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Going Where
the Commission to Investigate Public Corruption & Preet Did NOT:
New York's Election Law, Cross-Endorsements,
& Sham Third Parties
CJA's
two Election Law lawsuits
challenging
political party cross-endorsements
& judge-trading
deals:
Castracan v. Colavita (1990-1991)
Sady v. Murphy (1991)
************************
June 2009
"Cross-Endorsement
by Political Parties: A 'Very Pretty Jungle?"
29 Pace Law Review
765 (Celia Curtis)
December 14, 2013
"Cross-party
endorsements in New York needs to end"
New York
Post
"In
its lengthy report exposing mischief in New York’s political system, the
Moreland Commission missed a major target for real reform: the state’s
minor political parties.
Because of a quirk in state law, minor
parties in New York wield influence far beyond their numbers. That’s
because New York is the rare state that allows minor parties to
cross-endorse candidates of the top two parties.
It’s an invitation to corruption:
Cross-endorsements give minor parties power by allowing them to extract
promises — or cash — out of major-party candidates in exchange for
giving them an extra ballot line or doing their dirty work.
...
If the Moreland Commission is really as
worried about the nexus between money and politics as it claims, instead
of trying to inject more taxpayer dollars into this rotten system, it
ought to call for an end to cross-party endorsements. This would greatly
reduce the incentive that now exists for the minor-party leaders to sell
their party services to the bigger players.
If minor parties want to participate in
elections, let them get their candidates on the ballot and compete with
the big boys — instead of underwriting the big boys behind the scenes."
***********************************
"New
York's Third Party Mess",
May 2010
Huff Post (Dan Collins)
"Every state has third parties, but in New York they are particularly
important and powerful because they don’t nominate their own candidates.
They cross-endorse the Republicans and Democrats, under a system known as
fusion voting.
New York is one of the few states in the country that allows fusion
voting. Advocates say it lets voters express their support for a third
party’s values without having to waste their votes on a third party
candidate....
That’s the theory. In the real world, these parties
tend to devolve into a legal extortion system - demanding patronage or
financial support from the Democratic and Republican nominees in return for
giving them a second, or third, or fourth line on the ballot."
July 30,
2010
"New
York's Third Parties"
New Yorker (Hendrik Hertzberg)
April 2, 2013
"Wilson-Pakula,
Obscure to All But Ballot-Hopping Politicians"
New
York Times
"Who
or What is Wilson-Pakula?"
April 19, 2013
"A
Bid to Limit Each Candidate to One Party Line is Stirring Debate"
New York Times (Jesse McKinley)
April 30, 2013
"Cuomo
Unveils Wilson-Pakula Repeal, Electoral Reform"
State of
Politics (Nick Reisman)
Gov's Program Bill #4 - Memo
July 19, 2015
"Who
needs these third parties?"
New York Post
--------------------------------
Connecticut bill -- March 2013
--------------------------------
May 4, 2018
"Confusion,
Spoilers and New York's Many Ballot Lines"
Gotham
Gazette (Max Brachfeld)
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