Feud erupts between Dem socialist Ocasio-Cortez and defeated Rep. Joe Crowley

Fox News ^ | 7/12/18 | Alex Pappas

[firebrand]

The entry from Wikipedia is a bit misleading.

New York State has a law referred to as Wilson-Pakula that is unique in the 50 states. It allows a candidate to run on the ballot of another party or parties if his original party and the other party or parties agree to it. He also runs on his own party’s line. (There was a similar law in Connecticut, but the candidate could only run on one party’s line.)

The stress in the Wikipedia article on the Independence Party is misleading because first of all it is an actual party, with that misleading name. If you want to be independent, you register as “unaffiliated.” No doubt someone from the Independence Party added that “information” to the Wikipedia article. (The Independence Party was sued over the use of that name, by the party whose place in the batting order was usurped by the IP. The IP won.)

So Crowley was going to run as both Democrat and Working Families. He is stuck on the Working Families Party line unless he is appointed to a judgeship, which would disqualify him, but the appointment would be in a district where he does not now live, so he doesn’t want to do that. The Dems stick together, and he will not try, or at least will try to appear not to try, to win without the Dems.

Although the district has gone very Latino, there is still a core of Irish and Italian voters from the old days, and this whole thing has gotten so much attention that it’s anybody’s guess what will happen.

[OA5599]

Thanks for the info. I didn’t know the mechanism behind it, but had observed the names on multiple parties many times.

Also, I accidentally registered in the Independence Party back in 2000, just as you warned against in your post. Never bothered to change it to unaffiliated. Probably should because they seem to run the Democratic candidates most of the time. (Don’t worry; I have never, ever voted for a Democrat in my life.)

[firebrand]

I was at Giuliani’s official announcement in 1992 or 1993 and there was someone running with him who was a registered Democrat who had to be granted approval from the Republican Party and his own party.

After the Giuliani part was over, almost everybody adjourned joyfully to another room but my GOP mentor said, “Now watch this.” And we watched a Wilson-Pakula take place officially in an almost-empty room. I guess the others had seen it all before.