NYC Mayoral Candidate Poll Leaves Out Independent Candidate

Quinnipiac University Polling released a New York City Mayoral Poll on April 10th.

In posing questions about the New York City fall election, they excluded the Independence Party candidate, Adolfo Carrion. Cathy Stewart, the New York City Independence Party Chairman (Manhattan), spoke with Mickey Carroll, the director. He said it was an omission and she went on to discuss the fact that Adolfo is on the Independence Party line in the fall and that it was a three way race. While he did not see this necessarily as a three way race, he did say that Adolfo's name should be included in future polls because he is on the ballot.


I think it is important that this phone conversation be reinforced with a quick grassroots lobbying effort by signing a letter to Quinnipiac urging them to include Adolfo in all future polling.

Part of the letter says:

"The November election is not a two way race, it is a three way contest. It is misleading to ask voters who they would vote for without giving them their full options. Hence, your polling results are misleading and do a disservice to the public regarding their options in the Mayoral race, one of the most important elections in the United States this year.

Perhaps this was an oversight. However, as is often the case, from the vantage point of those who have been overlooked, such oversights express the bias in our electoral system in favor of the major parties and their candidates. We write to ask that future polling be conducted in a nonpartisan manner and include Adolfo Carrion, the independent candidate for Mayor."

The drafted letter has space for ten signatures. If you are a New York City resident and feel that the Independence Party candidate, Adolfo Carrion, should be part of future polls, Here is what we would like you to do:

1. PRINT the letter.

2. Sign and collect other signatures.

3. Send the letters to the address on the bottom of the letter.

The letters will be collected at:

Independence Party of New York City
225 Broadway, Ste, 2010
New York, NY 10007

Then we will send them to the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Thanking You in advance!

I will start collecting signatures on Monday.

CLICK HERE to sign On-Line.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Adolfo Carrion's Kick Off Rally for 2013 NYC Mayoral Race

I attended the Kick Off Rally for the Hon. Adolfo Carrion Jr.'s launch of his Independent campaign for Mayor of New York City tonight, at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.


CLICK HERE to view the rally on NY1.

In his first speech as a candidate he pledged to re-engage New Yorkers discouraged by partisan politics and special interests. Carrion dropped his Democratic Party enrollment in the fall to run with the Independence Party, which endorsed him last week. This sets up a possibility for a three-way general election in November.

The last time a mayoral candidate won office solely on a third party line was in 1969, when John Lindsey won reelection as a member of the Liberal Party.



As the candidate of the New York City Independence Party Organizations, he will be using our phone bank operation and our grassroots street operations to get out the vote, help with his Town Hall meetings, and be there on election day in November.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

NY IP, NYC Local Control, and NY Court of Appeals

The Court of Appeals, New York State's highest court, is composed of a Chief Judge and six Associate Judges, each appointed to a 14-year term. New York's highest appellate court was established to articulate statewide principles of law in the context of deciding particular lawsuits. The Court thus generally focuses on broad issues of law. There is no jurisdictional limitation based upon the amount of money at stake in a case or the status or rank of the parties.

On April 24th 2008, I and other New York City Independence Party Organizations' members rode to Albany to support our council, Harry Kresky, Esq., argue the fight for Local Control in front of The New York Court of Appeals.

The Issue:

The County Committees are the sole vehicle for local control of the affairs of the New York City Independence Party. Since the Independence Party was founded in 1994, the New York City organizations have been the democracy wing (Ground up and Grassroots vs. the state's Top Down) of the party. There has been an intense fight within the Independence Party over the issue of whether local party organizations would control their own nominations or have those nominations dictated to them by the state party. The State Chairman, Frank MacKay, succeeded in abolishing local control everywhere in the state except in New York City.

After many fights in the local courts against the State Independence Party chairman to first remove many of the New York City members of the State Committee, including me, and then to take away the local control to select candidates for the party ballot line, we arrived at the Court Room.


Trying not to be overwhelmed by the court room originally designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1881, and as the court moved to different buildings over the years, stayed intact, we took our seats. The case is about Local Control.

Then the court entered, and Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, began the oral arguments portion of the Local Control case.


The New York Court of Appeals has upheld the right of the five county committee organizations of the Independence Party in New York City to approve citywide candidates from other parties who seek to run on our line.

This sounds like we won. But Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye did a Judgment of Solomon.

She allowed the Mayor, Comptroller, and Public Advocate candidates to be selected locally by the New York City Executive Committee, currently made of of 82 of the over 3,500 members of the five boroughs' County Committee members. This gave the state chairman the ability to select all the rest. The 51 members of the New York City Council, the five New York City Borough Presidents, and the New York City members' state Legislature, 25 in the Senate and 59 in the Assembly, who represent the city.

Where did the concept of LOCAL CONTROL go?

A dissenting opinion (or dissent) is an opinion in a legal case written by one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment. When not necessarily referring to a legal decision, this can also be referred to as a minority report.

So here is my dissent, the New York City Independence Party Organizations have the grassroots ground operation. It is our members, over 100,000, and the over 3,500 of them who elected to be County Committee members, who will do the selecting with our voices and our feet.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

Adolfo Carrion NYC Mayoral Campaign KICKOFF Rally

As he accepted the New York City Independence Party nomination, he focused on low voter turnout in citywide elections in his first major speech of the campaign. He called the 28 percent turnout in the 2009 mayoral election a crisis. “I'm interested in waking up that sleeping giant. We know who they are, and we know they care about the future of the city," Carrion said. "They are unfortunately and clearly making a statement that they are not satisfied when their choices... Well today, Independence Party, you gave New Yorkers a choice."

One of the things that the Independence Party feels very good about in terms of this campaign is that not only is Adolfo Carrion a supporter of their political reforms, his campaign actually is a political reform.

He calls himself a social progressive and fiscal conservative.

His KICKOFF RALLY, will be Tuesday, February 26th at:

The Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx NY.

Doors will open at 5:30pm and Event begins at 6:00pm.

Please RSVP by February 24th at: CARRIONNYC2013@GMAIL.COM or call 646-722-4273.

CLICK HERE for his new website.










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

My Self-Imposed Term Limits

Yesterday, New York had its State and Local Primaries.

After eight years, 4 terms, I did not run for the State Committee.

There are a number of reasons for not partitioning this year. We had redistricting and the State Executive Committee changed the makeup of the committee by using Senate districts instead of Assembly districts as who you would represent. I would have to start over learning the needs of the new voters who I would represent. Then there is the issue of the New York City Organizations split from the State Committee on almost all issues. Finally I turned 68 this year and slowing down and smelling the roses was in order.

So instead of doing the political operations before a primary, Barbara and I went on a long planned vacation to Turkey and visited the European and Asian side of Istanbul up to the Black Sea area.

I am still a member of the Manhattan County Committee, will still be a member of the New York City Executive Committee, and will continue this blog.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us

NYC Independence Party Qualify County Comittees

The New York City Independence Party Organizations just finished the 2012 ballot access drive and it was a smashing success, with 3,258 County Committee members qualified throughout the five boroughs.

People often ask, "Why do you put yourselves through this petition drive every two years? Why endure the heat waves, barking dogs, and six story walkups?"

We do it because independents are the fastest growing segment of voters in New York City (and nationally) and we need a voice. We don't like partisan politics as usual. We want progress and innovation. And having county committees in all five boroughs gives us a seat at the table when it comes to shaping the direction of New York City politics and policy.

So thank you to everyone who signed a petition when we came to your door, who volunteered as a driver, phone caller or petitioner, as well as the 353 people who made donations this spring to fund the drive.

As a petitioner in the 73rd AD, Eastside of Manhattan, I collected enough signatures to put 44 Independence Party members on the Manhattan County Committee.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us