All three of New York’s ballot-qualified minor parties cross-endorsed a major party presidential candidate this year. Here are the percentages of the vote received by each of those parties, for the office at the top of the ticket (President in presidential years, and Governor in mid-term years) for the last six elections:
Conservative Party: 1998 7.36%; 2000 2.12%; 2002 3.86%; 2004 2.10%; 2006 3.80%; 2008 2.24%.
Independence Party: 1998 7.69%; 2000 .36%; 2002 14.28%; 2004 1.14%; 2006 4.30%; 2008 2.15%.
Working Families Party: 1998 1.08%; 2000 1.30%; 2002 1.98%; 2004 1.81%; 2006 3.50%; 2008 2.09%.
During these years, the Conservative Party has always cross-endorsed the Republican nominee for the office at the top of the ballot, and the Working Families Party has always cross-endorsed the Democratic nominee for the top office. Therefore, their percentages are fairly stable. Both of them did slightly better in 2008 than they had done in 2004.
The Independence Party always nominated someone for the topmost office who was not a major party nominee, during the period up until 2006. But in 2006 it cross-endorsed the Democratic nominee, and in 2008 the Republican nominee.
What happened in 2002 that the Independence Party got so high of a percentage?
It ran Thomas Golisano for Governor in 1994, 1998, and 2002. He is very wealthy and spent his own money on his own campaign, especially in 2002.
More evidence for third parties to bang the drum loudly in non-presidential election years.
Richard:
Where’s the NY Liberal Party at? I read somewhere they always endorsed the Democrats.
Is the NY Right To Life Party still going, and will they run someone for governor in 2010?
The New York Liberal and Right to Life parties no longer have automatic ballot lines in the state. To have an automatic ballot line requires getting 50,000 votes for governor.
In 2002, the Liberal candidate, Andrew Cuomo, abandoned his campaign after failing to get the Democratic nomination, and the Liberals fell to 15,761 votes. Also in 2002, the Right to Life candidate fell below 45,000 votes — not an enormous drop compared to 1998, but big enough to lose the ballot line.
The Liberal Party did not run a candidate for governor in 2006. Wikipedia says the Right to Life Party did run a candidate in 2006, but apparently just a write-in candidate; they didn’t appear on the ballot.
Neither party’s current status or activity is clear to me now. The Liberal Party does have a web site, though.