According to New York State campaign spending reports, last year Governor David A. Paterson donated $25,000 to the New York State Working Families Party.
Posted to IPR by Paulie.
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June 13, 2026
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According to New York State campaign spending reports, last year Governor David A. Paterson donated $25,000 to the New York State Working Families Party.
Posted to IPR by Paulie.
Comments are closed.
They have, though. For example, the NYLP has been approached by William Weld and Alan Keyes, among others.
Of course not, nor does it follow that the Republican politicians would WANT the ballot-lines of parties like the Libertarians or Constitutionalists.
When you say compare the success of moderate alternative parties that engage in fusion with that of ideologically based alternative parties, it does not follow that ideologically based parties would have the same success by practicing fusion.
“None of these present a substantially different political philosophy than the major parties, as far as I know.”
that isnt their goal, obviously. Nor does it have to be to rate a parties “success”
Those three parties are not massive successes. The Conservative Party mainly runs candidates in palces where the Republicans have no chance of winning now. It is good that New York’s major parties are taking over the minor parties. Hopefully this will teach them to lobby for election changes instead, such as runoff voting and possibly even the Fringe Alliance Strategy.
Another odd development is sometimes candidates in the Democratic Party or Republican primary end up on the ballot of the three minor parties. It hasn’t caused any elections to change yet, but it’s dangerous.
It could also provide a launching platform for third party candidacies independent of the major parties, and it could bring more people into the minor parties. That’s just speculation, though.
None of these present a substantially different political philosophy than the major parties, as far as I know.
This would generate bad press, like when Bloomberg tried to buy off the Independence Parties in New York City.
And it seems to me that the risks are worth it. Look at the massive successes of the Conservative Party, Independence Party, and Working Families Parties are related to normal state parties.
Yes, they can, and sometimes do – but getting an additional ballot line for a candidate they are already supporting can motivate more of their ground troops to take action than some power play of this sort.
The incentive exists now. Any politician can invade other parties in order to manipulate those parties.
For example, Republicans can take over the Green Party in order to run candidates and “steal votes” from Democrats.
Good point, I hadn’t thought of that.
It might give the third parties a bit of power within the major parties
But more likely, the other way around.
Any of them can be taken over quite easily, with fusion or without.
Fusion provides much more of an incentive to do so.
I think it’s worth trying for a real third party (not a WFP type third party) to do fusion with a limited number of candidates that they really like (eg, the LP could do it with Ron Paul or something like that). It might give the third parties a bit of power within the major parties and it might give them a bit more credibility by having candidates endorsed by them actually win.
Any of them can be taken over quite easily, with fusion or without.
I realize that, but it can still lead to being taken over quite easily.
Any of the bigger parties that want to have an additional ballot line for their candidate for Governor, President or whatever could then pack the conventions of the smaller parties, or even infiltrate them from the ground up if need be.
Green Ferret (I own two ferrets, though they’re white,lol) and Paulie,
I specifically said I thought third parties should not follow the Con/Ind/WF Parties models and endorse ONLY Republicrats.
I simply think that this is a tool that should be put in third parties’ arsenals.
I’m more with Green Ferret on this. Fusion can definitely be a double edged sword for alternative parties. Being taken over by the larger parties becomes a much more serious concerns when this happens.
Why push for fusion? Not every third party wants to be a handmaiden for Republicrats. In fact, I think most people who join third parties are trying to avoid machine politics altogether. Democrats fund the WFP because it’s an easy way for them to buy left-leaning votes.
Then again, you look at the other states where fusion is legal and they arent really all that great. South Carolina and Conneticut dont have any powerful third-parties–just one very powerful Senator (Lieberman, elected as an Independent)
Agreed, Trent.
Which is not to say that I think third parties should follow the Conservative Party/Independence Party/Working Families Party model–they shouldnt ALWAYS and ONLY support major party candidates.
Though to be fair, the Independence Party has run its own gubernatorial candidates 3-4 times, and has endorsed non-major party candidates for Presidnet every year but 2008. And the Conservative Party has elected a Senator in the past, James Buckley.
I thinhk this is REALLY interesting. I think it shows that Fusion is probably one of the things third-parties really ought to be pushing for.