolonged air war, during which Spitzer spent more than $1 million of his own cash on ads in response to a hard hitting campaign by 1199 and its hospital association partner, the Legislature turned back the bulk of the then-governor’s Medicaid cuts.

Cuomo is sitting on a massive $23.6 million campaign war chest, and only recently started spending some of that on ads for his gubernatorial campaign.

It’s clear he’s hoping to husband some of those resources in anticipation of a pricey battle next year – assuming he’s elected – during which he might have to fight fire with fire.

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