Governor Cuomo Goes After the Working Families Party

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/governor-cuomo-goes-after-working-families-party

The last few weeks have seen an amazing move by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. In response to a prominent set of arrests of high-ranking Democrats and Republicans, the Governor has proposed a series of proposals to strengthen the power of District Attorneys to investigate corruption. Okay, that seems like a reasonable enough response.

But the Governor has also proposed another response to the corruption scandal. He has proposed banning the Working Families Party. I know, he can’t ban a political party. But he has proposed to eliminate “fusion” voting. He calls it “cross-endorsement,” but fusion is the historical term. More on fusion below, but let’s stay in the news cycle for another moment.

The Governor’s stated reason for banning fusion is silly. But his real, unstated reason is not. Let’s take them in turn.

Three weeks ago, State Senator Malcolm Smith was arrested for allegedly trying to bribe his way into the Republican Primary for Mayor, despite being a registered Democrat. The Governor seized on this and said to the New York Post, “In an ideal world, there would be no cross-endorsements.” In other words, because Smith attempted to bribe his way to a “cross-endorsement,” we ought to ban cross-endorsements. By this logic, as one Working Families Party leader said on television recently, if Malcolm Smith had tried to bribe someone to get his kid a job, would we then pass a law to ban jobs?

[brooklynite]

1. This article could have argued he was "banning the Conservative Party" as well.

Nothing sacred about fusion voting.


Add to that, WFP came about only because of the corruption of Raymond Harding's "Liberal Party", which helped to elect Rudy Giuliani.

[xchrom]

2. i'm looking for NYers to fill in the blanks. nt

[Laelth]

3. k&r for fusion voting. n/t

-Laelth