Cox: Cuomo shift on wage, teachers a result of 2014 primary

New York Republican Chairman Ed Cox said Monday that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's evolving views on minimum wage and teacher evaluations are part of his shift to the left -- and a result of his smaller-than-expected win in last year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

 Cox, in a statement, said Cuomo “lost his will” to take on unions after the September 2014 primary in which Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law professor and political unknown, garnered 33.5 percent of the vote -- or about twice what some Democrats were predicting at the time. Earlier that year, Teachout, with support from the political left, challenged Cuomo for the nomination of the labor-backed Working Families Party, but the governor prevailed at the party’s convention after some last-minute help from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“Cuomo is now taking every opportunity to lurch to the left to gain favor with the Working Families Party and outflank de Blasio,” Cox said, adding that a retreat on teacher evaluations would be a “sellout.”

Cuomo has sought throughout his tenure to increasingly tie teachers’ evaluations to students’ results on standardized tests. In January, he pushed for 50 percent of a teacher’s assessment to be linked to test scores. But after widespread parent protests about standardized tests, Cuomo is considering significantly reducing that number, according to a recent New York Times report.