The New York Times has this lengthy obituary of Fred Newman, who died July 3 and who founded the New Alliance Party and then became an important figure in the Reform Party and the New York city Independence Party. Thanks to Blair Bobier for the link.
Whatever one concludes about Fred Newman (anything from vital trailblazer to cultist charlatan), he certainly was one of the most interesting figures in the history of alternative politics.
Very well put, Dave.
Phil
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At the very end of the obituary, Mr. Newman’s “Anti-Party Party” quote was honest about the Prefers Party Top-Two voting system. That’s the intention of Prefers Party on the ballot – for associations “to be put out of business.”
Justice Scalia, in his dissent in Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, looked at this voting system in a similar way;
“Recognizing that parties draw support for their candidates by giving them the party imprimatur, Washington seeks to reduce the effectiveness of that endorsement by allowing any candidate to use the ballot for drawing upon the goodwill that a party has developed, while preventing the party from using the ballot to reject the claimed association or to identify the genuine candidate of its choice. This does not merely place the ballot off limits for party building; it makes the ballot an instrument by which party building is impeded, permitting unrebutted associations that the party itself does not approve.”
Here it is again — “it makes the ballot an instrument by which party building is impeded.” I see the point; why work with an association when THE STATE gives anybody the license to use the party name – on the ballot itself!
There are many things that I like about Washington’s version of Top-Two as there’s decent ballot access and it’s a majority voting system. I don’t like “prefers party” for the reasons stated above. But if you think that political association is a problem with our democracy, and you’re upfront about it, I can respectfully disagree.
In my opinion, there needs to be more citizen association as a balance to the concentration of power by the entities that currently dominate politics. THE STATE shouldn’t be discouraging political association.