Liberal Party Nominates Manhattan District Attorney
and Council Candidates in Brooklyn and Queens
as it enters the 2009 Elections
The Liberal Party has taken a small but determined step back as it enters the 2009 election campaign cycle. A significantly larger step is expected shortly.
Jack Olchin, State Chairman, has announced that the Liberal Party has nominated candidates for Manhattan District Attorney and City Council districts in Brooklyn and Queens.
He said that the nominees are Greg Camp, a Republican and a candidate for the District Attorney of Manhattan, Thomas D. White, a Democrat seeking reelection in the 28th District of Queens and Simon L. Belsky, a Democratic candidate for the 48th Council District in Brooklyn.
Mr. Camp, a former member of Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau's prosecutorial staff and presently a Wall St. attorney, is considered a tough but fair-minded expert in criminal justice who, according to Olchin "… combines the policies and ideals of such former Liberal Party stalwarts as NY Mayors LaGuardia and John Lindsay and US Senator Jack Javits in a 21st Century model. He's going to be a great District Attorney."
Camp is committed to the idea that the death penalty is wrong and too often results in mistakes that take the lives of innocent people. He is concerned that the DA's office - which remains the chief arbiter of white-collar and violent crime as it has the power to arrest, indict and convict - must do its job smartly and fairly. He believes that Morgenthau's record is an example of just that kind of DA's office.
He and two of the three Democrats running in a primary for that party's selection, are all members or former members of Morgenthau's staff.
Olchin said that Thomas White was nominated for reelection as a Councilman in the 28th District in Southeast Queens having already served as Councilman for ten years from 1992-2002. Olchin said that White had to relinquish the position because of term limits. He became the first Councilman to be reelected after term limits five years later in 2005.
Queens County Liberal Party leader Louis Dvorkin said that Mr. White has long had the Liberal Party's support because of his extraordinary familiarity with the design and administration of social service programs in alcohol and substance abuse, the prevention of teenage pregnancy and youth crime, HIV-AIDS, and senior citizen programs. Dvorkin said that White had brought tens of millions of program dollars into the district as well as construction and park rehabilitation monies. "He is a fine Councilman and his community knows it and supports him", said Dvorkin.
The Liberal Party has nominated Simon L. Belsky as Councilman in Brooklyn's 48th Council District in Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach and surrounding area.
Mr. Belsky is a 25 year resident of the community. This is his first attempt at elective office after having spent 40 years as a successful businessman in electronics, construction and building maintenance.
Mr. Olchin said that Belsky had become an advocate for a "watchdog role on the City Council concentrating on the tens of millions of dollars wasted every year because of poor oversight and management of NYC service and building contracts. "We believe that Simon Belsky knows what to look for, where to look and how to make changes that will save the city millions. He belongs on the City Council."
The New York newspapers have reported on the Liberal Party's conversations with the two leading candidates for Mayor of New York: present Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who received the party's nomination three years ago, and present city comptroller William Thompson.
An announcement on the party's position in that race is expected shortly.
Martin Hassner,
Executive Director
Web Site Editor
The Liberal Party Now: Activities in 2009
The Liberal Party's status as a non-ballot party means that New York State no longer automatically prints a ballot line for the Liberal Party prior to all elections throughout the State.
This does not mean that the Liberal Party cannot have its own ballot line in a particular election. While our automatic status is gone, a candidate endorsed by the Liberal Party can have our ballot line if he or she petitions the voting public for support and gets enough signatures from those citizens registered to vote who have not signed any previous petitions for a specific election. (plus many additional signatures beyond the required number) and those petitions are properly filed at a particular Board of Elections.
The additional signatures are necessary because those officially filed at the Board of Elections will be very carefully examined by opposing candidates who wish the Liberal Party - and other parties in its situation - would simply go away. These opposing forces work hard to knock out as many signatures as possible hoping to bar a ballot line for a "third party" candidate.
Knowing that this is an important requirement which must be met before a ballot line is secured, has not stopped candidates for a number of elected positions throughout the State from reaching out to the Liberal Party for its endorsement. In the weeks ahead the Liberal Party's Policy Committee will be interviewing candidates and deciding which of them can carry the Liberal Party's "banner". The petition drive itself begins on July 7, 2009.
One of the additional New York State Election Laws which are important to a non-ballot party is the one that says that but for jobs of Governor and Lt. Governor, no candidate for any other office in cities and municipalities throughout the State can carry more than two separate ballot lines during a specific election. Should a candidate secure three or four endorsements from political parties, that candidate can print the logos and names of those parties in one or another of the existing two ballot lines that candidate has secured.
Four years ago, for instance, NYC's Mayor Michael Bloomberg sought the Liberal Party's endorsement at the last moment for his mayoral reelection race, secured 25,000 signatures over a three or four day period from voters within the city limits and then put the Liberal Party's name and logo - the Liberty Bell - within the Republican ballot line. He had already secured that line and the Independence Party's ballot line and could not have a third separate line.The Mayor has not yet contacted us about an endorsement (nor has it been offered to him) but others running for the Mayoralty have.
Martin Hassner,
Executive Director
Web Site Editor
Coming BackA Strategy for the 2010 Governor's Race
The 2010 election of New York State's next Governor may be decided by the Liberal Party.
In the hard-ball world of 'third party' politics in NY State, the Liberal Party's endorsement of a Rudolph Giuliani candidacy for Governor in 2010, would provide a ballot line for all those moderate voters who admire his executive leadership abilities (if not necessarily some of his policies) but would never vote for him on the Republican line. It was just such a classic 'third party' strategy that made his election as Mayor of New York City possible and it could work again providing a winning margin in a close race against Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic candidate.
Early polls show Mr. Giuliani with a comfortable and growing lead over Governor David Patterson, indicating voter doubt about Mr. Patterson's abilities to govern. Knowing-pols recognize that his selection as Eliot Spitzer's running mate had to do with Spitzer's need to keep the internal leadership of Dinkins, Rangel, Sutton et.al at bay and had absolutely nothing to do with his ability to be Governor. But who knew? And Governor he is. Today most see him as well-meaning perhaps but clearly struggling.
As for Andrew Cuomo and the Liberal Party there is a history. It was the Liberal Party who launched his father's career when it endorsed Mario Cuomo as Governor before his primary contest with Ed Koch. The endorsement clearly helped Mario win that primary.
In 2002 the Liberal Party again used that 'third party' strategy to influence the Democratic Party's selection of a candidate by endorsing Andrew Cuomo for Governor before his primary race with Carl McCall. But this time, the strategy backfired. As primary day neared, Cuomo suddenly dropped out of the race - pressured by the above-named internal leadership's demands that it was "time for an African-American candidate for Governor" and that Cuomo would have their support 'down the road'. His quitting the race left the Liberal Party without a viable candidate; with no chance of securing the 50,000 votes a Cuomo candidacy 'guaranteed. New York State's Election Law rules that a third party must secure 50,000 votes on its line every four years during the election of a Governor. When those votes are not secured, the party loses its automatic ballot line in every election in the State for the next four years and its enrollees are dropped from the election rolls throughout the State.
Left without a candidate in 2002, the Liberal Party ended its 62 year run as the longest continuously functioning 'third party' in American political history.
For years the uniqueness of the existence of many 'third parties' made New York State very special. The idea that differing opinions, programs and policies could exist beyond the two-party mold, not only made for diversity, but for genuine voter involvement. New Yorkers were all-but-alone in being able to vote their consciences as well as their ideals and beliefs. But with time, all systems become institutionalized and change. The two major parties came to fear the growth and influence of political organizations to the right and left of them and instituted the 50,000 vote law.
For years now that rule has changed the nature of the political game into one of "survival of the fittest" ...not one of substance and policies. Ideally a 'third party' would prefer to support a candidate of its own choice if neither of the two major party candidates fill the bill. Now the first priority as a Governor's race approaches is to seek a candidate with the means to insure those 50,000 votes - far too often a candidate of one of the two major parties.
When it works, as it did 1998 for the Liberal Party when it supported the independent candidacy of former Lt. Gov Betsy McCaughey Ross, running against her former boss George Pataki and NYC Council President Peter Vallone, it works well. We liked her strong views on early childhood education, health care and on a woman's right to choose. The voters liked them too and she received 80,000 votes on the Liberal Party line. While those votes didn't win her election as Governor, they helped defeat another of her "mentors," Alphonse D'Amato in his reelection bid against Charles Schumer for the US Senate.
Would working with either Giuliani or Cuomo bring a similar vote on a Liberal Party line? And would that vote prove to be a balance of power in a very close election between the two of them?. We believe 'absolutely' in both instances.
Despite the hard feelings engendered at the time of the Cuomo action seven years ago, Liberal Party leadership recognizes his essential talents, vigorous liberal philosophy and strong record as the State's Attorney-General . At the same time, the Liberal Party has no delusions about Governor David Patterson ever accepting the Liberal Party's support given David Dinkins' role in establishing the Working Families Party initially to get rid of the Liberal Party. Dinkins was enraged by the Liberal Party's continued support of Rudolph Giuliani for Mayor and acknowledged that it was that support that resulted in the loss of his Mayoralty to Giuliani the second time around.
The fundamental question today is not whether the Liberal Party can support Andrew Cuomo, but whether recognizing the obvious weaknesses in Mr. Patterson's ability to govern, Mr.Cuomo will have the courage this time to enter a primary against Patterson and make a run against the same old-line leadership's wishes.
On the Republican side, the Liberal Party has a history of supporting selected Republican candidates as far back as the 1950's. Over the years, Liberal Party votes provided winning margins for Senator Jack Javits, Mayor John Lindsay and in recent times, Rudolph Giuliani. Today the speculation is that Giuliani will rise again from the debacle of his presidential race, as he did so dramatically to resurrect his image after the terror attack of 9/11. He's clearly the leading Republican candidate for Governor in 2010.
And with that possibility comes the obvious question: will the Liberal Party again view its old friend Rudy as the best in the field?
Who will the Liberal Party choose?
Stay tuned.
Martin Hassner,
Executive Director
Web Site Editor
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