Unabashedly left-leaning, the Working Families Party is the latest in a line of little-known but powerful third parties in New York. The party, whose leaders come from unions and liberal corners of the Democratic Party, rarely runs its own candidates. Leaders recruit and cross-endorse Democrats and put savvy field operatives to work in primaries and general elections.
Since its founding in 1998, the Working Families Party has accumulated a handsome pile of scalps, and prodded and sometimes dragged Democrats to the left. This year it successfully championed a so-called millionaire’s tax and a bill to train workers and weatherize houses — and its troops helped push Bill de Blasio, the city’s new public advocate, to victory.
But in its moment of triumph, the party faces an imposing threat, along with an implicit question: Did this hybrid of political party and political movement get too clever and overreach? The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan recently issued subpoenas seeking campaign documents from the Working Families Party and from Mr. de Blasio and City Council candidates who contracted with the party.
At issue is whether the Working Families Party has constructed an end run around campaign finance laws. After making an endorsement, party leaders ask a candidate to consider hiring the party’s commercial arm, Data and Field Services, to run the campaign. Critics accuse party leaders of providing that service at a discount, in effect making an under-the-table campaign contribution.
Government & Politics
Encouraged by a group of influential New York Democrats, Harold Ford Jr., the former congressman from Tennessee, is weighing a bid to unseat Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand in this fall’s Democratic primary, according to three people who have spoken with him.
Political junkies rejoice: The 2013 race for New York City mayor is (already) on. Former Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., who lost to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in an unexpectedly close race in November, said on Tuesday that he had decided to run for mayor again in four years.
Crime & Public Safety
New York City health officials defended a pamphlet it produced and distributed on “tips for safer use” of heroin that has raised the hackles of public officials, including the city’s special narcotics prosecutor.
As Manhattan’s longest-serving district attorney has cleared out his office for his successor, Robert M. Morgenthau and his staff have found historical letters and other lost treasures.
Housing & Economy
It is winter. A third of the city is poor. And unworn clothing is being destroyed nightly by major retail chains.
Transportation
Federal agents were not immediately able to retrieve surveillance images of a man who breached security at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday because a camera system was not working properly, officials said.
Since its founding in 1998, the Working Families Party has accumulated a handsome pile of scalps, and prodded and sometimes dragged Democrats to the left. This year it successfully championed a so-called millionaire’s tax and a bill to train workers and weatherize houses — and its troops helped push Bill de Blasio, the city’s new public advocate, to victory.
But in its moment of triumph, the party faces an imposing threat, along with an implicit question: Did this hybrid of political party and political movement get too clever and overreach? The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan recently issued subpoenas seeking campaign documents from the Working Families Party and from Mr. de Blasio and City Council candidates who contracted with the party.
At issue is whether the Working Families Party has constructed an end run around campaign finance laws. After making an endorsement, party leaders ask a candidate to consider hiring the party’s commercial arm, Data and Field Services, to run the campaign. Critics accuse party leaders of providing that service at a discount, in effect making an under-the-table campaign contribution.
Government & Politics
Encouraged by a group of influential New York Democrats, Harold Ford Jr., the former congressman from Tennessee, is weighing a bid to unseat Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand in this fall’s Democratic primary, according to three people who have spoken with him.
Political junkies rejoice: The 2013 race for New York City mayor is (already) on. Former Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr., who lost to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in an unexpectedly close race in November, said on Tuesday that he had decided to run for mayor again in four years.
Crime & Public Safety
New York City health officials defended a pamphlet it produced and distributed on “tips for safer use” of heroin that has raised the hackles of public officials, including the city’s special narcotics prosecutor.
As Manhattan’s longest-serving district attorney has cleared out his office for his successor, Robert M. Morgenthau and his staff have found historical letters and other lost treasures.
Housing & Economy
It is winter. A third of the city is poor. And unworn clothing is being destroyed nightly by major retail chains.
Transportation
Federal agents were not immediately able to retrieve surveillance images of a man who breached security at Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday because a camera system was not working properly, officials said.
Schools
Despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce class sizes, the city’s Department of Education has ignored state law and allowed classrooms to grow in the last couple of years, the city teachers’ union and other groups said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
People & Neighborhoods
For nearly a century, Harlem has been synonymous with black urban America. But the neighborhood is in the midst of a profound and accelerating shift: Blacks are no longer a majority of the population.
The Professional Bull Riders Invitational roars into Madison Square Garden this weekend, but outside that dusty arena, New York’s aspiring cowboys can be found at a bar in Rockefeller Center that is home to one of the city’s few mechanical bulls.
taken from: nytimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment