Frank MacKay

“Certainly no one is hoping for a recession," said Frank MacKay, the chairman of the Independence Party of America, when he called me just now from the road in Charlotte, North Carolina. "But, a recession I think would set up even a more fertile ground for a Bloomberg presidency.”

“That’s my own speculation," he added. "I can’t speak for him. I can’t speak for [Kevin] Sheekey."

MacKay’s busy schedule is taking him to Washington D.C. tomorrow, home to Long Island for his wife’s birthday Wednesday and back to New York City on Thursday.

“I was in 26 states in the last 76 days,” Frank MacKay, chairman of the Independence Party of America, said in a phone interview at 11 p.m. last night while driving through Alabama. “Every single state that I’ve been in, we’re talking ballot access.”

MacKay’s travels highlight why he won a major victory yesterday against the star-studded Unity08 in the below-the-radar contest to see which budding political organization would be in the best position to offer their nomination to Michael Bloomberg if the mayor decides to run for president.

Yesterday, officials of Unity08 announced they were suspending their ballot access operation—which was successful only in Florida and Mississippi so far - and losing two of their founding members, Doug Bailey and Jerry Rafshoon.  read more »

There’s a new player in the ongoing fight between the Independence Party of New York City and their own state party organization: the National Action Network.

A lawyer for NAN, which is run by Al Sharpton, joined the city organization of the Independence Party, which is controlled by Lenora Fulani supporters, in Brooklyn state Supreme Court yesterday. They were arguing against the the state party's efforts to take control of the nominating process within New York City.

 

“I’m here and NAN is here because whenever the voting rights of minorities are threatened, we have to be on the front lines and do what’s right and what’s right in this situation is very clear,” NAN’s attorney, Michael Hardy, said in a public statement.

Hardy's presence is significant because it shows a willingness to side with Fulani, who is considering a run for mayor. With the support of NAN, and Sharpton, Fulani’s candidacy could get a lot harder to ignore.

I’m waiting to hear back from NAN for further comment.

The press release from Independence Party in New York City about the case is after the jump.  read more »

Mark your calendars: the state Independence Party is getting together, apart.

A week from Monday, the New York County chapter of the party, which is closely associated with Lenora Fulani, will have its annual fund-raiser at the Woolworth Kitchen Tower.

Tomorrow, a rival, Staten Island-based faction will hold an event to present awards to Councilman Vinny Ignizio, Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer and Village Voice writer Tom Robbins.

It’s safe to say whoever shows up to one probably won’t show up to the other. But it's nice to know that party infighting isn't putting a damper on the social schedule.

WARNING: If you find accounts of the perpetual feuding within the Independence Party to be boring and incomprehensible, do not read any further.

The state Independence Party organization has taken the unusual step of forming a three-member panel (sound familiar?) to investigate the party's county organizations and see if their rosters contain phantom party members. (This, according to IP member Frank Morano, who is perhaps best known in NY political circles for an ostensibly earnest effort to draft Lindsay Lohan into politics.)

State party rules require a certain number of active members to be on a county organization's committee in order for it to have the power to endorse candidates and function autonomously. Morano said that he and others suspect some organizations have on their committees people who never asked to be there, people who moved out of state and others who are ineligible to serve.

The members of this new panel include Tom Connolly, who chairs the Rensselaer County organization, state party secretary Bill Bogart and Morano.

All three are loyalists of state chairman, Frank MacKay, who is in a protracted fight with Lenora Fulani and others in the party.

For those of you who could benefit from a quick review: MacKay says that Fulani is a racist and her followers are under the spell of a cult led by pseudo-psychologist Fred Newman, while Fulani and her people say that MacKay is a racist and a pawn of the Democratic and Republican Parties.

Imagine those IP holiday parties!

-- Azi Paybarah

To court or not to court?  read more »