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Minor Party Madness
by Elizabeth Benjamin
Albany Times Union |
I just called the state Board of Elections to get the skinny on which gubernatorial candidate won how much on the minor party lines.
This, as you all know, is the make-or-break number when it comes to official status and - more importantly - a ballot line, which is New York is like gold since we’re one of the few states that allows cross-endorsements and combination final tallies.
Here’s what I was told:
Independence Party/Eliot Spitzer: 146,456 (4 percent)
Conservative Party/John Faso: 128,007 (3 percent)
Working Families Party/Eliot Spitzer: 126,797 (3 percent)
Green Party/Malachy McCourt: 40,346 (1 percent)
Libertarian Party/John Clifton: 14,799 (0 percent)
Rent Is Too Damn High Party/Jimmy McMillan: 13,712 (0 percent)
Socialist Workers Party/Maura DeLuca: 762 (0 percent)
Based on these numbers, it appears the current ballot line-up, with the Independence Party on Row C, Conservatives on Row D and the WFP on Row E, remains the same, and WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor may owe state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long a round of golf.
The paper balllots haven’t been opened yet, though.
In the meantime, the Green Party is threatening a lawsuit in hopes of getting its party status back. The reasoning is that three of its candidates - Howie Hawkins for U.S. Senate, Rachel Treichler for AG and Julia Willebrand for state comptroller - all won more than 50,000 votes, and thus, in the party’s eyes, demonstrated adequate support to be ballot line-worthy. |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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