On November 25, the New York Public Finance Commission released its recommendation for changing the ballot access laws. It wants the vote test to be 2% of the gubernatorial vote, or 130,000 votes, whichever is greater. Also it wants the vote test to be met every two years, not every four years. Also it wants to increase the statewide independent petition (which would also be used by the nominees of unqualified parties) from 15,000 signatures, to 45,000. The vote was 6-3.
The rationale for the change is utterly bogus. The Commission says if New York is going to have public funding for candidates for state office, to save money it needs to reduce the number of candidates. But New York is in the Second Circuit, and the Second Circuit already ruled in a Connecticut case that states are free to have disciminatory public funding. The Connecticut law, which was found constitutional, makes it very easy for nominees of parties that polled 20% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election to get public funding. They just need to raise a fairly small amount of private contributions. But other candidates not only need the small private donations, they also must submit huge petitions to get the public funding.
Public financing has become the excuse to reduce people’s choices. We cannot have too many candidates because it would cost the taxpayers too much. Never mind that the original purpose of public financing was to encourage less well off candidates to run in the first place.
Divide and conquer [IE CRUSH/DESTROY] what little remains of the rightwing in NY State.
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ANY of the parties to be wiped OUT have ANY lawyers who can detect ??? –
INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES ARE NOMINATED AND ELECTED.
EQUAL IN 14-1 AMDT
I guess Jim Riley’s Top One won’t be far behind!
I believe the budget for the New York Public Finance Commission should be slashed to 1% of what it is now. We must save money by cutting back on commissions, especially worthless ones like the NYPFC. We should also increase the percentage of votes needed in the legislature to create a commission. A super-majority of 80% of legislators should be required.
@CL,
Under Alaska’s Top 4 proposal, statewide candidates will require a filing fee of $100, and legislative candidates a filing fee of $30. The fee may be waived for the indigent.
Candidates can indicate their affiliation with a political party or political group.
Political groups in Alaska are Libertarian, Green, Veterans, Constitution, Moderate, UCES’ Clowns, Patriot, Progressive, OWL, and Alliance.
What – NOOOO Alaska for Eskimos Only — keep out all polluters ???
In 2016, WF candidate Hillary Clinton received 140,043 votes, which is more than 130,000. But less than 2% (154,430).
In 2018, WF candidate Andrew Cuomo received 114,478 votes, which is less than 130,000, but close to 2% (121,948).
The commission would be more transparent if the limit was Working Families vote plus 10%.
It will be interesting if the commission proposes to make the limits retroactive wiping out Working Families, Independence, Green, Libertarian, and SAM.
https://www.wshu.org/post/new-york-s-public-finance-commission-plan-condemned-states-minor-political-parties#stream/0
one story
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2019/11/26/political-donations-new-york-public-finance-commission-votes-for-publicly-financed-campaigns
Story 2