DFNYC's Finance Director Lewis Cohen spoke with the New York Observer's Azi Paybarah regarding the controversy over a recent DFNYC membership vote not to endorse in the race between State Senator Marty Connor and his challenger, former Chuck Schumer aide Dan Squadron:

Cohen said both candidates posed problems for the group’s progressive membership.

Some members of DFNYC didn’t think Connor had been outspoken enough on congestion pricing, Cohen told me, nor did they think that his work as an election lawyer raised "progressive confidence within this community." There was also lingering unhappiness with Connor's campaign tactics against his 2006 challenger, Ken Diamondstone, who many progressives preferred over Connor, Cohen says.

...As for Squadron, Cohen said members were uncomfortable with his position on mayoral control, which is up for renewal by the legislature next year. "He also co-wrote a book with Chuck Schumer, Positively American, and that particular tome, although well written, wasn’t exactly a 10 on the '1-to-10' progressive scale, as Chuck Schumer tends not to be," Cohen said.

Read more at Observer.com...