The Working Families Party has decided to bite the bullet and endorse Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Andrew Cuomo – on his terms.

The labor-backed party released a statement this afternoon saying it would bow to the AG’s wishes and support his “New New York Agenda”, despite the fact that it contains proposals many (albeit not all) unions don’t like – most notably, a 2 percent property tax cap.

WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor said the decision was unanimous and was made in the interest of heeding Cuomo’s call for “shared sacrifice” (made in a recent DN OpEd) to get the state out of its fiscal morass.

“The Working Families Party is proud to announce it will be nominating Andrew Cuomo as our gubernatorial candidate,” Cantor said in a statement. “He’s clearly the right leader for New York. We will be fighting for his electoral victory in November and then fight for legislative passage of his New NY Agenda in January.”

“While some of our members have differed in the past on some of the specific issues in the New NY Agenda, the Executive Committee unanimously takes this position because we understand and accept Andrew’s point that this is a pivotal moment in the history of this state, similar to the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, when leaders in the labor, civic, business and political arena must put aside their individual agendas for the good of the entire state.”

“We also believe we are fortunate to have Andrew Cuomo as a leader with the strength, experience and credibility to forge this unity, and assemble this coalition, at this critical moment. We stand proudly and steadfastly behind Andrew Cuomo and his plan for a New New York.”

Cuomo made it clear last week that the WFP’s acceptance of his agenda – in its entirety – was absolutely necessary for him to agree to run on Row E.

The AG released the following statement today:

“Passage of our reform agenda in Albany next year just took a giant step forward. I appreciate the support of the Working Families Party.”

UPDATE: A source familiar with Cuomo’s thinking says he will be accepting the WFP’s nod and run on the party’s line (the statement isn’t exactly clear on that), because its leaders “did everything (Cuomo) asked.” The AG would very much like to see the WFP put its support of his agenda in writing by signing the pledge as other supporters have done (including, it should be noted, Sen. Eric Schneiderman, as of last week).

The party put a placeholder candidate, Kenneth Schaeffer, a legal Legal Aid lawyer, United Auto Workers member, and a longtime WFP member and activist, on its line back in June when Cuomo took a pass on the line due to the now-closed US attorney’s probe into the party’s for-profit arm, Data & Field Services.

I assume now Schaeffer will be nominated for a judgeship somewhere. (I believe the deadline to make substitutions is Thursday).

There was some talk among WFP insiders early on about running a high-profile progressive like actor Alec Baldwin instead of Cuomo in hopes of generating the 50,000 votes necessary to retain its official ballot status. But in the end, they decided to succumb to the AG’s wishes and live to fight another day.

UPDATE2: The WFP also put a placeholder on its line for LG (Elon Harpaz, also a Legal Aid attorney, and a board member of the community group Good Old Lower East Side), and AG (Amy Young, an attorney for the Communications Workers of America and a longtime WFP member).

I assume Cuomo’s hand-picked LG running mate, Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy, is going to get this nod, since the two of them are a package deal. As for AG, the WFP is waiting to see who wins the primary Tuesday, I’m told.

Here’s the list of WFP affiliates and whose leaders participated in today’s decision:

1199SEIU
Buffalo Teachers Federation
CWA
IBT Local 808
MTDC (Laborers)
New York Communities for Change
NYC Hotel Trades Council
RWDSU
SEIU 32BJ
UAW Region 9
UAW Region 9A
UFCW Local 1500
UFT
Workers United

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