The New York Working Families Party is credited with playing a big role in determining which veteran Democratic state legislators won their primary on September 9, and which ones lost. See this article in the New York Sun of September 11. The party played this role not so much by its nominations choices, as by the fact that it has a large cadre of dedicated campaign workers who do not hesitate to intervene in Democratic Party primaries.
I would challenge “Big Role” when your party’s enrollment is 37,595 in the entire state.
A minor party’s registration has almost no ability to predict how it will poll. The Conservative Party of New York has registration of just a little over 1% of the state total in 1970, when its nominee for US Senate (who was not the nominee of either major party) won that election.
Party enrollment is not only irrelevant, it’s, for the most part to the WFP’s /disadvantage/ to have voters enrolled under it’s banner. New York does not have open primaries, so in a primary, WFP voters play no effective role.
The WFP’s electoral mission is threefold:
(1) Use it’s perhaps best-in-country grassroots electoral organizing muscle to help progressives win Democratic primaries.
(2) To influence the outcome of general elections, both in terms of raw numbers, and in terms of the structure of a mandate, by encouraging voters to vote for major party candidates on the WFP ballot line. When I go to vote in November, as a progressive Democrat I have relatively little power; the Republican party is not wasting money trying to win here. What power I do have is to cast my vote for Obama on the WFP line. This at least sends a message.
(3) To work on behalf of Democrats in tight races around New York State.
If, as is actually expected, Republicans lose control of the New York State Senate in November (for the first time in just under 50 years), 50 years of effective legislative gridlock will come to an end, and New York State’s role in setting the national agenda will increase dramatically.
But if you do not have open primaries you are then voting for the closed primary’s choice unless you have your own candidate or an independent. I agree with the “sends a message”. Mayor Bloomberg became mayor with the support of the Independence Party’s 59,000 votes on the “C” line the first time he ran.
don’t forget the OTB option — (opportunity to ballot” write-in. But petitions (OTB) are still required to force the write-in closed primary (or semi-closed in special case of IPNY.
— note while some of us hate the organized labor backing of the NYSUT/ teacher union and public employee backed WFP, everyone I know of respects if not fears the very high level of organizational professionalism of the WFP.