Besides the fight for the control of the Women's Equality Party (WEP), three different groups filed paperwork to become the Executive Board members, some 300 to 400 candidates statewide want the line.
Former Sen. Cecilia Tkaczyk submitted an alternative set of foundational party rules to the board last week. Another set was put forward by two Republican Niagara County clerks whose recent lawsuit was tossed by a judge, petitions did not meet number of signature requirements, who concluded they lacked standing to contest Cuomo’s control of the party. The other lawsuit claimed Cuomo’s rules were insufficient, lacked a majority signatures, because they arrived with the signatures of only two of the four candidates (Cuomo and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul) who ran on the WEP line.
The dispute has proven to be embarrassing for Cuomo, a condition that the Republican members of the Election Board didn’t appear to be in any kind of foot-stomping hurry to relieve. That motion failed 2-2, although the GOP members, who asked to be listed as abstaining on the matter, promised to reconsider it soon.
The issue needs to be resolved soon, the candidates will need a party signed Wilson-Pakula to run on the WEB line if they are not members of the party.
The Stop Common Core Party, as the name suggests, was an attempt by the Republican Governor candidate Rob Astorino to capitalize on the groundswell of opposition to those learning standards and high-stakes testing. Recently the party changed their name to the Reform Party, a reflection of the party’s desire to move away from a narrowly focused issue and become the party for those wanting reform of Medicaid, term limits and the like.
"After months of thoughtful consideration and diligence, the Reform Party is proud to nominate roughly 1,800 candidates for local offices across New York State," the party Chair Marie Smith said in a statement. "As we head towards the November elections, we look forward to the Reform Party playing a role in electing high quality candidates across the state to push for the end of Common Core and instituting term limits in New York."
This isn’t to say that thousands of local candidates are appearing only on the third party lines. New York’s fusion voting system allows candidates to hold multiple lines. So it’s often the case that Democratic and Republican candidates will hold down extra lines in an attempt to attract voters who either are registered with a third party, may be turned off by the major party labels, or are independents who are issue oriented.
Thus you have the creation of new, issue-specific parties on an annual basis. In the lead up to last year’s elections, 36 different minor parties, not including the Independence, Green, Working Families and Libertarian parties, have appeared on the ballot in the last five state election cycles.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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