The Other, Other (Other) Convention
It wouldn't be convention season without the Working Families Party, which will have its say on the statewide candidates this Saturday at the Desmond Hotel in Albany.
The party will formally endorse Spitzer-Paterson and Alan Hevesi and -- given the way the state's most political influential unions have lined up in the attorney general's race - the rank-and-file seems pretty likely to give their backing to Andrew Cuomo for attorney general.
The most interesting storyline will be the efforts of Jonathan Tasini, the anti-war protest candidate in the U.S. Senate race, to force Hillary Clinton into a potentially uncomfortable primary election that will focus almost exclusively on Iraq.
It's doubtful whether Tasini can actually get the 25 percent of delegates necessary to get on the ballot, but he should at least receive a somewhat more sympathetic hearing from the WFP's left-leaning members than he did from the Democrats in Buffalo.
(No word yet on whether he's planning to show up on a bike.)
The other interesting sub-plot, which won't be resolved until November, will be the party's efforts to leapfrog the Conservative Party into fourth place on the ballot. The WFP drew 167,000 votes on its line for Chuck Schumer two years ago, and is aiming to get 200,000 this year for Spitzer.
Can it be done? Predictions, please.
Spitzer will have the Independence line too so it isn't likely the WFP will do that well with him. If the loser between Faso and Weld really stays in the race on the Conservative and Libertarian lines that can effect ballot position too.
If the WFP would stop supporting Republicans like Spano, it would get 200,000.
Sounds like a sore loser to me. Issues matter more than party registration. If the Democrats actually provided vision and leadership and delivered on core economic issues like minimum wage, healthcare, and reforming the drug laws, there would be no need for the WFP. The WFP exists to fight for the issues that are often pushed aside for the sake of 'business interests'.