The campaign of Democratic New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon is demanding Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez address the “despicable” mailers reportedly sent by the New York State Democratic Committee that accused Nixon of being silent on anti-Semitism days before the election.
“Tom Perez must address this disgraceful mailer attacking a fellow Democrat that was sent out by his Party at the behest of his chosen candidate,” Cynthia for New York senior strategist Rebecca Katz said in a press release Wednesday.
Perez endorsed incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo in May, a move that angered other Democrats, including his own deputy chairman Keith Ellison, who said the party shouldn’t be pitting candidates against each other.
The New York State Democratic Committee came under fire after the mailers, which went out right before Rosh Hashanah, attempted to link Nixon to anti-Semitism, according to the New York Post.
There have been “few details about who was responsible for the flier’s language, delivery and its timing, coming before Rosh Hashana and before Thursday’s primary,” The New York Times reported.
“With anti-Semitism and bigotry on the rise, we can’t take a chance with inexperienced Cynthia Nixon,” the mailer read, and it continued to claim Nixon has been “silent” on anti-Semitism.
Geoff Berman, the executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, admitted the mailer was “wrong and inappropriate” in a tweet Sept. 9.
The state Party sent out a wrong and inappropriate mailer — we will work with the Nixon campaign to send out a mailing of their choosing to the same universe of people.
— Geoff Berman (@geoffberman) September 9, 2018
“This was not an accident. This was a strategy. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign sought to exploit our worst fears to score the cheapest and dirtiest of political points — against a candidate with neither the time nor the resources to defend herself or recover from the damage before election day,” Katz continued.
Cuomo’s campaign has repeatedly denied involvement in or knowledge of the mailers. (RELATED: Andrew Cuomo Leads Challenger Cynthia Nixon By Forty Points Ahead Of Primary: Poll)
A spokeswoman for Cuomo, Lis Smith, tweeted that Cuomo disagrees with the language in the mailer and urged people to focus on “real issues” in the race.
A DNC spokeswoman, Xochitl Hinojosa, tweeted Wednesday that Perez believes Democrats “should never tear down other Democrats in primaries. Period. And this is no exception.”
The New York Democratic gubernatorial primary will take place Thursday.
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