WFP New York State Meeting

This weekend I attended the Working Families Party New York State meeting held in Corona Park, Queens. It was the first event of its type that I've attended, and I liked it. What was described as a "meeting" was more of a small-scale rally used to roll out their New York Working Families Guarantee and to provide a platform for candidates and office-holders who are endorsed by or still seeking the WFP endorsement.

What I liked about it was its upfront commitment to delivering on the needs of working people. There was very little virtue signaling in the shape of critiquing the surface-level behaviors of their political villains. I saw no hand-wringing over the latest absurdity from the White House or one of its surrogates. There wasn't a single mention of the Epstein files. Without those kinds of distractions, everyone who spoke was focused laser-like on the issues with which the Left seems most concerned. That included affordable homes, free childcare, guaranteed healthcare, and protecting immigrant families. Meanwhile, nobody was cagey about how to fund all of this - as one speaker put it, we need to "drill, baby drill" into the pockets of the rich. The comment got a rousing response from those in attendance. I appreciated it for its candor. Among those attending and speaking were Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander.

People in Huntington who want Democrats who support actual solutions to people's problems face a dilemma. If they stay with the Democratic Party, some tell me, they can vote for Delgado in the primary. If they register with the Working Families Party they lose their ability to vote in the Democratic primary, though they'll know their party will support candidates who agree with them on the most pressing issues of the day. Since I've started my effort to strengthen the WFP in Huntington, enough to withstand the party raiding that's been going on here for years, this is the choice I keep hearing about from people.

My thinking about this dilemma is that strategically voting in the Democratic Primary is savvy in the short term, but damaging in the long run. The policies that will frame the debate in the upcoming gubernatorial and congressional races are products of pressure applied by the Left - by the people who put specific affordability issues front-and-center in the Zohran Mamdani mayoral campaign. Democrats can hope and pray that their party will pick up and continue fights like this in the coming election cycles, but until something fundamental shifts little will change for Democrats. The same dynamics that have pulled them nationally just to the right of the political center (e.g., the Suffolk County Democrat Chair Rich Schaffer runs as a Conservative!) will remain untouched. It's become a party that champions sound administration and the restoration of democratic institutions. That does little for a generation of young people who can't build equity in a home or older folks who bankrupt due to illness.

I think the choice is clear. Support the party that supports your ideas. Support the party that is crystal clear about its policy goals. Support the party that works for workers and their families. The time I spent at the state meeting strengthened my resolve to remain a member of the WFP and to solve Huntington's party raiding problem. If it's something you are thinking about, please go ahead and do it already. Your party will be in alignment with your values and we'll all be one vote closer to preventing another election from being stolen by bad actors!