Voters want outsiders, and that's bad for Cuomo

ALBANY, N.Y. _ The big takeaway from Tuesday's primary elections is this: Andrew Cuomo should be shaking in his khakis.

I say this while fully aware that it's foolish to draw conclusions from elections in different parts of the state. The forces that led to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's stunner in the city do not necessarily match those that helped, say, Anthony Delgado win in the sprawling congressional district that includes much of Rensselaer County.

But the results in New York and elsewhere made it clear that Democratic primary voters continue to want new energy. They don't necessarily value experience. They want outsiders _ and Andrew Cuomo is certainly not the outsider in his contest against challenger Cynthia Nixon.

Cuomo, of course, is the epitome of an insider. He's the establishment candidate. He was for Hillary, not Bernie. He's an incumbent who would not be governor without his last name. He's white and male. And until Nixon announced her candidacy, he was a finger-to-the-wind pol perfectly content to keep Republicans in control of the state Senate.

For better or worse, little of that is appealing to the voters who came out for Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Democratic Socialist with no political experience and lingering student debt.

"This is not an end, this is the beginning," Ocasio-Cortez told her thrilled supporters, after she recovered from the shock of her win. "This is the beginning because the message we sent the world tonight is that it's not OK to put donors before your community."

Donors, you say? Nixon, also with no political experience, has been mentioning Cuomo's contributors incessantly as she hammers him for a pay-to-play style of governance that benefits his campaign fund and powerful interests. Nixon, by the way, was in Ocasio-Cortez's audience Tuesday night. The women have endorsed each other.

Now the last time Cuomo faced a primary challenge, in 2014, Zephyr Teachout won 34 percent of the vote. To make Cuomo sweat this year, Nixon has to at least replicate Teachout's strong performance upstate, where she won the majority of counties. Plus, Nixon has to dramatically improve on Teachout's dismal performance in the boroughs.

Ocasio-Cortez's victory suggests Nixon could do that. If nothing else, it proves shocking upsets can happen.

Two not-so-little caveats: Ocasio-Cortez received only about 16,000 votes, just a drop of what Nixon would need in her statewide bucket. And it's easier to win without money in a tightly packed district where knocking on doors, as her campaign did, can compensate for traditional advertising. Nixon doesn't have that advantage.

But Ocasio-Cortez was also helped by condescension from Joe Crowley, who didn't give his challenger the respect she deserved. As the head of the Queens Democratic machine and a congressional big shot, Crowley acted as if voters were obliged to re-elect a 20-year incumbent.

Cuomo could repeat the mistake. On Wednesday, Nixon was again making the point that Cuomo has not agreed to debate her, just as he evaded standing on a stage with Teachout.

Pretty cowardly for a governor who fancies himself a tough guy, don't you think?

In any event, it's probably time for those of us who pay attention to politics to stop being surprised that voters on both sides of the political aisle continue to elect outsiders, no experience necessary. We've been seeing this for at least a decade now. The enthusiasm out there is anti-establishment.

The skinny black fellow with the funny name was certainly an outsider and a relative novice, but that didn't stop him from beating the overly familiar faces belonging to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The tea party subsequently sent inexperienced outsiders into office, too. Anybody remember Scott Brown? Anybody?

Another outsider, Bernie Sanders, gave the Democratic Party establishment and its candidate, Clinton again, a scare before the ultimate outsider _ you know, the clownish billionaire _ went on to capture the presidency in an election that shocked everybody.

Ocasio-Cortez is a Sanders acolyte, and, other than a New York City address, has nothing in common with Donald Trump. She'd like to impeach him, in fact.

But Sanders, Trump, Ocasio-Cortez and other outsiders share a perspective that continues to be overlooked: They reject the free-market, free-trade absolutism embraced by both major parties since the 1990s _ a bear hug that thrilled big donors, but left a solid chunk of Americans convinced that the ruling class care about them. And they're furious.

To emphasis the point, I turn to a surprising piece of analysis from Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson: "Everything changed when the left stopped pushing back against the excesses of capitalism," he said on a recent Jamie Weinstein Show podcast. "People got hurt and there was nobody to push back on their behalf."

The consequences have been profound and complex. Among them is a deep distrust of politicians who stand at the confluence of entrenched power and the corporate money sustaining it.

That distrust is good for Nixon _ and bad for the guy quivering in his khakis.

cchurchill(at)timesunion.com - 518-454-5442 - Twitter: (at)chris_churchill

Contact columnist Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill(at)timesunion.com