Third Party Poised To Shape Elections

Politicians are taking notice of the Independence Party and its surging enrollment

By Elizabeth Benjamin  Times Union - Albany New York Monday May 7 2001

A recent Independence Party fundraiser at the Sign of the Tree Restaurant was full of political paradoxes.

            Republican Gov. George Pataki smiled for a photographer with his arm around leftist Lenora Fulani. Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and GOP Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno dropped by. Senators and assemblymen from both sides of the aisle mingled with a rainbow array of conservatives and liberals. Upstaters and downstaters. Anarchists and socialists. All crowded into the same small room, sipping drinks and munching meatballs.

            "I don't I've ever seen as diverse a crowd," said Pataki, who called the eclectic mix "a tribute to having a common agenda based on democracy of the people."

            Critics often have denounced the Independence Party as nothing but a ballot line with no real platform or ideology, and suggest some members may have even enrolled by accident, thinking they would be "independent" voters - what the state Board of Elections calls "blanks."

            But opponents cannot dispute the party's rising profile and swelling ranks, which have increased in increased attention from major party politicians.

            The 2002 gubernatorial race will not only be a battle for the state's top job. It will feature competition for endorsements beyond the Democratic and Republican parties, and serve as a defining moment in the ever-shifting sea of third parties, determining future ballot positions and political clout.

            "Nobody votes for a minor party by accident, you have to go out and find them, and you're sending a real message with your vote," said state Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor.

            Independence officials insist their party, which has suffered criticism and infighting in its seven years of existence, is now stable and will be a force in the upcoming New York City mayoral elections as well as the statewide 2002 gubernatorial race.

            "This is a much different party than it was before; it's grassroots, not top-down," said state Independence Chairman Frank MacKay, who was part of a group that won control of the party, the state's third largest, last year after a protracted legal battle. "Politicians are acknowledging that we can act as a bridge to more than 2.5 million blank voters, and with that acknowledgement, we can drive the debate."

            The Independence Party began in 1994 as the New York wing of the Reform Party. That year, millionaire Rochester businessman B. Thomas Golisano won Independence ballot status by receiving more than 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial election. In 1998, the Independence Party bumped the Conservative Party from Row C when Gilosano, running again, won more votes than Pataki did on the Conservative line. Since then, its enrollment has grown from approximately 134,000 to just over 202,500.

            Compared with 5.1 million Democrats and 3.1 million Republicans, there are 165,610 Conservatives' 87,704 liberals; 50,162 in the Right To Life Party; 17,992 Greens; and 10,609 in Working Families. Many more voters  nearly 2.2 million  are not registered on any line.

            New York is one of only a few states in the nation where candidates can be, and normally are, cross-endorsed, and accumulate their votes from all the ballot lines as they can get. As a result, third parties see their fortunes rise every four years. That's when gubernatorial candidates recall that no Republican seeking statewide office in New York has won without Conservative Party support since 1974. And no governor or U.S. senator has won this state without Liberal Party backing since its creation.

            "The general rule in New York is the more times your name appears on the ballot, the better your chances are," said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University at Cortland. The relationship, he said, is symbolic: "Third parties are able to strike bargains with major party figures and get benefits,  patronage mostly,  in exchange for an endorsement."

            Observers say third parties will play a crucial role in the 2002 gubernatorial race, which early predictions are casting as one of the closets and hard-fought elections in years. State Comptroller H. Carl McCall and former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo are fighting for the Democratic nomination. Pataki, who ousted former Cuomo's father, Mario M. Cuomo, in 1994 with the help of votes on the Conservative line, has said he will likely seek a third term.

            But some of the proliferation of third parties will only muddy the political waters, making a potentially difficult race even tougher.

            Michael long, state Conservative chairman, said a candidate's affiliation with the Independence Party could confuse voters and pull support from major party lines, particularly if a Republican like Pataki heads a ticket that also includes Democrats. Voters tend to stick with a line if they like the person on the top.

            "Everyone is going to need as many lines as they could get," Long said. "And of all the lines, (Independence) is the one that creates the biggest problem, because it has no philosophical base. If you have a mixed ballot in a tight election, it's going to cost some candidate's running mates some votes."

            Pataki already has indicated he wants the Conservative endorsement, "if he runs," Long said. Republican Assembly Minority leader John Faso also has approached the party for his likely bid for state comptroller next year.

            Independence members often describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, which could appeal to a wide range of voters and candidates. But Independence lacks a single defining issue, unlike the environmentally attuned Green Party, or the anti-abortion Right To Lie Party, or Working Families, which favors a higher minimum wage and living wage jobs.

            Despite the criticism, Spitzer said the Independence Party's nebulous agenda could turn out to be a boon for candidates.

            "I think they're seen as broad enough to not be a liability, unlike an endorsement from other third parties might be, like the Right To Life Party," he said, adding that even the presence of controversial figures like Fulani is tempered by the diversity of Independence membership.

            MacKay admitted that the Independence Party would like to endorse a major party candidate like Pataki to increase its chances of getting enough votes to keep Row C. Golisano, who likely would get first dibs on the endorsement, recently said he had no plans to run in 2002, but did not rule it out.

            Meanwhile, other third parties have already begun weighing their options and laying out a strategy for 2002. Cantor, for example, said the Working Families Party may endorse a Democratic candidate before the likely McCall-Cuomo primary.