Thanks to IndependentPoliticalReport for this link to New York city election returns that include all candidates who were on the ballot. The link is from New York city’s Channel One TV station.
The Working Families Party ran its own nominees for City Council in some districts, and in both the 34th district and the 36 district, far exceeded the Republican total. In the 34th district the vote was: Democratic 59.87%, Working Families 34.56%, Republican 5.58%. In the 36th district, it was: Democratic 63.70%, Working Families 32.34%, Republican 3.96%.
In the 49th district, the results were: Democratic 57.25%, Conservative 26.26%, Republican 16.49%.
In the Mayor’s race, as IndependentPoliticalReport posted last night, the vote was: Michael Bloomberg 50.61% (which included 37.64% on the Republican line and 12.98% on the Independence Party line), William Thompson 46.04% (which included 43.57% on the Democratic line and 2.47% on the Working Families line), Stephen Christopher (Conservative) 1.66%, Billy Talen (Green) .81%, Francisca Villar (Party for Socialism and Liberation) .32%, Jimmy McMillan (Rent is Too Damn High) .24%, Joseph Dobrian (Libertarian) .18%, Dan Fein (Socialist Workers Party) .14%. It will be interesting to see how many of Bloomberg’s votes were cast on the Independence Party line; and it also be interesting to see how many of Thompson’s votes were cast on the Working Families line. Those figures aren’t available yet because the news organizations don’t collect them.
In 2005, the percentages had been: Michael Bloomberg (Republican, Independence) 58.40%, Fernando Ferrer (Democratic) 39.02%, Thomas Ognibene (Conservative) 1.13%, Anthony Gronowicz (Green) .64%, Jimmy McMillan (Rent is Too Damn High) .32%, Audrey Silk (Libertarian) .22%, Martin Koppel (Socialist Workers Party) .17%, Seth Blum (Education) .09%.
Its also worth noting that in District 22 the Green Candidate Lynne Serpe did well running against Peter Vallone, Jr. – a paragon of Democratic Party machine nepotism.
City Council District 22
Peter Vallone (Dem) 10565 74.52%
Lynne Serpe (Grn) 3323 23.44%
Gerald F. Kann (Pop) 290 2.05%
Interestingly, my old friend Jerry Kann ran as what looks like the “Populist” candidate by petition. This was Nader’s 2008 ballot line in NY. I believe Jerry worked on that campaign, in distinction to the McKinney/GPNY campaign, which was also on the ballot.
If the name of the game is to get some votes, sure the Green candidate did “well.” But, bottom line: third party candidates CANNOT win. Period.
NYC government is very undemocratically structured. City Council districts, which are the most local elected position, contain 200,000+ people and so are nearly the size of congressional districts.
Local Community Boards are appointed by the City Council person and the Mayor. That’s ridiculous. These Boards should be elected and function like Councils do in England. It would be a route to popular political participation within the Democratic Party and the GOP, as well as making politics approachable for points of view currently outside the machine.
With 22% percent of the vote in Astoria, Greens could get maybe 5 people on a 20 person local council. That would shake up the staid, second-generation Democratic politics personified by P.Vallone Jr.
Results from around the state, where electoral districts are smaller, show that it is possible to win as a third party candidate:
Local third party candidates won in Oswego:
City of Oswego Alderman Ward 7
(D): Lee Walker Jr. 150 19%
New Ideas: P. Kevin Gillman 313 39%
Back Home: Ronald Kaplewicz 337 42%
Also Howie Hawkins made a respectable run in a Syracuse City Council race.
City of Syracuse Council District 4
(D): Thomas Seals 1424 59%
(G): Howie Hawkins 974 41%
Source: http://www.9wsyr.com/content/vote/default.aspx
ThirdPartywatch? I just went to their site and I see nothing but months old articles.
Thank you, Trent. My brain has a kink which transforms “Independent Political Report” into “Third Party Watch”. I am thinking of having brain surgery to fix that.
Unoffical Results top two
DEM 479,521 Thompson
REP 414,242 Bloomberg
IP 142,817 Bloomberg
WP 27,196 Thompson
The Independence Party is so incredibly powerful…hard to believe.
Well, Lenora Fulani and her people have had a lot of experience and they really know what they are doing when it comes to ballot access and that sort of thing. They have made the major difference in making the Independence Party of New York what it is today.
Furthermore, I think that the national Reform Party, had it not split into so many pieces, could have grown into a “major party.” Parties are made up of people, to state the obvious. It is not possible for a new Party (or any party) to convince large numbers of people to join up when it is in the process of falling apart.
It is time for a new, national, Progressive Party. The Party should run candidates in local, state, and federal offices (but not for president and vice president – until 2016).
The numbers for Bloomberg are a combination of the Independence Party line and the Jobs and Education Party line. The two lines were merged on the ballot. Only the Republican votes are separate.
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