This afternoon Michael Coffey, former president of the Norwalk Common Council, called to share his two cents on a story I wrote last week about the possibility of the city’s Democrats cross-endorsing the Working Families Party candidate in the 142nd House District race.
“I absolutely think the party should cross-endorse” Brian Petronella, said Coffey, who lives in the district, represented for several years by Republican House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero. “I think he believes in many of the same things the Democratic Party does.”
When the Democrats this year could not field a candidate against Cafero, Petronella, who ran against the incumbant in 2004 under the WFP label, stepped up so the race would not be one-sided.
Coffey has not had the best relationship with some party leaders, particularly after he and a handful of other council Democrats broke ranks to endorse U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s third-party bid for re-election against Ned Lamont in 2006.
But Coffey knows the benefits of cross endorsements. He was the only Democrat to seek and accept the WFP’s support in 2005 and subsequently earned the second highest vote total of the at-large council candidates.
Coffey at the time bucked the local party’s tradition of discouraging cross endorsements. This year several local congressional and state Senate and House candidates have gladly accepted the WFP’s backing.
It is not a given Democrats and unaffiliated voters will flock to a Democrat-backed Petronella. When he challenged Cafero in 2004′s two-man race, he lost by around 6,000 votes despite the lack of a Democrat on the ticket.
But Coffey has faith.
“I think he’ll do very well,” he said. “I’m happy to endorse and vote for him.”
