Charles Barron - 2010 Gubernatorial Campaign

2010 Gubernatorial Campaign

See also: Freedom Party of New York and New York gubernatorial election, 2010

On June 14, 2010, Barron announced that he had formed a new party, the New York Democratic Freedom Party, and would challenge Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Cuomo. Barron noted that Cuomo had picked a white politician to run for the position of Lieutenant Governor and that all the other statewide Democratic Party candidates were white. When speaking about Cuomo, Barron said, "He’s done nothing to deserve our support; he’s hurt the black community. Remember he was with his father, when his father built more prisons than any other governor in the history of New York State. Andrew was with daddy and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree ... Andrew's arrogant, he's just like his father." Barron expressed resentment towards the Democratic Party, saying it had taken African-Americans for granted: "It's time for us to be for us. It's time for us to be a self-determining people." Barron aimed to get 50,000 votes in the governor's race, enough to gain ballot access for the party, but ended up with 24,560 votes out of over 3,000,000 cast.

A month after Cuomo began his second term as governor, on February 21, 2011, Barron interrupted a Cuomo speech in Brooklyn, leading the crowd in chants of "tax the rich." He criticized Cuomo's budget proposals, which called for deep cuts in health care and education spending, and his decision not to extend the state's so-called millionaire's tax, which expires at the end of 2012.