NY Observer - The labor-backed Working Families Party withstood what many have characterized as an attempt from its own candidate, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to destroy it–but in the process got elbowed out of its row on the ballot by an insurgent Green Party led by gubernatorial contender Howie Hawkins.
After a series of increasingly desperate pleas for gubernatorial votes on their line–including an email blast from Executive Director Dan Cantor titled “Imagine a state with no WFP”–the party had picked up more than 108,000 votes for Mr. Cuomo as of this writing, more than double the 50,000 needed to cling to the ballot for four years.
But the party fell well short of its minor party rivals. The Conservative Party drew 210,000 votes for Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and will retain its current C slot on the ballot. The Green Party ran Mr. Hawkins and pulled almost 165,000 votes in his bid for governor–his party will replace the WFP on Row D and the Working Families Party, to their chagrin, will spend the next four years on Row E of the ballot.
The downgrade is likely the fallout of its controversial decision to support Mr. Cuomo. The party was a longtime critic of the governor’s conservative fiscal policies, but voted at its convention in May to endorse the him for a second time in exchange for his promise to help flip the State Senate into Democratic hands.
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