Greens, Libertarians to sue over third party barriers

ALBANY Two minor political parties on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum will jointly sue a commission whose recommendations are set to make it more difficult for third parties to survive in New York.

The Green and Libertarian parties announced at an Albany news conference on Monday that they would sue the Public Campaign Financing Commission, which released recommendations on Nov. 30 making it more difficult for third parties to maintain full, qualified ballot status in New York. Unless the state Legislature reconvenes to amend the recommendations by Dec. 22, a prospect looking increasingly less likely, the commissions work will be legally binding.

Two larger minor parties with opposing ideologies the Working Families Party and the Conservative Party are already suing the commission in similar but separate lawsuits, and are set to have a summary judgment hearing on Thursday in state Supreme Court in Niagara County.

Its not clear if the Libertarians and Greens will sue in state or federal court, or if they will join the other minor parties already suing. But a lawsuit will happen once the legal situation becomes clearer this week, party officials said on Monday.

We are committed to going to court, said Mark Dunlea, a co-founder of the Green Party.

Dunlea said that the Greens and Libertarians had been in discussions with the Conservative and Working Families parties about joining their lawsuit, but were told to wait.

They started this litigation in July, it took them a long time to get to this summary judgment hearing, Dunlea said. They just said, Dont mess up the waters at this point. Lets talk on Friday. Lets figure it out, based on whats going on in the court on Thursday.

Dunlea said the timing was advantageous, because if the court rules against the WFP and Conservative parties, the Green and Libertarian lawsuit could address those legal concerns in their own case.

Dunlea said that the Green/Libertarian lawsuit would address issues that had arisen since the WFP/Conservative lawsuits were filed in July, which primarily focused on maintaining New Yorks unique fusion voting system that allows minor parties to cross-endorse major party candidates.

The public financing commission ended up keeping fusion voting, but instead sought to cull the number of third parties by substantially raising the thresholds that minor parties must meet to have full ballot status. Currently, parties must receive 50,000 votes in the race for governor every four years. Under the changes, they would have to attain 2 percent of total turnout or 130,000 votes, whichever is greater, every two years in both the gubernatorial and then the presidential elections.

The commission also tripled the number of signatures required to independently petition a statewide candidate onto the ballot, from 15,000 to 45,000. Dunlea said that issue would definitively be raised in the Green/Libertarian lawsuit.

The Green and Libertarian parties have different interests than the other minor parties: They generally run their own candidates for major offices such as governor, rather than cross-endorsing Democrats and Republicans, as the WFP and the Conservatives generally do. In 2018, the Greens ran Howie Hawkins for governor, while the Libertarians ran Larry Sharpe.

Running their own, lesser-known candidates could make it more difficult for the Green and Libertarian parties to survive as viable third parties than it will be for parties like the WFP. Sharpe got about 90,000 votes and Hawkins about 95,000.

They are trying to remove our choice, so that they can remove our voice, Sharpe said.

Dunlea primarily blamed Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the changes challenging third parties, but also said two other Democrats Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins were complicit in agreeing to eliminate third party competition in New York. Heastie and Stewart-Cousins could team up to pursue a special session before the recommendations are adopted next month and some members of their conferences have called for just that.

But in conversations with reporters over the past week, the majority leaders were hesitant to reject the commissions report or commit to reviewing the rules for minor parties.

Well see what happens, Heastie said, while Stewart-Cousins focused on the commissions work to establish a system to publicly fund elections an item that has long been on Democrats wish lists.

We weren't concerned about fusion voting and this type of thing, but it's part of our discussion, Stewart-Cousins said of the report, which has a severability clause that prevents lawmakers from striking only some of the recommendations. We're talking about all of the recommendations, and, again, I'm happy that we finally actually have public financing, or at least the possibility of public financing."

The Working Families Party alleges that the changes insisted upon by Cuomos appointees were carrying out his revenge against the WFP, which endorsed a Democratic primary challenger to the governor in 2018.

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Greens, Libertarians to sue over third party barriers - Times Union