Labor Choices: Andy 1, Andy 2 or ‘Miranda’

Four years ago, as the votes came in showing Zephyr Teachout making a surprisingly strong showing in the Democratic primary against Governor Cuomo, Bill Lipton, then and now the state chairman of the Working Families Party, stood inside her election-night headquarters raging about what might have been if the unions and their Democratic allies, including Mayor de Blasio, had the intestinal fortitude to stand up against Mr. Cuomo as payback for his shabby treatment of public employees during much of his first term.

Given that Mr. Lipton had gone along with the WFP’s decision four months earlier to switch its allegiance from Ms. Teachout to the Governor at the urging of Mr. de Blasio, the party’s Great Progressive Hope, some of his anger seemed displaced. The challenge from Mr. Cuomo’s left had been effective enough to chasten a man who had run the previous few months as if the word embarrassment wasn’t in his vocabulary. After his November victory by just 13 points against an underfinanced, not-terribly-inspiring Republican challenger, Rob Astorino, Mr. Cuomo began tacking to his left, suggesting Ms. Teachout’s spirited run against him had delivered a message.