How 3 Little Letters (IDC) Are Riling Up New York Progressives

If you have paid even a little attention to New York politics recently, there is a good chance you have heard the letters “IDC.” If you have paid a little more attention, you may have heard the group blamed for a host of issues: New York’s failure to codify Roe v. Wade into law; its flimsy protections for child sex-abuse victims; its lack of more stringent gun control laws.

What exactly is this seemingly all-powerful boogeyman among liberal Democrats?

The IDC is short for the Independent Democratic Conference, a now-defunct but still highly talked about group of rogue state senators who broke off from the Democratic caucus to collaborate with the Republicans. By doing so, their opponents claim, they effectively enabled a Republican agenda that needs to be dismantled in this fall’s elections.

If you are trying to wrap your head around that, don’t worry. Even by Albany’s (very weird) standards, the IDC can seem especially Byzantine, or just plain bizarre. We broke it down for you.

In 2011, Sen. Jeffrey D. Klein, D-Bronx, along with three fellow state senators, announced that they were breaking off from their Democratic colleagues and forming their own caucus, the IDC. The breakaway members claimed to be unhappy with the party’s leadership; their colleagues accused them of a power grab.

Almost immediately, the decision seemed to pay off for the IDC members. The Senate’s Republican majority awarded them powerful and lucrative leadership positions on legislative committees.

In the 2012 election, the Senate Democrats technically took back the chamber, winning a numerical majority. But without the IDC on their side, the Democrats could not muster the votes to install one of their own as the new majority leader. Instead, Klein and Sen. Dean G. Skelos, then the leader of the Republicans, shared that title.

Over the next few years, more Democratic senators joined the group, and the Republicans have kept control of the legislative agenda. That has let the Republicans block much of the progressive wish list, including single-payer health care and voting reform.

When the IDC disbanded in April — more on that in a moment — it had eight members.

Two reasons.

First, the so-called blue wave.

The IDC has been a source of fury for the state’s Democrats for years, but after President Donald Trump’s election, that opposition took on new energy. Liberal activists homed in on the group as one of the biggest obstacles to New York being a true bastion of progressivism, and they rallied voters who had never heard of the IDC to join the growing chorus of voices against it.

Each of the eight former IDC members is facing a primary challenge. The roster of challengers features some political newcomers (such as Rachel May, an administrator at Syracuse University who is challenging Sen. David Valesky) and more familiar names (such as John C. Liu, a former New York City comptroller, who is looking to unseat Sen. Tony Avella). The challengers have positioned their bids as part of the anti-incumbent, anti-status quo, pro-resistance movement sweeping the country.

Second, the governor is running for re-election.

In April, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Klein announced that the IDC members had agreed to dissolve the group and rejoin the main Democratic bloc. The surprise announcement was widely viewed as born of Cuomo’s tack left in the face of a primary challenge from Cynthia Nixon.

Nixon has accused the governor, a notoriously savvy political arm-wrestler, of not pushing hard enough against the IDC, even though Cuomo has always insisted that he wanted the Democrats to reunite.

When Cuomo and Klein announced the group’s dissolution, some progressives worried that the move would deflate the anti-IDC candidates’ campaigns. Cuomo, the mainline Senate Democrats and the former IDC members all committed to campaigning together.

But the challengers insisted that their reason for running — ousting “fake Democrats” — stood. And far from flagging, the campaigns seem to have gained momentum. Together or separately, they have racked up an impressive collection of endorsements, including from Mayor Bill de Blasio; Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker; Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller; and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union.

Several of the anti-IDC challengers have also aligned themselves with other progressive statewide campaigns, especially those of Nixon for governor and Zephyr Teachout for attorney general. Nixon has often pointed to the IDC when casting Cuomo as a Republican in Democrats’ clothing; her performance Thursday in the state primary may depend in part on how many voters agree.

It is worth noting that many of the officials who have endorsed the anti-IDC candidates have also endorsed Cuomo. That may be a political hedge: They get to be seen embracing the far-left mood in the Democratic Party (several endorsed the challengers right after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise victory), but without risking angering Cuomo, who leads by a wide margin in public polls.

Whether or not the challengers win, the Democrats will not have a majority in the Senate unless they also flip some Republican-held seats in November. (There is a good chance they will: There are several competitive races.)

If the Democrats win control of the chamber, they would then control the Senate, Assembly and the executive branch — assuming that Cuomo or Nixon defeats the Republican candidate, Marcus J. Molinaro. That would seem to give the governor license to advance the party agenda without fear of interference from the Republicans.

It is not clear that the agenda would be much different if shaped by the former IDC members or their challengers. They have pledged to advance largely similar agendas, including enhancing reproductive rights and protecting unauthorized immigrants. A victory by the challengers would most likely be more symbolic than policy based.

Of course, this is Albany, where nothing is predictable. Maybe the Republicans will keep the Senate. Maybe the IDC will return. Stay tuned.