SCOOP: Tiffany Cabán just started a job with the Working Families Party
/
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
By Emma Whitford and David Brand
Public defender Tiffany Cabán, who fell 55 votes shy of a shocking victory in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney earlier this year, has taken a job with the Working Families Party, the Eagle has learned.
Cabán just began working in a national capacity for the progressive political party founded in New York, the party confirmed Wednesday. The WFP has 12 chapters across the U.S.
Her job is scheduled to last through February and entails supporting reform-minded district attorney candidates across the country, sources familiar with Cabán and the party said.
"Tiffany’s campaign showed that public defenders, activists, and organizers running on an agenda of transformational reform can compete for offices usually dominated by the law-and-order establishment. We’re thrilled to have her in this role, helping us find the next Tiffany Cabán, Larry Krasner, or Kim Foxx,” said WFP National Political Organizer Maurice Mitchell in a statement to the Eagle.
Cabán did not immediately respond to request for comment. This story will be updated with her response.
Advocates and political observers have been speculating about Cabán’s next move since she officially conceded the Queens DA Democratic primary to Borough President Melinda Katz in August. Speculation reached a fever pitch in September, when she opened an unspecified campaign account.
The WFP did not collect signatures to give Cabán its official nomination for Queens DA and a spot on the general election ballot, but the party played a central role in Cabán’s campaign, providing much-needed funding for staff as well as free office space.
The WFP joined Cabán’s campaign a few months into the race and proved an influential consulting and organizing body, even as the state considers election measures that threaten its existence as an actual political party that drafts candidates and nominates them for office in New York. The chair of the state Democratic Party has emailed election commissioners urging them to consider a proposal that would force third parties, like the WFP, to earn 250,000 votes in a gubernatorial election to receive a spot on the next ballot, The New York Times reported. That proposed vote total is five times as many votes as third parties currently need to gain a spot on the next ballot.
Cabán has remained active in national justice reform efforts since conceding defeat in the DA primary.
Earlier this month she introduced U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a massive rally for presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders at Queensbridge Park in Long Island City.
She also hosted a criminal justice-focused Twitter Q+A with presidential candidate Julián Castro and endorsed like-minded San Francisco DA candidate Chesa Boudin.
Cabán’s platform for Queens DA emphasized incarceration as a last-result for people convicted of crimes. She pledged not to prosecute a slew of low-level crimes, including prostitution-related offenses. Cabán also condemned a city plan to build four new borough-based jails, and said she would implement participatory budgeting to returndistribute assets seized by the Queens DA’s office back to the community.
