The New York city Independence Party is hoping the mainstream media will mention its showing in the New York city mayoral race last week. It polled 142,817 votes, or 12.98% of the total vote cast for Mayor, according to the incomplete, unofficial returns. See this press release from the party.
In 2009, Mayor Bloomberg was on the ballot twice. Voters could support him on the Republican line, or the Independence line. Minor parties have done very well in past New York City Mayoral races, on a few occasions when their nominee was not running on any other line. For example, in 1969, the Liberal Party nominated John Lindsay, and he won the election even though he was not the nominee of any other qualified party. So the 2009 showing for the Independence Party is not a record showing for a minor party.
But, the Independence Party press releases says its 2009 showing is a record for a minor party whose Mayoral nominee was also running on a major party line. And it is true that it is very tough for a New York minor party to poll a large share of the vote when its nominee is simultaneously running on a major party line. For New York city mayoral elections, the last time a minor party that was running someone who was also running on a major party line did so well was in 1949, when the Liberal Party polled 373,287 votes (14.40%) even though its nominee, Newbold Morris, was simultaneously running as the Republican nominee.
In 1965, John V. Lindsay was elected Mayor of New York City by utilizing both the Liberal and Republican Party lines. Do you happen to know what percentage he obtained with each Party?
Press Release says Independence Party votes were 26% of Bloomberg’s total vote.
That’s amazing.
Way to go Independence Party. Great work.
applause.
Good question, Phil. Lindsay got 11.0% in 1965 on the Liberal Party line.
Richard, how many states allow a minor party to place the nominee of a major party on its ballot? Even though there are few congressmen supporting the Constitution, it may benefit third parties like the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party (if in the remote chance a GOP Congressman upheld the Constitution) to place said candidate on their line to see how many voters support the candidate but prefer the Constitution Party or Libertarian Party instead.
Lou Dobbs should also consider running for congress in NYS next year on the IPNY line in an upstate swing district as an enrolled member as well as on his own independent nominating line (fusion). — I suggest the 20th CD (Murphy’s district)
Dobbs is eligible to enroll as a new voter directly into the IPNY and not be placed in an enrollment lock-box.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/lou-dobbs-to-depart-cnn/
States that permit two parties to jointly nominate the same candidate (for office other than president) are California (but it’s difficult and depends on winning the non-membership party’s nomination by write-ins), Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Massachusetts (which is like California), Mississippi, New Hampshire (which is like California), New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania (but just for certain offices), South Carolina, and Vermont.
Many more states permit fusion for President, but it isn’t possible to give an exact number because it depends on whether it’s two new parties, two old parties, or some combination of either kind of party. But approximately half the states permit presidential fusion, although many such states don’t realize it.
Thank you, Richard. Wow, John Lindsay did really well with the Liberal Party line in 1965! He was such a good man and tried very hard to manage such a large and difficult city. I think that he did very well.
For the record, the PA courts have so far limited cross filing to the two major parties, minor parties apparently are barred from cross filing at all, although it’s unknown how the courts would rule if two minor parties tried to cross file each other’s candidates.
Frankly, though, the NY IP generally strikes me as being a waste of a ballot line. If the only purpose of minor parties is simply to provide an extra ballot line to the political establishment, what’s the point? Give the voters REAL choice at the ballot box, and now you’re doing something I can support.
Which is why it was so strange, in 2008, that the Independence Party of New York did not nominate the Nader-Gonzalez ticket (instead they went with McCain and Palin).