Since 1947, New York state has restricted the ability of outsider candidates to run in party primaries. Outsiders can run in a party primary, but only if party leaders approve letting any particular non-member candidate run in that party’s primary. This restriction is called the Wilson-Pakula law.

Virtually all public offices in New York are partisan, so there are thousands of local partisan elections in very small-population jurisdictions. Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed to the legislature that the Wilson-Pakula law be repealed. But leaders of the Conservative Party and the Working Families Party are afraid that if the restriction is repealed, they will be raided, especially in small jurisdictions where those parties may have very small numbers of registrants. The Green Party of New York, which is also ballot-qualified, probably shares their sentiments, because its enrollment is smaller than the enrollment of the Conservative Party and the Working Families Party. Parties feel that activists of the Democratic and Republican Party will enroll in those parties, in certain areas, just to control the nomination process of those parties.

One solution would be to let small qualified parties nominate by convention instead of by primary. States that let any ballot-qualified party choose whether to nominate by convention or primary are Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia. States that provide that small ballot-qualified parties nominate by convention in all cases, or virtually all cases, are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Fairfax, California, a small city in Marin County, is believed to be the only city in the United States in which a majority of members of the city’s governing body are members of the Green Party. Fairfax, like all cities in California, uses non-partisan elections. Fairfax has a city council of five members. Recently one of the Greens resigned from the city council, so the remaining Greens, still in the majority, replaced him with a new member who is also a registered Green. See this story on the California Green Party’s web page. Thanks to Michael for the link.

On April 16, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo asked the state legislature to repeal the Wilson-Pakula law, which gives county political party leaders the power to decide whether to let non-member candidates run in party primaries. If that law were repealed, any candidate could run in any party’s primary ballot, or in the primary of several parties, no matter what the county chair of the party thinks.

Governor Cuomo also asked the legislature to ease the rigid time limits on voters who switch parties. He recommends that any voter be allowed to switch parties, and vote in the primary of the new party, if the change is done no later than three months before a primary. Even that change would leave New York with one of the most restrictive laws on that subject. See this story. Thanks to Joseph McNiesh for this news.