Working Families Party - Electoral Strategy

Electoral Strategy

Like other minor parties in the state, the WFP benefits from New York's electoral fusion laws that allow cross-endorsement of a single candidate by multiple parties. This allows sympathetic voters to support a minor party without feeling like they are "wasting" their vote. Usually, the WFP endorses the Democratic Party candidate, but it has occasionally endorsed Republican Party candidates in Westchester, Nassau, and Erie counties, often as a strategy for spurring bi-partisan action on its policy priorities. The party's sometime-position at the balance of electoral power and the threat of Republican endorsement has allowed it to influence the politics of local Democratic candidates and the state Democratic party. The support of the WFP is sometimes quite important in Democratic primaries, especially in areas where the WFP has a lot of volunteers, such as Binghamton.

In unusual cases, the WFP has put forward its own candidates. In the chaotic situation following the assassination of New York City councilman James E. Davis by political rival Othniel Askew, the slain councilman's brother Geoffrey Davis was chosen to succeed him in the Democratic primary. As it became clear that Geoffrey Davis lacked his late brother's political experience, fellow Democrat Letitia James decided to challenge him in the general election on the WFP ticket and won Brooklyn's 35th City Council district as the first third-party candidate elected there in 30 years. In 2003, the WFP had candidates in over 500 races throughout New York State, the majority of them cross-endorsed. As of April 1, 2010, the Working Families Party had 35,753 enrolled members, who are eligible to vote in party primaries, 0.34% of registered voters statewide.

In 2006, the party began ballot access drives in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, and South Carolina. South Carolina is one of the few states, aside from New York, to permit fusion and the Labor Party had also completed a recent ballot access drive there. Oregon's Working Families Party has gained ballot access with the stated goal of creating a New York-style ballot fusion system.