Energetic Teachout Blasts Casino Expansion

The primary election season might have been a long, exhausting road for some, but Democratic gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout is still bouncing with energy.

Literally.

Teachout stood dancing and snapping her fingers to her own beat while greeting voters outside PS 153 in Harlem. She received mixed reactions from pedestrians. While a few people shouted out their support, just as many pedestrians didn’t seem to know that she was running against Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Pedestrians Teachout spoke with seemed mostly displeased with Cuomo and also said they had not voted, but “planned” to. Historically, voter turnout is much lower in primary elections. Teachout had seven campaign events scheduled on the day of the primary, most of them aimed at helping to get out the vote.

“Where’s Andrew Cuomo? Is he in Albany?” Teachout asked onlookers. Cuomo hasn’t spent much time campaigning and has refused to publicly address Teachout’s challenge.

This week in Albany, developers are seeking one of the four licenses to open casinos in upstate New York. Teachout was critical of the state’s decision to expand casinos.

“The casino deals in general have been plagued with favoritism and secrecy,” Teachout said. “I think 57 percent of New Yorkers supported the referendum, but the referendum was worded in a biased way and since then we now have evidence of what people had already suspected, which is that the casino market is saturated. I think it’s the wrong direction to go for upstate for a whole series of reasons and I would not be aggressively pursuing casino developers like Andrew Cuomo is.”

Teachout has two more campaign stops planned today before her election results party in Manhattan tonight.