Working Families Party

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The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States founded in New York in 1998. The party also has a wing in Connecticut, and is working towards establishing itself in Massachusetts, Oregon and California^[1].

New York's Working Families Party was first organized in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, ACORN and other community organizations, members of the now-inactive national New Party, and a variety of public interest groups. The party blends a culture of political organizing with unionism, 1960s idealism, and realistic tactical pragmatism. The party's main issue concerns are jobs, health care, education and energy/environment, and it has won notable policy gains at the city, county and state level by piggybacking on Democratic or Republican candidates.

In the 1998 election for governor of New York, the party cross-endorsed the Democratic Party candidate, Peter Vallone. Because he received more than 50,000 votes on the WFP line, the party gained an automatic ballot line for the succeeding four years. ^[2] In the 2002 election, the Liberal Party, running Andrew Cuomo (who had withdrawn from the Democratic primary), and the Green Party, running academic Stanley Aronowitz, failed to reach that threshold and lost the ballot lines they had previously won. This left the WFP as the only left-progressive minor party with a ballot line. This situation will continue until at least 2011 following the party's cross-endorsement of Eliot Spitzer in the 2006 election, at which he gained more than 155,000 votes on the Working Families Party line, more than three times the required 50,000.

As of 2006, the executive director of the WFP is Dan Cantor. The party's Co-Chairs are Sam Williams, UAW Region 9 CAP director; Bertha Lewis, ACORN's executive director; and Bob Master of the Communications Workers of America. The WFP also has a powerful alliance with Dennis Rivera and Local 1199/SEIU (Service Employees International Union). The intensely activist union is known to contribute more than $100,000 a year of the party's $1.4 million annual budget.

1 Electoral strategy
- 1.1 2006 candidates
2 Platform
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Electoral strategy

Like other minor parties in the state, the WFP benefits from New York's electoral fusion laws that allow cross-endorsement of a single candidate by multiple parties. This allows sympathetic voters to support a minor party without feeling like they are "wasting" their vote. Usually, the WFP endorses the Democratic Party candidate, but it has occasionally endorsed Republican Party candidates in Westchester, Nassau, and Erie counties, often as a strategy for spurring bi-partisan action on its policy priorities. The party's sometime-position at the balance of electoral power and the threat of Republican endorsement has allowed it to influence the politics of local Democratic candidates and the state Democratic party. The support of the WFP can even be important in Democratic primaries.

In unusual cases, the WFP has put forward its own candidates. In the chaotic situation following the assassination of New York City councilman James E. Davis by political rival Othniel Askew, the slain councilman's brother Geoffrey Davis was chosen to succeed him in the Democratic primary. As it became clear that Geoffrey Davis lacked his late brother's political experience, fellow Democrat Letitia James decided to challenge him in the general election on the WFP ticket and won Brooklyn's 35th City Council district as the first third-party candidate elected there in 30 years. In 2003, the WFP had candidates in over 500 races throughout New York State, the majority of them cross-endorsed. As of November 1, 2005, the Working Families Party had 30,391 enrolled members [1], who are eligible to vote in party primaries, 0.26% of registered voters statewide.

In 2006, the party began ballot access drives in California ^[3], Delaware, Massachusetts ^[4], Oregon, and South Carolina. ^[5]. South Carolina is one of the few states, aside from New York to permit fusion and the Labor Party has also conducted a recent ballot access drive there.

[edit] 2006 candidates

In South Carolina, WFP cross-endorsed Democratic party congressional nominees Randy Maatta, (District 1) and Lee Ballenger, (District 3). ^[6] In the SC State House elections, the WFP has cross-endorsed Democratic Party candidates Anton Gunn (Kershaw, Richland), Eugene Platt (Charleston). ^[7] In New York, the WFP has cross-endorsed the statewide Democratic Party slate.

In Massachusetts, Rand Wilson won enough votes in the General Election for State Auditor to guarantee the Working Families Party ballot access in the following election. Wilson garnered 19% of the vote in the head to head race against democratic incumbent Joe DeNucci allowing ballot access in 2008. However the ballot initiative, "question 2", that would allow candidates to be nominated by more than one party failed. The WFP in Massachusetts dubbed the question 2 campaign, "Spinach for Democracy."

[edit] Platform

The WFP was launched with the agenda of well-paying jobs, affordable housing, accessible health care, better public schools and more investment in public services.

On December 6, 2004, the WFP saw the enactment of one of its highest legislative priorities, an increase in the New York State minimum wage, which it had supported since its inception. On that day, both the State Assembly and the State Senate joined to override Governor George E. Pataki’s veto of an original bill passed in July, 2004. On January 1, 2005, the state's minimum wage raised to $6.00 an hour from $5.15, before two additional annual steps that will reach $7.15 an hour. Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation points out that "For a full-time worker, that's an increase from $10,700 per year to $14,900." According to the Drum Major Institute, it is estimated that 500,000 New Yorkers directly benefited from the wage increase.

Another major platform of the WFP is to defeat the "Rockefeller drug laws" in New York State, remnant from when Nelson Rockefeller was Governor. On election day, November 2, 2004, the WFP contributed largely to the victory of David Soares to Albany County District Attorney. Soares' platform was based on reforming drug policy, while generally taking a less punitive approach to criminal justice. On December 8, 2004, the most significant reform package of the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 30 years was passed by the State legislature and later was signed by Governor Pataki. While failing to advocate for more judicial discretion, drug treatment over incarceration, and retroactive sentencing reform (meaning the ability to apply these changes to those who have already been sentenced), the reforms are applauded by most as a long overdue, good first step. The reforms do effectively reduce minimum sentences for drug charges, and allow for those convicted of such charges to enter medical treatment centers more easily.