At the November 4, 2014 election, the Conservative Party of New York polled the highest percentages for Congress and state legislature since 1990. In the 2014 election, for U.S. House, 8.46% of the voters who were able to vote “Conservative”, did so. For State Senate, 9.43% of the voters who were able to vote for the party did so. For Assembly, the percentage was 10.05%.
For all three categories of office, these were the highest percentages for the Conservative Party since 1990. The Conservatives did very well in 1990 for all levels of office, because the party had its own nominee (who was not the Republican nominee) for Governor, Herb London, who ran a strong campaign and almost outpolled the Republican nominee. London received 20.40% of the vote.
For Governor in 2014, the Conservative Party polled 6.57%, its best showing for Governor since 1998, when it polled 7.36%. By contrast, in 2010 the Conservative Party had polled 4.99% for Governor, and in 2006 only 3.80%.
In 2014, the party’s best showing for state legislature was in the Assembly race in the 115th district. The Conservative nominee, Karen M. Bisso, was the only opponent of the Republican nominee, and Bisso polled 34.65%. The 115th district includes Clinton and Franklin Counties, in the northeast corner of the state. Here is a news story about the race, from before the election.
Also in 2014, in the 143rd Assembly district in Erie County, the joint Republican-Conservative nominee, Angela Wozniak, is an enrolled Conservative Party member, and she won the election, although only 12.29% of the vote cast in that race was on the Conservative line. Wozniak lives in Cheektowaga and is 27 years old. In 2012, the 143rd Assembly district had elected a Democrat, but he didn’t run for re-election.
The Conservative Party of New York State is a party of principle – this I have to give to them. And I have to admit I was once a supporter of this party until I fully understood what they stood for and what they didn’t stand for.
Back in the early 1960″s when the party was formed, it appeared to more anti-communist than the Republican Party and for his reason I supported it. It even appeared to advocate getting the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S. But then, I noticed that was more rhetoric than anything else.
Because as these anti-communist statements and anti-U.N. appearances faded away, it became obvious to me the Conservative Party of New York State was about promoting a Republican philosophy kin to that of Herbert Hoover and that vein of Republicanism. And when the Conservative Party of New York refused to encourage or participate in the organization of a national Conservative Party, my eyes were opened. In fact, if my memory is correct, I read either a letter from one of their officials or a statement from an article, in which they told people who hold “conservative” principles to work within the GOP in the other 49 states, and use only the Conservative Party of New York State when the nominee of the New York State GOP was not a “conservative.” Then my hopes for a national conservative party begin to fade.
The Conservative Party of New York State is nothing more than a Republican Party of the 1930’s. If they had their way, Social Security, Medicare, Aid To Education, and many of the other social services which help the lives of so many people would be abolished. I knew I wanted no part of this effort, as I know too many people who depend on their modest Social Security checks and Medicare to survive. In fact, I happen to be one myself.
But holding my social views does not make me a “socialist” or a “communist” as some would wrongly claim. I still believe in God and in the American Way of Life. I doubt, if the Conservative Party of New York State could get its kind of President elected, and had a Congress which was veto proof, it would still silently support the United Nations, and would silently support trade with Red China – the one nation I believe will be our major enemy in the next 25 to 50 years.
So, I respect right of the Conservative Party of New York State to hold its views, but I also have to inform them, they will never control the New York State Legislature let alone the United States Congress with their “Herbert Hoover” economic philosophy and their “Dwight Eisenhower” foreign policy philosophy.
If fact, I wonder if their are enough of people left out there who hold the nationalistic views that I hold and would join together in a national party to espouse such. People like me, are few and far between.
About the only ones who share my view are those with whom I worship with each Sunday morning at the little church I attend.
Richard:
Ballotpedia lists Angela Woznia as a Republican rather than a member of the Conservative Party. And it also points out she was co-nominated by the Independence Party in addition to the Conservative Party, but did not give the number of votes she received on the Independence line. Would be interesting to know how many votes she did receive on the Independence line.
Then again, Ballotpedia may only recognize the party which provides a candidate with the most votes, and assumes this is the party the candidate is enrolled in. I like to believe you are correct, that she is an enrolled member of the Conservative Party.