Sometimes the harder fights involve the smaller parties.
The scramble by major-party players to win or benefit from minor-party endorsements for the November elections looms large in tomorrow's primaries around Long Island.
This is a reminder of how New York is one of the few states where candidates can draw votes from multiple party lines -- a fact that makes for a unique mix of tactics and ideology when it comes to the nominations.
Ballots in Nassau County feature Conservative Party contests in three legislative districts. In these races, Republicans accused the Democrats of putting up C-line candidates in a cynical bid to splinter GOP support. County Democrats denied it.
The third-party's initial purpose can sometimes be lost in the fray.
Ever since its founding in the early 1960s, the Conservative Party has had an intimate and intricate relationship with the state GOP. The Conservative platform opposes abortion and backs gun ownership rights and tax cuts.
In Suffolk, a court battle aimed at the primaries raged recently for control of the Working Families Party.
The WFP began in 1998 as a political lever for traditionally Democrat-allied unions. As Conservatives do more often with Republicans, Working Families works to wag the Democrats. Lately the party has appealed on its Web site for support in helping spur Congress to force an end to the Iraq war.
"One of the risks for third parties under the election law is that they are prone to assault by larger groups," noted Henry Stern, who chairs what is currently the dormant state Liberal Party.
Dan Janison
Comments (1)
If you don't carry your own petitions then you don't deserve to be a party. The Conservatives don't carry their own, they use Republicans. The WFP and the Independence Party both use the Democrats to carry their petitions therefore - Truth in Advertizing...don't lie to the voters....these minor parties are just dem-lite or repub-lite...stop the scam.