On June 4, Andrew Cuomo, who is almost certain to be the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of New York, said he won’t accept the nomination of the Working Families Party. See this story.
The Working Families Party has been on the ballot in New York starting in 1998, and it has always cross-endorsed the statewide Democratic Party slate. Parties in New York retain their position on the ballot by polling 50,000 votes for Governor, so the party is virtually forced to run someone for Governor, unless the legislature passes S8007. That bill changes the definition of “party” from a group that polled 50,000 for Governor, to a group that polled 50,000 for any statewide race in a midterm year.
How about the Working Families Party endorses Howie Hawkins instead? You know…a real progressive? The Democratic party is seeing that the writing is on the wall. They aren’t entitled to the progressive vote. The WFP, Vermont’s Progressive Party, and NC First Party have the Dems terrified.
That idea would be good for the Hawkins campaign, but bad for the Green Party. If most Hawkins voters voted for him on the Working Families Party, that would reduce the chances that the Green Party could get 50,000 votes on its own line, and it needs 50,000 votes on its own line to get its qualified party status back. It had that status 1998-2002.
True. But if the WFP nominates another progressive other than Hawkins to run then the progressive vote would likely shift away from Hawkins. If Hawkins is on both lines, there would be more backing behind him, more exposure. That could translate to at least 50k for both lines.
The Working Families Party should nominate Howie Hawkins for governor.
Cuomo’s statement is a sop to the Independence Party, which is lately financed by real estate interests as a counter to the union interests financing the Working Families Party. Once Cuomo is nominated by the Independence Party tomorrow, and the Working Families nominate a stand-in attorney, the attorney will be nominated for a judicial position in September, and Cuomo will then be put back on the WFP line, assuming the WFP is not indicted before then.
The Working Families Party has far more support than the Green Party in New York. They would never endorse Hawkins. They would consider it to be a sign of weakness. I don’t think the Greens really would want the WFP to endorse Hawkins anyway, because the vote would split, and kill The GP’s shot at ballot status (barring passage of S8007).
It would not be a sign of weakness for the Working Families Party to nominate Howie Hawkins. On the contrary, it would demonstrate confidence and strength. It is never weakness for people to attempt to unify and work together for the good of all.
How about being a real party and running your own candidates. By wanting to nominate a dem then nominate the green it says we stand for nothing. It is one thing to nominate candidates for another party occasionally but to do it all most 100% of the time makes you seem line a fake party.
Well, it makes more sense to me that efforts are made not to split the progressive vote too much. If the smaller parties (left, center, or right) do not begin to work together better (and even consider more mergers), then they are most likely not going to get very far.
Cuomo knows which direction the political winds are blowing in 2010. An endorsement by the “liberal” Working Families Party could work against him. He was wise to accept the co-nomination of the more “conservative” Independence Party, and that party was wise to co-nominate him. When are other 3rd parties going to learn this valuable lesson?
Last year a candidate named Luke Gucker ran for Albany, NY common council on both the Green and Working Families Lines. He got 268 votes. 196 were for Working Families. 72 were for Green. The winner of the race got 333 votes on the Democratic line, and 38 on the Independence line. The Conservative Party candidate got 96 votes. There was 1 write-in. This was the closest Common Council race in Albany. All of these candidates also ran in the Democratic primary. I’m not sure if any of this information is relevent, except as a demonstration of the comparative strength of the WFP and Greens. WFP gets way more votes. But the Dems usually get the most votes of all in New York. The Dems don’t really need the WFP. The WFP doesn’t want the Greens. As much as I hate to say this, a WFP nomination for Hawkins is a bad proposition for the interested parties.
“An Alabama Independent” (#10): Even though we are often on different sides of the issues, I always enjoy reading your comments and appreciate your courtesy and diplomacy.
My response to your comment is that there is always a certain point where candidates for public office have to ignore the “direction of the political winds” and be true to their beliefs. Otherwise, they are not worth supporting and voting for.
“clay” (#11): Your argument ended up proving yourself incorrect. How ironic!
Howie Hawkins is willing to stand up for the working class of the great State of New York. The Working Families Party needs to join with the Green Party and also stand up for the proletariat!