On June 10, the New York State Court of Appeals issued two opinions, both boosting the power of state party organizations to centralize power in those state organizations. One case concerned the Working Families Party; the other concerned the Independence Party. The Working Families decision is 8 pages long and can be seen here
The Independence Party decision is only 3 pages and mostly defers to the Working Families Party decision for an explanation. In the case of the Working Families Party, the case was a fight between the state organization and the Suffolk County organization, over which body should have the power to decide whether to let outsiders run in the party’s primary. The Independence Party lawsuit is similar, and was between the state organization and the New York city branches. The Independence Party decision does concede that the New York city branches do have statutory authority to decide whether to let outsiders run in the party’s primary for the 3 citywide offices (Mayor, Public Advocate and Comptroller). But for all other city offices, such as city council, the state organization may keep the decision-making power in its own hands. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Party hack regimes like those in New York State love having party hack dictatorships.
In the case of the Working Families Party, the New York State Court of Appeals has, by its decision, allowed WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor and puppet party chairs Bob Master and Bertha Lewis to continue to make all decisions for the WFP without taking into account the will of party registrants.
Cantor and Cabal have devised the Working Families Party as a money laundering operation for a select few candidates and special interest groups.
Groups, like Citizen Action, the Communications Workers of America, the United Auto Workers, and ACORN purchase memberships in the Working Families Party’s (WFP’s) shadow organization the Working Families Organization (WFO). Individuals (who need not be and frequently are not registrants of the WFP) wishing to participate in WFO activities and decisions must also purchase WFO membership.
Cantor and the WFO work to prevent WFP registrants from forming county committees and even from becoming county committeepersons. WFP state committeemembers are mere figureheads with absolutely no power.
All decisions regarding the policy and practice of the WFP are made by Cantor, Master, Lewis, and the WFO. Since organizational members of the WFO pay far more dues than individual members, the institutions have far more voice than the individuals.
They hold sham WFP state committee meetings where all business conducted has already been discussed and pre-determined by Cantor, Master, and the WFO.
When Suffolk County formed a constituted county committee, Cantor and Master did all they could to prevent it from exercising its rights. They finally resorted to changed the state bylaws of the WFP to prevent the county committee from choosing its own local candidates and issuing Wilson-Pakula authorizations to them. Today, the New York State Court of Appeals authorized them to continue disenfranchising party registrants while allowing paying non-registrants to determine the course of the party.
I call that corruption.
OK, then the question then becomes, how do these rulings affect the LPNY, if at all?
The LPNY has never been a qualified party, so the rulings have no effect on it for now.
I agree with the above assessment of the Working Families Party, but the solution should be to a) stop giving a small handful of parties a virtual oligopoly on ballot access; and b) expose the WFP publicly for what it is. Parties should be free to organize themselves however they want. The voters can then decide if they want to be represented by an undemocratically organized party.
When the Green Party was a qualified party in New York, the state-law procedure diverted huge amounts of party members’ energy into collecting signatures to get on the ballot for internal party offices. For some bizarre reason, the party decided to maintain a facsimile of these procedures after it lost ballot status.
If the Greens had instead, like the WFP, come up with a scheme to work around state law (albeit a democratic scheme, unlike that used by the WFP), the party would have more resources for organizing, outreach, and campaigns. The hoop-jumping imposed by state law is a hindrance to organizing new parties.
The US Supreme Court said in 1989 in Eu v San Francisco County Democratic Central Committee, that the government has no business telling parties how to be internally organized. 489 US 214.
#6 *democratic* in PUBLIC nominations for PUBLIC offices by PUBLIC electors.
Possibly ANTI-democratic (EVIL monarchy / oligarchy) machinations for clubby private party hack stuff by party hacks.
Such is the INSANE system in the U.S.A.
Remedy — Abolish all primaries, caucuses and conventions for public office nominations.
PUBLIC nominations ONLY by PUBLIC nominating petitions.
Let the party hacks ROT to Hell in their clubby regimes — which have been rotting since 1860 or before.
This is a great decision by the Court of Appeals. Political parties in New York State are defined as statewide organizations. There would be no Working Families Party in Suffolk County without the hard work of activists not only there but also in Buffalo, Albany, New York City, and elsewhere. WFP voters around the state have a say in who carries their banner, and that’s why the State Committee is made up of members from all over the state. There are even Suffolk County members on both the State Committee and State Executive Committee (I believe that Chuck Pohanka, the lead defendant in this case, is on the State Committee).
The WFP was formed as a coalition of labor and community groups; that coalition of labor and community is at the core of the party. Its supporting organizations are displayed on its web page; there’s no secret shadow or puppet organization there. If the handful of political operatives on the Suffolk County Steering Committee didn’t like that structure, there was no reason for them to join the party – except to take over the ballot line locally, and use the power built by members statewide for their own gain. The fact that the majority of state committee members disagree with the tactics and objectives of the rogue faction in Suffolk County doesn’t make the group corrupt. It means that they can see that faction for what it really is.
The Court’s decision protects the integrity of small parties from this kind of intrusion by reaffirming that state parties may require that all of their members – not just a handful of well-resourced political operatives – have representation in endorsement decisions.
Come on, Charles, you and I both know that the State Committee of the New York Working Families Party is a sham. It rarely meets because party bylaws were amended to allow the Executive Committee of the State Committee of the New York Working Families Party to make all decisions. That Executive Committee is controlled by State Committeepeople who are all also employed by organizations that belong to the Working Families Organization. The NY WFP is a pay-to-play operation that has spent considerable money to strip power from its only constituted county committee.
Just for fun, Charles, ask a WF registrant in Buffalo or Albany or Levittown or Potsdam or Syracuse how candidates are chosen to be on the WF line. Then ask if they want a committee in Brooklyn Heights to choose their candidates or if they’d like local input into their County Legislature races. Then ask them if they pay dues to the WF party. And finally ask them to explain the difference between the WFP and the WFO.
Since the LPNY was not a qualified party, why did Bill Weld initially accept its 2006 nomination for governor?
Did Weld expect the party to become qualified, or did he just think the Libertarians’ backing would help him?
Ilsa, are you saying that the Suffolk Executive Committee isn’t empowered to act on behalf of the Suffolk County Committee? That’s not how I read the rules. Does the County Executive Committee send notices of candidate screenings to County Committee members? Does it invite registrants? Has the Suffolk County Committee ever had a meeting other than its post-election organizing meetings? I didn’t think so. Not that I think that that allowing elected representatives to act in that capacity is wrong in itself, but glass houses and all…
What is wrong is that the Suffolk County Executive Committee has taken such undemocratic measures to limit its own accountability. Why do the county rules allow County Executive Committee members to carry unlimited proxy votes, but limit ordinary members to only four, other than to preserve their own power?
Bill Weld probably thought the “Libertarian brand name” would be a good fit for his proposed gubernatorial campaign. Plus the NY Libertarian Party is one of the best state LP’s in the USA for having volunteers who will actually get out there and circulate a petition.
The Suffolk County Committee has done more than anyone at the statewide level ever did. They sparked enough interest that registrants (real registrants, not people told to enroll in the party by their unions or by the exceedingly corrupt ACORN) went to their neighbors and got signatures so they could become county committeepeople. This committee fought long and hard for the right of WFP registrants not paying WFO members to choose the candidates to represent them in local office.
The WFP State Committee changed its rules to curtail the power of county committees and to concentrate decision making in the hands of those paying big dues dollars to the WFO. Go to the New York State Board of Elections website, examine the WFP campaign finance filings and the truth becomes crystal clear.
This decision is laughable. I suspect it was rendered because the Independence Party decision had to be made to allow Frank Mackay to get rid of his Lenora Fulani problems.
Patricia Eddington, the first and only member of the Working Families Party to be elected to the New York State Legislature, is a member of the Working Families Party Suffolk County Committee not the Working Families Organization Suffolk County Chapter. Dan Cantor and the State Committee (controlled by the WFO) refuse to endorse Pat Eddington even though the Democrats love her and enthusiastically cross-endorse her every cycle.
Cantor and the WFO play the same game with Suffolk County Legislator,WFP registrant, and WFP Suffolk County Committee member Jack Eddington who also receives Democratic backing.