Talk:Working Families Party
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Discussions of and articles about the Working Families Party never mention that its leaders, including Executive Director Dan Cantor, Party Chairs Bob Master and Bertha Lewis, and Secretary Jon Kest, have spent the past few years engaged in court battles to prevent party members from forming county parties. They deny registrants the opportunity to select candidates and determine the party's direction by allowing their shadow organization, the Working Families Organization (which requires paid membership and does not require membership in the Working Families Party), to screen candidates; the state committee of the Organization, not the Party, determines who will appear on the ballot and makes policy decisions for the party. The duly elected members of the state committee have been rendered powerless and irrelevant by this process. Eight years after it achieved ballot status, the Working Families Party has county committee members in only one county, Suffolk, and it is actively attempting to quash that committee. Cantor and the WFO failed in their attempts to dismantle the Working Families Party Suffolk County Committee; although a judge ordered the 2004 county convention to be redone, the "do-over" convention held in 2005 produced exactly the same result as the 2004 convention.
to view documents from that court case, go to: http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005jun/51002178720041sciv.pdf http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005jul/5100217872004100sciv.pdf http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005jul/51002178720042sciv.pdf
In August 2005, Judge Thomas Whelan took the Executive Committee of the New York State Working Families Party to task for subverting election law through its attempts to prevent formation of county committees and deny county committee members control of nominations through Wilson-Pakula.
read that decision at: http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005aug/51001598520051sciv.pdf
Despite Whelan's decision, the New York State Working Families Party continues in its efforts to prevent formation of county committees and, specifically, to quash the Suffolk County Committee of the Working Families Party. —This unsigned comment was added by Ilsabeaulac (talk • contribs) .
- I took the above stuff out because it was awkwardly pasted in at the end of the introduction. While I agree that the information is relevant to the article, in the current state it may violate the Wikipedia:No original research policy. Perhaps it can be revised and inserted into a separate heading in the article that is more appropriate? Also, please sign your posts by adding ~~~~ at the end of your comments. Thank you. --Howrealisreal 15:31, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Unique Structure of Party
The Working Families Party's leaders, including Executive Director Dan Cantor, Party Chairs Bob Master and Bertha Lewis, and Secretary Jon Kest, have spent the past few years engaged in court battles to prevent party members from forming constituted county committees. They deny registrants the opportunity to select candidates and determine the party's direction by allowing their shadow organization, the Working Families Organization (which requires paid membership but does not require membership in the Working Families Party), to screen candidates. It is the state committee of the Organization, not the Party, that determines who will appear on the ballot and makes policy decisions for the party. Individuals have no vote within the Working Families Organization, instead groups (like ACORN and 1199) are assigned a number of votes based on the number of paid memberships they purchase. The duly elected members of the state committee have been rendered powerless and irrelevant by this process.
Eight years after achieving ballot status, the Working Families Party has county committee members in only one county, Suffolk, and it is actively attempting to quash that committee. Cantor and the WFO failed in their attempts to dismantle the Working Families Party Suffolk County Committee; although a judge ordered the 2004 county convention to be redone, the "do-over" convention held in 2005 produced exactly the same result as the 2004 convention confirming Chuck Pohanka as County Chair, Donna Lent as Secretary, and Dotty Weisgruber as Treasurer.
to view documents from that court case, go to: http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005jun/51002178720041sciv.pdf http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005jul/5100217872004100sciv.pdf http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005jul/51002178720042sciv.pdf
In an August 2005 decision, Judge Thomas Whelan took the Executive Committee of the New York State Working Families Party to task for subverting election law through its attempts to prevent formation of county committees and deny county committee members control of nominations through Wilson-Pakula.
read that decision at: http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/fcas/fcas_docs/2005aug/51001598520051sciv.pdf
Despite Whelan's decision, the New York State Working Families Party continues in its efforts to prevent formation of county committees and, specifically, to quash the Suffolk County Committee of the Working Families Party. Most recently, it sent letters to elected officials telling them to contribute only to the state party.
[edit] Revised
I did some major reworking of this article, both adding information and also organizing it into sections. I had some newspaper clippings and literature around from when I was researching them for a job interview. I hope I was able to highlight the essence of the WFP. --Howrealisreal 01:39, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- It's great that you've added all of this info, but much of it does really look like it came straight out of WFP literature. In fact, some of the wording itself is reminiscent of things I've read before. No matter, with a little friendly NPOVing, all will be safely Wikiassimilated.--Pharos 01:48, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
I agree, which is why I sourced the newspaper article that inspired me for many of the edits. I admit that I am probably not capable of writing a neutral article about the WFP because of my fondness for them, so I hope and anticipate that this article will be re-engineered over time for balance. Thanks for commenting. --Howrealisreal 05:10, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
progressive and left-wing refer to much different ideas. I'm not sure discrediting the organization by calling it "minor" is NPOV -LegCircus 16:23, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)
[edit] South Carolina
South Carolina now has a Working Families Party certified for the 2006 election, but I've been unable to find out whether they are connected with the New York party or not. They are taking advantage of the electoral fusion tactics that South Carolina allows and the WFP favors, so I'd say the likelihood is high. (Nomininating the same candidate as the Democratic candidate in all of the races in which they have nominated anyone.) Caerwine Caer’s whines 23:41, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
