On July 22, both the New York Conservative Party, and the New York Working Families Party, filed lawsuits in New York state courts to save fusion. Specifically, both lawsuits charge that the state legislature exceeded its authority when it empowered an unelected commission to decide whether to abolish fusion or not. The unelected commission was set up to draw up a plan for public funding for candidates for state office. The legislature gave it the power to impose a plan. Included in the commission’s power is whether or not to ban fusion.
Back in 1912, the New York state courts ruled that the State Constitution protects fusion. However, the Constitution has changed considerably since then. UPDATE: here is the Working Families Party Complaint . Hurley v Public Campaign Finance & Election Commission, filed in Niagara County Supreme Court.
So, it appears that the true issue is to restrict public funding of candidates
One more subversion of the RFG in 4-4 by the robot RED communist Donkey gerrymander oligarchs in NYS –
UN-elected hacks having State legislative POWER.
How many more UN-elected *commissions* – to do away with elections, courts, etc ???
How many seconds to Civil WAR II – in NY, MI, FL, TX, NC, VA, etc. ???
PR and AppV and TOTSOP.
No, Walter, the true primary purpose of the commission is to implement public funding. The excuse for giving the commission power over fusion is that supposedly it will be easier to implement public funding without fusion. But that is not convincing. Connecticut has public funding for state office and Connecticut has fusion.
New York has limits on how much a party can spend for its nominees, so fusion helps increase resources available. You might see an ad saying “This message paid for by the New York State Republican Party” and a few minutes late, the same ad saying “This message paid for by the New York State Conservative Party.”
Fusion is how minority parties maintain a chance at defeating the machine. Frankly, no Republican stands a chance in New York without the cross-endorsement of the Conservative party. the power to give or withhold that endorsement creates more distinct, more sharply different parties, instead of all of them being progressive (see Rockefeller, Nelson.) That provides the voters with more of a choice — especially now that the Libertarian Party is also ballot-qualified.