The Working Families Party (WFP) is a left-wing-progressive minor political party in the US state of New York. It was first organized in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, ACORN and other community organizations , members of the now-inactive national New Party, and a variety of public interest groups. The party blends a culture of political organizing with unionism, 1960s idealism, and realistic tactical pragmatism. The party has advocated issues ranging from middle-class, good-government reforms like a clean judiciary, to economic justice issues like raising the minimum wage.

In the 2002 election for governor of New York, the party cross-endorsed the Democratic Party candidate, Carl McCall. Because he received more than 50,000 votes on the WFP line, the party gained an automatic ballot line for the succeeding four years. In the same election, the Liberal Party and the Green Party, each running its own candidate, failed to reach that threshold and lost the ballot lines they had previously won. This left the WFP as the only left-progressive minor party with a ballot line. One slogan of the Working Families Party is "The minor party with major possibilities."

As of 2005, the executive director of the WFP is Dan Cantor . Mr. Cantor and Bob Master , the party's co-chairman and director of the Communication Workers' Union, are old friends. At 12 years old they were studying for their Bar Mitzvahs at the same Reform synagogue on Long Island. The WFP also has a powerful alliance with Dennis Rivera and Local 1199/SEIU (Service Employees International Union). The intensely activist union is known to contribute more than $100,000 a year of the party's $1.4 million annual budget.

Contents

1 Electoral strategy 2 Platform 3 Sources 4 External link

Electoral strategy

Like other minor parties in the state, the WFP benefits from New York's liberal electoral fusion laws that allow cross-endorsement of a single candidate by multiple parties. This allows sympathetic voters to support a minor party without 'wasting' a vote. Usually, the WFP endorses the Democratic Party candidate, but it has occasionally endorsed Republican Party candidates in Westchester, Nassau, and Erie counties. The party's sometime-position at the balance of electoral power and the threat of Republican endorsement has allowed it to influence the politics of local Democratic candidates and the state Democratic party. The support of the WFP can even be important in Democratic primaries.

In unusual cases, the WFP has put forward its own candidates. In the chaotic situation following the assassination of New York City councilman James E. Davis by political rival Othniel Askew, the slain coucilman's brother Geoffrey Davis was chosen to succeed him in the Democratic primary. As it became clear that Geoffrey Davis lacked his late brother's political experience, fellow Democrat Letitia James decided to challenge him in the general election on the WFP ticket and won Brooklyn's 35th City Council district as the first third-party candidate elected there in 30 years. In 2003, the WFP had candidates in over 500 races throughout New York State, the majority of them cross-endorsed.

Platform

The WFP was launched with the agenda of well-paying jobs, affordable housing, accessible health care, better public schools and more investment in public services.

On December 6, 2004, the WFP saw the enactment of one of its highest legislative priorities, an increase in the New York State minimum wage, which it had supported since its inception. On that day, both the State Assembly and the State Senate joined to override Governor George E. Pataki’s veto of an original bill passed in July, 2004. On January 1, 2005, the state's minimum wage raised to $6.00 an hour from $5.15, before two additional annual steps that will reach $7.15 an hour. To a full-time worker, that's an increase from $10,700 a year to $14,900 a year. It is estimated that slightly over 1 million workers in the state will benefit from this pay raise.

Another major platform of the WFP is to defeat the "Rockefeller drug laws" in New York State, remnant from when Nelson Rockefeller was Governor. On election day, November 2, 2004, the WFP contributed largely to the victory of David Soares to Albany County District Attorney. Soares' platform was based on reforming the draconian drug policy, while generally taking a less punitive approach to criminal justice. On December 8, 2004, the most significant reform package of the Rockefeller Drug Laws in 30 years was passed by the State legislature and later was signed by Governor Pataki. While failing to advocate for more judicial discretion, drug treatment over incarceration, and retroactive sentencing reform (meaning the ability to apply these changes to those who have already been sentenced), the long overdue reforms are applauded by most as a good first step. The reforms do effectively reduce minimum sentences for drug charges, and allow for those convicted of such charges to enter medical treatment centers more easily. The WFP looks forward to continuing to make progress on this issue in the future.

Sources

• Newfield, J., "Working Families Party Takes Place at the Table", The New York Sun, 11 Nov, 2003.

External link

• WFP website