Remember when Mayor Bloomberg made fixing the MTA one of his first big reelection promises?
Now that the MTA is literally more broken than ever, the Working Families Party is launching a grassroots campaign to hold the Mayor accountable to campaign pledge.
Here's action alert we sent to WFP supporters this morning:
Love New York? New York urgently needs your help.
Our city's transit system is in crisis. The cost of a monthly MetroCard could rise to over $100 next year. Service is being cut on dozens of bus and subway lines. Crucial upgrades are being neglected.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran for re-election last year on a promise to fix the MTA -- but since this crisis started, he's been missing in action.
We have to make sure the Mayor and other politicians get that slowly killing the MTA isn't an option. So today, we're launching an all-out grassroots campaign -- an emergency push to save the MTA, working with NYC students, our friends at NYPIRG's Straphangers campaign, and other groups who know how much our city needs transit.
Our goal is to get 50,000 signatures, comments and calls to Mayor Bloomberg by March 24, when the MTA is next expected to take action on service cuts and fare hikes.
If you've spoken out before, speak out again. If you haven't, now's the time to jump in. Tell Mike Bloomberg to Save the MTA right now by clicking here:
It appears that deal has been reached to ask a bit more of those New Yorkers who can most afford it instead of balancing the state's budget on the backs of the poor and middle class. Liz has the scoop.
There is a tentative three-way deal on hiking the personal income tax on wealthy New Yorkers, multiple Democratic sources confirm.
The agreement - assuming it holds - sets up the following three tiers:
- $300,000 to $500,000: 7.97 percent.
- $500,000 to $1 million: 8.47 percent.
- $1 million and above: 8.97 percent.
This increase will sunset in five years.
The current top rate is 6.85 percent for those who make $40,000 and above.
I'd add the Working Families Party to the winners column along with the Assembly Democrats and I agree with Liz that the losers column includes The Governor, The Mayor and the Senate Majority Leader.
Good news from Albany. Hopefully this "tentative" deal will hold.
Unshackle Upstate's Brian Sampson is making the news circuit these last few weeks with the message that Fair Share Tax Reform would cause small businesses to fire workers (the Fair Share Tax Reform is making progress in Albany with bills that would create new NYS marginal tax brackets starting at $250,000). He says that 75% of small business owners pay taxes through personal income tax.
Ok, sounds like a reasonable concern, right?
Meanwhile, back in the reality-based community According to James Parrott, of the Fiscal Policy Institute, "only 1.4% of tax units with small business income were in the top two federal tax brackets, i.e., over $250K." The VAST majority of small business owners don't make that kind of money and therefore would never be subject to the Fair Share tax.
And let's think about Unshackle Upstate's logic for a minute. Imagine you are one of the rare group of small business owners netting over $250,000. The new Fair Share Tax Reform tax bracket costs you about $70 a week extra. Are you going to fire a worker to recoup that seventy bucks?
The good news is that Sampson's disingenuous media forays are the last gasps of a sinking trickle down theory. Wanna see a New Yorker laugh in your face? Tell them that tax breaks for the rich create jobs.
In many ways our current budget crisis, a crisis that seems to deepen by the hour, was always going to necessitate at least a modest increase in the income tax rate at the very top. There just isn't any way to close the gap without asking the New Yorkers who can most afford to pay, the same ones who have benefited most over the last decade or so while seeing their real tax liabilities decline, to endure a slight increase in their state income tax burden. Now, it looks as if that reality is finally taking root in Albany.
Democratic leaders in the State Senate will seek income tax increases on at least some affluent New Yorkers and a sales tax increase of a quarter of 1 percent to help balance the state budget, a Senate official with knowledge of the plans said in an interview over the weekend.
"The hole is too deep to dig ourselves out by cuts alone," said the Senate official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the details of the proposal were still being hammered out. "The debate now is over where to start."
The move by Senate Democrats, who have a slim majority, will significantly increase pressure on Gov. David A. Paterson, who has said he would consider raising income taxes only as a last resort and only after the Legislature had agreed to steep cuts in state spending.
...
The Senate official said discussion within the leadership had moved in recent days from whether such a tax was needed to what contours it would take.
Among the questions were the income level at which it would kick in, the amount of the tax and whether it would include a sunset provision.
...
"It's better to tax the rich than crucify the poor," said Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party, a union-backed group that has lobbied aggressively for higher taxes on the wealthy to help close the state's $14 billion budget gap.
"The Senate is signaling that it needs to balance the budget in a balanced way, meaning smart cuts and fair taxes," Mr. Cantor said.
And while this move was in many ways always inevitable, the Working Families Party has helped greatly to bring it about by creating the space necessary to allow lawmakers to pull the trigger. As Crain's points out, their "outside game", as I like to call it, was key and it should be considered another rather large notch in their belt. It indeed was "textbook".
New York's chattering classes are no longer debating whether state income taxes will be jacked up on high earners. Now the only question is by how much. And the credit-or blame-for successfully framing the debate goes largely to a minor political party that's starting to have a major impact on state government.
The left-leaning Working Families Party has orchestrated a tax-reform campaign straight from the textbook of retail politics. Last week, it staged eight simultaneous rallies that drew nearly 100,000 people statewide, including 50,000 at City Hall. It has knocked on 42,000 doors, generating 7,000 handwritten letters to lawmakers. Radio advertisements saturate the airwaves in Albany. Its YouTube video "highlighting how easy the state's tax system is on millionaires," as a party spokesman put it, is being watched a thousand times a day.
"It certainly has made a difference," says Assemblyman Jonathan Bing, D-Manhattan, pointing to identical bills in the Assembly and Senate that would raise rates on people with adjusted gross incomes above $250,000.
It is not just the advocacy campaign, Mr. Bing says, but the Working Families Party's ability to oust incumbents that grabs legislators' attention. Indeed, the party campaigned relentlessly for months before last November's elections to evict state Senate veterans Serf Maltese and Caesar Trunzo, resulting in the Democratic takeover of the chamber. That, in turn, has made the tax increase achievable.
...
"We haven't won anything yet, but I feel like we're winning the debate," says Mr. Cantor, who has run the party since its creation.
State Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Manhattan, who is carrying the bill in the Senate, says: "They've been moving public opinion. And they have been effectively reaching out to those of us in the Legislature to encourage us-to show that not only is this the right thing to do, it's the politically popular thing to do."
The opposition has been meek by comparison. A conservative political action committee, New Yorkers for Growth, started an online petition, and the Real Estate Board of New York put together a group called Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, which includes the Business Council of New York State. The latter group sent a mailing to 125,000 high-earning households and launched a Web site that has generated 1,000 e-mail messages to legislators.
And take note of a key part of WFP's campaign, something they haven't done much of in the past. They are finally using using new media tools to augment their already impressive ground game, and doing so with great success. The video mentioned above was a huge hit and the Fair Share Tax Reform site has been very, very successful.
The Fair Share site, meanwhile, has generated 25,000 e-mails in addition to arranging the rallies, letters, commercials and personal meetings with lawmakers.
"They have a system, a very powerful system, for raising money and taking over the airwaves," says Kenneth Adams, president of the business council. "Millions of average New Yorkers across the state don't have those systems-and frankly, neither does the business community-to mobilize to oppose this."
Mr. Schneiderman says the Fair Share campaign has tapped into the growing public sentiment that "the redistribution of wealth to the wealthy went too far." But Mr. McMahon says the Working Families Party and its allies have used "class warfare" to "create the illusion of a mass movement."
Here's what Mr. McMahon does not get: That video cost next to nothing to produce and was distributed for free via YouTube, not by "taking over the airwaves". It was spread virally (it was a big hit on twitter, for example) by folks sympathetic to its undeniable message. Anyone of those supposed "millions of average New Yorkers" could have done the same. They didn't.
It's also rather insulting to the 100,000 or so folks who rallied from one of the state to the other to refer to their movement as an "illusion". As for the "class warfare" swipe, one of the things that makes WFP's video so potent and poignant is that it very simply and effectively illustrates that there has indeed been class warfare engaged in for the last few decades. Guess who has been winning? It's certainly not those "millions of average New Yorkers". This is obvious to everyone when they learn that they pay their state income taxes at the same rate as Donald Trump and Bernie Madoff.
The big takeaway for me is that WFP's game is getting stronger by their embrace of these new tools. Now, they haven't abandoned the "inside game" by any stretch. Trust me, I'm sure they are bringing the heat to lawmakers personally as well. But, they've added new tools to further increase the effectiveness of their outside game. If they can fully integrate an effective new media communications strategy with their already formidable ground game, watch out. This may be but the first example of an even more robust combined effort on their part.
Do you pay the same tax rate as millionaires like Donald Trump and Bernie Madoff?
The answer may surprise you. The WFP hit the streets to see if New Yorkers knew just how little you have to make to be in the state's highest tax bracket.
Even while President Obama works to make America's taxes fairer, New York's tax code is anything but. Over the last 30 years, the rich have seen their state taxes cut in half. Today, janitors and cab drivers pay the same state tax rate as Wall Street bankers.
It's not just unfair--with the state facing a $14 billion budget gap and devastating cuts to hospitals and nursing homes, it's madness.
A group of powerful business organizations is preparing to fight a proposed "millionaire's tax" they say will drive affluent New Yorkers out of state.
Taxpayers for an Affordable NY includes the Business Council of New York, the Real Estate Board of New York, and the Rent Stabilization Association - a trio of groups that came together once before, in the early 1990s, to fight property tax hikes.
Taxpayers for an Affordable New York, an astroturf org, has even mailed out 150,000 of the mailers you see at the right. The mailers and the website are so full of BS and distortions as to be almost comical. Of course, we're talking about real people and a fiscal crisis that is all too real. There's nothing, not a damn thing, funny about it.
The Working Families Party believes that you are not paying your fair share and they are pressuring your State Senator to increase your income taxes. Amazingly, despite what we have learned these past months, they want New York to continue to spend more then it has and they want you to pay for it. They call it a "millionaire tax" even though the taxes of every family with an income of more than a couple of hundred thousand dollars could be raised by 20 to 50 percent.
Governor David Paterson has said "My belief is (that raising income taxes) is an almost automatic formula for losing population in the state and losing job creation."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called this plan a "crazy idea". He said "You can't tax people who can move... the city would end up losing its tax base."
Families that earn more than $200,000 comprise only 4% of taxpayers but they pay 54% of the taxes. It seems to us that you already pay your "Fair Share".
If you read this site regularly, you are probably fairly familiar with what the Fair Share tax Reform Act does and what it does not. Take a look at the copy above and count the falsehoods.
So that's a good measure of the momentum building behind the proposal. The fat cats are mobilizing and using all the usual tools to spread fear and disinformation.
NY-20 challenger Scott Murphy has landed the Row E ballot line from the Working Families Party. In what is sure to be a tough, close race, this is very good news indeed. Liz has the goods:
Karen Scharff, co-chair of the WFP's Capital District chapter, confirmed the party has agreed to endorse Muprhy and put him on its line (Row E) in the upcoming special election.
Scharff said the members of the executive committee weren't completely thrilled with some aspects of Murphy's ideology (his plan to follow in the footsteps of the woman he's seeking to succeed, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, in joining the Blue Dogs, for example), but decided the rest of his positions are "strong enough in favor of working families in the district that we can work with him and support him."
Scharff said the 20th CD, with is 70,000+ GOP voter enrollment edge, is the kind of district where the WFP could make a "big difference."
Also, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is stumping for Murphy at an event in Poughkeepsie, hopefully one of many big guns to lend a hand.
Regardless, the WFP endorsement (and boots on the ground) could be quite significant and decisive in what is sure to be a very tough race.
Gov. David A. Paterson Tuesday threatened to veto a millionaires' tax unless lawmakers first cut billions of dollars in spending.
He said he would oppose increasing the personal income tax on the wealthy in order to sustain the current level of state spending. "What we are trying to do here is get rid of the addiction to spending that is just abounding in this Capitol and get ourselves on the road to fiscal discipline," he told reporters after a speech to the state Association of Counties.
Asked if he would veto a hike in taxes on the wealthy, Paterson said, "I think I would if there was the type of tax increase that was just designed to recreate spending."
He added that lawmakers first must agree to $11.2 billion in spending cuts in the 2009-10 budget before considering more broad-based taxes.
"If what I'm seeing is?taxes to bring back programs that we think we need to cut, I'm going to stop it."
Gov. Paterson suggested Tuesday he may veto any plan to hike taxes on the wealthy.
"Everybody is trying to find a way that they can keep spending," Paterson complained. "If people think that they are going to create a false economy here by raising taxes ... I am just not going to support this."
Asked specifically if he would veto an income tax hike, Paterson said, "I think I would if there was the type of tax increase that was just designed to re-create spending."
But, in typical Paterson style, he hedged shortly afterward.
"I didn't say that I would veto an income tax hike for all time," the governor said.
Governor David Paterson has given conditional backing to a plan to increase taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers, but he says the legislature will have to prove they can make deep spending cuts first.
Governor Paterson gave his strongest signal yet that he might sign on to a plan to increase income taxes on the state's richest residents. Paterson, who has said for months that raising income taxes should be last resort, now says he'll consider a proposal that's gaining support in the legislature if lawmakers agree to some serious spending cuts first.
"If I see real spending cuts that really address this problem, and if our deficit goes beyond it, well then we're at a point when our backs are against the wall," said Paterson, who said he might consider raising the income taxes on the wealthy then.
At the same time, in a seemingly contradictory statement, the governor threatened to veto a tax hike bill, if the legislature doesn't implement cuts to his satisfaction.
Gov. David Paterson warned state lawmakers Tuesday not to raise income taxes on the wealthy or use federal stimulus aid to restore budget cuts, suggesting he may veto attempts to boost state spending.
Paterson first indicated that he would veto a plan by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to increase taxes on the wealthy, but then said a tax increase couldn't be ruled out if the state's finances were to worsen.
"If I see real spending cuts that really address this problem, and if our deficit goes beyond it, well then, we are at a point where our backs are against the wall" and income taxes could be increased, he said.
Among the bill's supporters, there is a sense that they face considerable - but not necessarily insurmountable - skepticism from Senate Democrats.
"By introducing this bill, we are opening the conversation," said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Democrat who represents parts of the Upper West Side and the Bronx and is the bill's lead sponsor. "But this is an issue that gathers support the longer people think about it."
Called the Fair Share Tax Reform Act of 2009, the plan laid out in Mr. Schneiderman's bill is an expanded version of the so-called millionaires' tax the Assembly passed last year. It would create three new tax brackets at the highest end of the state's income tax scale and apply to taxable income, not gross income.
"While Governor Paterson continues to ask everyone except the wealthy to contribute to closing the state's budget gap, the Fair Share Tax Reform Act introduced by 18 Senators today strikes a bold note for fairness and true shared sacrifice.
The Act would raise $6 billion in desperately needed revenue for New York, helping to offset some of the Governor's proposed devastating cuts to students, the elderly, and the disabled. Fair Share Tax Reform does so by asking the very richest New Yorkers to pay their fair share in taxes by giving back some of the generous tax cuts they've been lucky enough to receive.
As Congress continues to debate the federal stimulus package, hundreds of economists have warned that Gov. Paterson's proposed cuts could slow economic activity and sink New York deeper into recession.
Their take: raising taxes on those who can most afford to pay is not only the fairest solution, it is the one that will put New York fastest on the road to recovery.
As the devastation to schools, hospitals, libraries, public transportation and hundreds of other essential public programs the Governor has proposed becomes clear, it is no wonder that poll after poll shows the vast majority of New Yorkers support asking the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Karen Scharff of Citizen Action:
"The question comes down to whether we should ask wealthy New Yorkers to pay a small amount in additional taxes to protect average New Yorkers facing job losses, foreclosures, school cuts and property tax increases," said Karen Scharff, Citizen Action Executive Director. "The proposed state cuts in programs like education and health care will have a devastating impact on the quality of life for all New Yorkers unless the state raises significant new revenue."
Currently, every New Yorker who earns more than $40,000 pays the same marginal tax rate of 6.85%. The "Fair Share Tax Reform" bill, introduced today by Eric Schneiderman and other Senators from across the state, would reverse a 30-year pattern of reducing taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers by creating new income brackets for individuals or families making more than $250,000, $500,000 and $1,000,000.
"It's much fairer to ask a person making $300,000 per year to give up the cost of a high-end dinner in midtown Manhattan than to layoff teachers at public schools in his neighborhood, forcing children into larger classes," said Scharff. "The state budget deficit is forcing our state leaders to decide whether our priority is protecting wealthy New Yorkers who can easily afford a bit more in taxes, or working families who depend on basic services like education and health care."
More as they come in. In the meantime, this looks to be a perfect opportunity for folks to get in touch with their Senators. Ask them if they are a sponsor of the bill. If they aren't, ask them why not.
Yes, prudent spending cuts in state spending are a necessity - that much is undeniable. But so far, the governor is asking working families to shoulder the entire burden of the budget deficit alone, while taking any income tax increase on New York's many millionaires off the table.
That is not acceptable. Not after the richest New Yorkers have seen billions in tax cuts that have slashed their income tax burden in half over the last 40 years. Not when asking those who can most afford to contribute a little more in taxes could easily prevent many of the most painful cuts being talked about in Albany.
Opponents of a tax on millionaires repeat the mantra that asking the wealthy to pay a modest increase in income taxes would drive them out of the state. But all the evidence and recent experience says that simply isn't so.
In 2003, following the economic downturn caused by the 9/11 attacks, the national recession and the burst of the dot-com bubble, New York relied on modest increases in income tax rates on the wealthy to help close its budget gap. The state employed a temporary top rate of 7.25% for single filers with incomes over $100,000 and 7.7% on income over $500,000.
The rich did not leave the state. Instead, the economy rebounded and the number of high income New Yorkers continued to grow.
In 2004, New Jersey raised its income tax on those making over $500,000 a year by 2.6 percentage points. Despite dire predictions, a recent study from Princeton University found that while the half-millionaire's tax helped the Garden State raise billions in needed revenue, it caused almost no tax flight. (The study did find however, that high local property taxes - a very likely side effect of Gov. Paterson's proposed cuts in education and aid to localities - were responsible for driving out thousands of middle-class families).
As Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote in a letter to Albany leaders, "Increases on higher-income families are the least damaging mechanism for closing state fiscal deficits in the short run. Reductions in government spending on goods and services, or reductions in transfer payments to lower-income families, are likely to be more damaging to the economy in the short run than tax increases focused on higher-income families."
Those are wise words state leaders can't afford to ignore. In the months ahead, Albany will have no choice but to meet the budget deficit head-on.
So enough of the bluffing and blame-mongering. Serious times demand a serious approach to getting our state back on track.
What is needed to solve the budget crisis - and it is solvable - is a plan that calls for true shared sacrifice. Sensible spending cuts, yes - but also a commitment to asking the New Yorkers who can most easily afford to do so to pay their fair share in taxes.
It is a formula that has worked before. The well-being of millions of working families and the health of critical public investments demand that we use it again.
A Federal Judge in Buffalo has issued a temporary restraining order preventing local election officials in NY-26 from placing Alice Kryzan on the Working Families Party ballot line.
A federal judge is blocking a Democratic congressional candidate from getting her name on a third-party ballot line in western New York, the latest judicial twist in the battle to replace retiring Rep. Tom Reynolds.
Alice Kryzan _ who beat Jon Powers in the Democratic primary _ is trying to get her name instead of his on the Working Families Party line. An extra ballot line is usually worth thousands more votes.
New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye on Friday let stand a lower court ruling giving the line to Kryzan.
Republicans took the case to federal court in Buffalo, where Chief Judge Richard Arcara late Friday issued a temporary restraining order barring elections officials from removing Powers' name from the ballot.
Kryzan campaign aides said they're appealing Arcara's decision.
Democrats are on the ascent, nationally and in states like ours, where the decades-old Republican stranglehold on Albany may finally be broken in less than one week.
If the Democrats are victorious, then the real battle will begin: how do we hold them accountable to progressive values against the enormous pressure they will face to play it safe?
As you may well know, they've led many of the big battles over the last ten years, from raising the minimum wage to putting paid family leave on the map, to fighting for affordable healthcare for all, public transportation, and most recently taking on Mayor Bloomberg's extremely undemocratic plan to extend term limits without a public vote.
The good folks at the Working Families Party are launching a mail campaign in support of endorsed challengers Eric Massa and Dan Maffei. The campaign is also part of their effort to urge people to vote for progressive candidates, from the top of the ticket on down, on Row E, the WFP line and to "Vote Change Like You Mean It." It's a campaign you'll surely be hearing more about in the next two weeks.
On November 4th, New Yorkers have a chance to do more than just vote for change. By voting for Obama on the Working Families ballot line - "Row E" - they can send a powerful message for universal healthcare, an end to war in Iraq, and for an economy that works for all us. It's a way to "Vote Change Like You Mean It."
As Katrina Vanden Heuvel put it recently in The Nation:
Some of us support Obama with unalloyed enthusiasm, while others regard his victory as essential simply to avoid the catastrophe of another four years of Republican rule. But all of us know that the real work doesn't end with a new administration in Washington. It will be more urgent than ever to organize locally and build a clear alternative to the neoliberal consensus that has dominated both parties. By supporting Obama and the Congressional Democrats on the Working Families Party line, New Yorkers can begin that work now. We urge our New York readers, and other readers with friends in the state, to spread the word on the value of voting Working Families - Row E - once again this November.
It's a message with particular resonance in Western New York, a place where working families have been besieged for decades and a real battleground for a number of really hot races up and down the ticket. Voting for progressive candidates on Row E says to the pols that you had better be putting working people first.
Today the Working Families Party launched a new site, It's Our Decision and came out strongly against the plan of the Mayor and the City Council to use the Mayor's popularity and the anxiety of the economic crisis to subvert the oft expressed will of the very voters they were elected to represent. from the site:
In 1993, New Yorkers overwhelmingly voted for terms limits - two four-year terms for elected officials in New York City. In 1996, New Yorkers voted again to keep keep term limits, and keep them at just two terms.
No matter how you feel about term limits, one thing is clear: it's our decision, not the politicians. If they want to change term limits, it should be done the fair way, by asking the voters' permission.
But a new bill introduced in the City Council would do just the opposite. The bill would ignore the voters and give politicians a third term (the same politicians who will vote on it).
WFP head Dan Cantor does not mince words in this just released statement:
"This is a power grab, plain and simple and the members of the New York City Council should reject it" said Dan Cantor, the WFP's Executive Director. "If New Yorkers want to extend term limits, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council should allow voters to make that choice."
"According to our city's media elites- three men in a room is unacceptable in Albany. But apparently three publishers in a room superimposing their will over the will of the people is just dandy."
"This is not about where you stand on term limits or even whether or not you think Mike Bloomberg has been a good Mayor. This is about the rules of the game and the fact that in our democracy you don't get to change them at the end of the fourth quarter just because your team wants to keep playing," said Cantor.
"Itsourdecision.org is an effort to let the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are appalled by this power grab log on and make their voices heard. The media and business elite in this town want to shut out the voices of regular voters. The rooms might not be smoke filled anymore, but Murdoch, Zuckerman, Sulzberger and Bloomberg are trying to create the twenty first century's Tammany Hall. Today we are saying no and encouraging all New Yorkers who believe their democracy belongs to them to log on, stand up and be counted."
The union backed party's Executive Committee recently voted to reject the legislation expected to be introduced by the City Council to override two previous voter referendums and allow the Mayor Bloomberg and sitting Council people to run for third terms. In the coming days and weeks the WFP will be working aggressively with its members to make sure the voices of regular New Yorkers are heard in this debate.
"The Working Families Party has always been about 'small d' democracy-and there's no reason a democratic vote was good enough before, but suddenly isn't. We know the grassroots power of ordinary people, and we will be unleashing that voice to tell these leaders that New Yorkers will not be steamrolled," added Cantor.
There are many reasons to like the WFP. The fact that they seem to be finally embracing web based organizing in addition to their excellent on the ground efforts, especially in the service of this particular cause, is yet another. Well done.
One of, if not the, biggest winner in last week's primary was the Working Families Party, the little party that can. I believe that with the exception of Jon Powers, all their candidates won, including the biggest upset of the night, Dan Squadron. Back in the spring, WFP leader Dan Cantor told me that they saw the Squadron/Connor race as the most important in the state, at least as far as the primaries went. WFP worked that race hard and the results show that when they mean business, they get results. Add to that their efforts in the special election wins in SD-7 and SD-48. They have been able to really mobilize folks on the ground in such races and have earned a whole hell of a lot of respect. They've come a long, long way in 10 short years and they have every reason to celebrate. They have real influence and real juice. Should be a great night.
The speakers will include Speaker Sheldon Silver, Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, Comptrollers Bill Thompson and Tom DiNapoli, and Speaker Christine Quinn.
The details:
Thursday, September 18, 2008 - Cocktails: 6pm, Dinner: 7pm
The Sheraton New York - 811 7th Avenue (between 51st & 52nd)
Honorees:
Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org Political Action
Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Drum Major Institute
Roger Toussaint, TWU Local 100
Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers
This was one of the top targeted races for the WFP this year and they busted their asses on it. They are pretty happy with the results of their efforts. Via email:
Working Families Party Celebrates Squadron's Upset Victory in Senate Primary
Party Plays Major Roll as Progressive Newcomer Defeats 30-year Incumbent
New York - The Working Families Party (WFP) today cheered the victory of Daniel Squadron's insurgent campaign for State Senate, hailing the upset over incumbent Sen. Martin Connor as a huge boost for progressive causes in Albany.
Daniel Squadron is a true progressive who has got the energy and the leadership we need to shake up Albany," said Dan Cantor, the WFP's Executive Director. "We poured our hearts into this race. We knocked on tens of thousands of doors and energized hundreds of volunteers. This was exciting grassroots politics at its best."
"Together, we were able to join with Daniel to excite thousands of New Yorkers with the bold notion that politicians need to do more than talk. They need to find real solutions to problems facing working families trying to make ends meet as the economy sours and cost of living goes up and up," Cantor added.
The Working Families Party lent 5 full-time staff to work for Squadron's election, played a leadership role in the campaign's field operation, and helped devise campaign strategy. Over the course of the campaign, WFP canvassers, members, and volunteers, knocked on over 40,000 doors, identifying more than 4,000 Squadron supporters. Hundreds more WFP staff, members, and volunteers, helped turnout the vote this past weekend and on Election Day.
The Working Families Party's renowned field operation has helped push insurgent State Senate candidates over the top before, playing big roles in Sen. Darrel Aubertine's shocking upset in a heavily Republican district (SD 48) in the North Country this past February and in Craig Johnson's successful campaign to become the only Senate Democrat on Long Island (SD 7) in 2007.
The WFP will deploy its field staff and activate its base of supporters in key State Senate races across New York from now until November as it helps Democrats take back control of the body for the first time in a generation.
Everyone knows times are tough. If you could a little extra this month, the Working Families Party is hiring for the upcoming primary on September 9th.
Are you interested in working on interesting and exciting electoral campaigns this month? Help us regain control of the NYS Senate and elect more progressive democrats to the Assembly.
Who: You
What: NYS Primaries
When: starting Thursday August, 14 to Tuesday September 9
Where: Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan
Why: we need a more progressive and responsible government in Albany
Election Day is fast approaching, and if you have time to join the fight, the WFP has paid positions available.
We have the chance to send real progressive leaders to Albany, but we need your help!
If you or anybody you know is interested, please contact me ASAP!
I can assure you that they'll work you hard. That's just the way they roll, if you know what i mean. But, you'll also probably learn plenty from an organization that has a really, really good ground operation and they'll pay you better than you might expect.
You remember the "North Shore Committee for Truth", don't you? It's the Republican Senate Campaign Committee funded astroturf entity that I wrote about last summer that sprang up shortly after Craig Johnson won the SD-7 special election. The website for the "committee" now seems to be defunct (what did they spend the $5K Bruno gave them on anyway?), but the woman who is at least nominally behind that effort, one Christine A. Nagy (or Christine A. Imrie, depending on what documents you are looking at) is also the woman behind the apparently successful (for now, anyway) effort to keep Johnson off the WFP line this November. Spin Cycle has the goods:
The court case that has knocked Sen. Craig Johnson off the Working Families Party ballot line was brought by a Republican resident of Westbury whose address is also that of a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't civic "committee" -- which sent out letters attacking Johnson shortly after he was elected last year.
Senate GOP Majority Leader Dean Skelos of Rockville Centre has made no secret of his special desire to unseat Johnson, the only Democrat in Long Island's 9-member Senate delegation. The Senate Republican Campaign Committee donated $5,000 last year to the North Shore Committee for Truth, whose treasurer was listed as Christine A. Nagy.
Records show Nagy, 35, is registered to vote under that name, and did so in 2007, but on other records is Christine A. Imrie, who made the successful application to challenge Johnson's petitions. Meanwhile the "truth" committee's Web site, active a year ago, seems to have gone off-line, though you can see some of the content by clicking this Google-cached item. Phone numbers that are listed under both of the petitioner's names seem to be disconnected.
Just in case this tactic didn't work, Nassau Republicans also sent out one Patrick Lilavois to collect petition signatures for a WFP candidacy that only ever existed as a means for denying Johnson the ballot line.
Meanwhile, the earlier gambit by which Patrick Lilavois, also of Westbury, gathered 44 signatures for the WFP line -- with help from North Hempstead Republicans -- seems to have paid off for the GOP as a tactical move. If a party member signs two candidate petitions, only the first one counts. In some cases, Lilavois got to the doors of party members first, helping Johnson's foes' efforts to winnow down his number of valid signatures and thus aid the prospects of keeping him off the WFP line. Some earlier partisan analysis from the Johnson side is here.
(Lots of info in this post. This smells pretty bad. - promoted by phillip anderson)
Dan Janison at the Newsday Spin Cycle posted this:
Ruling that Sen. Craig Johnson's campaign violated proper petitioning practices, State Supreme Court Justice Karen V. Murphy has thrown the Nassau Democrat off the Working Families Party's November ballot line. If the ruling stands, it will be the second time this election season that Johnson lost a minor-party endorsement that he'd appeared to have secured. The first occurred when the GOP-aligned state Independence Party recently changed its bylaws as a prelude to overruling its county committee to nominate the Republican challenger, Barbara Donno.
Now all this seems like normal petition stuff, until you realize who the judge is in this case. Karen V. Murphy was before ascending to the bench, the Republican County Clerk in Nassau. More to the point, the current County Clerk, Maureen O'Connell, was Judge Murphy's close political ally and her hand picked successor to the Clerk's office. If the name Maureen O'Connell rings a bell, she is the same Maureen O'Connell who lost the special election to Craig Johnson in SD 7.
At the beginning of the week, the WFP sent in some initial ground troops into the 21st Senate district in support of their endorsed candidate Kevin Parker. Parker, who has been a target of many within the Brooklyn machine since his election in 2002, is now facing a very difficult two-front primary challenge from Councilmen Simcha Felder and Kendall Stewart. Like many other Senate districts within New York City, the 21st is overwhelmingly Democratic, with a nearly 11:1 D:R enrollment ratio. Clearly, the Democratic primary is the real race in SD-21.
The 21st has very large African-American, Caribbean, and orthodox Jewish populations. Stewart, of Caribbean descent, is expected to peel off a significant portion of the African-American and Caribbean vote from Parker. This could potentially allow Felder to gain a plurality of the vote by performing exceptionally strong among the Jewish population. While one would hope identity politics would not play such a definitive role, unfortunately the truth is that in local New York City politics, identity politics is a major factor.
