Fracking, education on Teachout’s agenda

A funny thing happened to the long-shot candidate embarking on a quixotic campaign to upset the incumbent New York governor – she found herself in Pennsylvania, by design.

Fordham University School of Law Professor Zephyr Teachout said she wanted to see first-hand the effects of the form of gas drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking. So earlier this week, she visited a fracking site in Pennsylvania. She said she saw the water and smelled the air and witnessed devastation to communities and farmland as a result of drilling.

“I hope to never have to visit any New York towns that look like those Pennsylvania towns,” said Teachout, speaking Thursday at Village Gate Square. “We are a crossroads in terms of our energy future because Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been silent on hydrofracking for years.”

Teachout spoke to about 50 supporters at the stop, one of many on a tour of the state. Her lieutenant governor running mate Tim Wu, a Columbia Law School professor, did not make the trip. She and Wu are running against Cuomo and lieutenant governor candidate Kathy Hochul, an Erie County Democrat and former congresswoman, for the Democratic party endorsement.

The primary election is Sept. 9.

Cuomo unsuccessfully sued in an attempt to knock his liberal opponent off the ballot, drawing attention to the campaign of the Vermont native.

Recently, Cuomo has been fending off allegations that he interfered in the operations of the anti-corruption Moreland Commission he created.

Teachout, who was national director of the anti-corruption Sunlight Foundation, criticized the governor on a host of issues, including education funding, Common Core testing, and fracking. She also took Cuomo to task for his Start-Up NY tax-free program for businesses looking to relocate, start up or significantly expand in the state near colleges and universities. Teachout said that Cuomo’s support of the program, combined with a history of providing tax breaks to big business, amounts to “Reaganism.”

“One of the reasons I’m running is I wanted to make sure there was at least one Democrat in the Democratic primary,” Teachout said. “Andrew Cuomo has governed more like a Republican.”

Her plans to help small business include improving the state’s highways and providing affordable broadband service. The small-business economy also will be helped through affordable higher education, she said.

“A 28-year-old will not invest in her new business idea if she’s carrying around a lot of student debt,” Teachout said. “New York used to be the center of the best affordable higher education in the world. That’s what we should aim for.”

Supporter Dan Drmacich, a former School Without Walls principal, cited Teachout’s anti-corruption and education platforms, calling her “the political and social conscience of New York state.”

Cuomo is comfortably ahead in the polls, but the governor has said that he takes nothing for granted and is working hard to highlight accomplishments during his time in office. Cuomo has made several visits to Rochester and Buffalo in the past year, touting economic success stories and other accomplishments during his administration.

Teachout said she is confident that enough voters will be on her side.

“We are 12 days away from the upset of the century,” she said.