We defied the odds on election night -- and together, we sent a clear message that our elected leaders need to put New York City's working families first.
More people voted on the Working Families Party ballot line than in any New York City election in our party's history.
Working Families-endorsed candidates Bill de Blasio and John Liu were overwhelmingly elected to the City's second and third highest offices, where we know they will be strong voices for a more progressive New York.
And with the WFP's help, a new generation of grassroots community organizers joined the City Council -- including Jimmy Van Bramer, Jumaane Williams, Debi Rose, Ydanis Rodriguez, Steve Levin, Brad Lander, Danny Dromm, Fernando Cabrera, and more. We're also thrilled about what the future holds for inspiring candidates who ran strong races solely on the Working Families ballot line, such as Mark Winston-Griffith and Lynn Schulman.
And then there was the Mayor's race.
When the WFP sent out an e-mail message saying that the Thompson-Bloomberg contest would be "a stunningly tight election," political pundits scoffed. Yesterday we proved them wrong.
If you're sick, stay home. That's not just commonsense, it's advice public health officials dealing with Swine Flu and other infectious diseases give everyday. But for half the people reading this column, staying home might not be an option.
A shocking new report released last Thursday by the Community Service Society and A Better Balance shows that nearly half of all working New Yorkers (as many as 1.85 million people) - have no paid sick leave on the job. At least 1.3 million New Yorkers have no paid time off whatsoever (no vacation, no personal days).
For them, every cold or flu means having to choose between losing out on the paycheck they need to get by, or putting their health at risk (not to mention the health of their co-workers).
What's worse, the numbers are trending in the wrong direction. According to the report, 69% of "near-poor" workers - those earning just above the federal poverty line - had paid sick days in 2004. Today, just 33% of near-poor workers report being able to take a paid day off work when they get sick.
Finding a job in this recession is tough enough. Sick in the City shows thatfinding one that offers decent benefits is a lot harder.
What if we could help stop global warming, save homeowners on their utility bills, and create thousands of badly needed jobs too?
It's not a far-off fantasy, it's the power of the green economy. And thanks to Albany's leadership, New York is set to become a national (and global) leader in harnessing green technology -- and making sure its benefits are enjoyed by everyone.
The landmark Green Jobs-Green New York bill signed by Governor Paterson this morning in Syracuse, is based on a simple idea: set up a statewide fund to help homeowners and small business owners with the upfront costs of making energy-saving renovations and repairs, like fixing insulation problems or replacing an inefficient boiler. Then, use part of the energy savings to pay the fund back and help finance repairs for the next home or business.
Using the power of energy savings to pay for itself means reaching far more homes and small businesses than current energy programs allow. And taking away the burden of upfront costs means the benefits of green technology will finally be accessible to working families.
Hundreds of Make the Road New York members marched over the Brooklyn Bridge and rallied in Foley Square today in support of a New York City Council bill that would make paid sick days a basic workplace standard.
Guillermo Barerra, a father of two who was fired from a Brooklyn Restaurant for asking permission to go the hospital joined the spirited rally. He told the Daily News about how he was let go: "She told me I was fired and she never wanted to see me again and I should never return...It's terrible. Employees should not be treated this way."
Yesterday, something amazing happened in New York City. John Liu rode a rainbow coalition to win the runoff for Comptroller and in November he'll become the first Asian-American ever elected to citywide office.
And Bill de Blasio, who just 6 months ago was an inspiring but little-known progressive hero, won the contest for Public Advocate against a much better known opponent.
These were hard fought victories. Bill and John spent months crisscrossing the city, talking to people in every borough and nearly every neighborhood about the issues that matter to middle- and working-class people. They each built broad coalitions: neighborhood leaders, union members, tenant activists, advocates for the homeless, and just good old-fashioned civic-minded citizens.
Turnout wasn't high. But those who did come to the polls cared deeply about the future of our city. New York has big challenges ahead. The affordable housing crisis. Rising unemployment. Every day, New Yorkers grapple with a city they love but fear they can no longer afford to call home.
There's a lot of work to do. But today, we have two new progressive leaders who will work to find solutions to the problems our city faces. I know I speak for thousands of Working Families Party members when I say that we are thrilled to have played a part in their victories. We look forward to working with them in the never-ending project to build a society based on democracy, equality and solidarity.
Thanks for all your hard work.
P.S. The press noticed too. The New York Times this morning said: "The Working Families Party, once derided as a rag-tag collection of Brooklyn progressives, is now the pre-eminent political force in New York City politics."
From an email authored by Dan Cantor, WFP Executive Director.
[By Dan Cantor, WFP Executive Director]
Tuesday's election results were simply incredible. Two major citywide upsets. Two major milestones for civil rights and equality in New York City. And seven inspiring, first-time candidates for City Council made it across the finish line.
The lesson is clear: when people organize and act, we can carry on the wave of progressive change that started with Barack Obama's victory last November.
The Working Families Party started this election year with a simple idea. If we have a community organizer in the White House, why not put a few community organizers in City Hall?
So we scoured the city, looking for neighborhood leaders, tenant activists, and even the occasional progressive policy advocate. We found some incredible candidates. And after months of hard work - knocking on thousands of doors, recruiting hundreds of volunteers, after talking to voters day-in, day-out about the issues that matter in their community - we did it.
Here are the highlights:
Progressive champion Bill de Blasio led the pack in a four-way race for Public Advocate. De Blasio will now go head-to-head with Mark Green in a runoff election that's just two weeks away.
John Liu also surged to first place in a crowded field of City Comptroller contestants. He's also bound for a runoff in his attempt to become the first Asian American elected to Citywide office.
On the City Council, there were even more progressive victories for WFP candidates:
Debi Rose won handily to become the first African American ever elected from Staten Island.
In Queens, not one but two WFP-endorsed Council candidates -Danny Dromm and Jimmy Van Bramer - made history as the first openly gay elected officials from the borough. All this on the heels of Julissa Ferreras' City Council win this February to become the first Latina elected in Queens.
Tenant activist and community leader Jumaane Williams scored a major upset, defeating incumbent Councilmember Kendall Stewart in a very tight 6-way race.
Reformer Ydanis Rodriguez blew away the competition in Washington Heights.
And finally, Brad Lander - one of New York City's leading voices on sustainable development - took victory in a hotly-contested race for Bill de Blasio's vacated Brooklyn City Council seat. To his north, the energetic Stephen Levin cruised to victory.
Not every progressive winner was a newcomer - some very worthy D-WFP incumbents were also returned to office. And, one race where WFP stayed out deserves special mention: insurgent Margaret Chin became the first Asian American elected official in Manhattan.
We didn't win every race. Four of our candidates - Richard Aborn, S.J. Jung, Lynn Schulman, and Mark Winston-Griffith - ran great campaigns and came close to pulling off big upsets.
It was a great night, but it's only the beginning. There's lots more work to do, and as always, we'll need your help every step of the way.
The New York State Senate and Assembly, too often a model of corruption and dysfunctionality, rose above petty politics last week to pass forward-thinking legislation on climate and energy, setting a precedent for bipartisanship and a sensible cap and trade system. The State Senate passed the groundbreaking Green Job/Green New York Act, with strong support from Republicans, Democrats, and the Working Families Party, which spearheaded the legislation. The bill -- expected to be signed into law this week by Gov. David Patterson leverages $112m in revenue from the Northeasts's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) into $5 billion of private investment to finance home weatherization, energy efficiency projects, and green jobs creation.
At a time when health care, Joe Wilson, Glenn Back and Van Jones are uppermost in so many people's minds, I'd like to do my best and draw some attention back to base level politics: local elections.
It's not easy to generate attention and excitement for the thousands of races for county legislator, town council, highway supervisor, and even mayor. Yet the men and women who aspire to these offices are the very heart and soul of the political class in the neighborhoods, wards and precincts where we live. Progressive change doesn't happen without change at the local level.
The top hat and tuxedo-clad "Billionaires for Budget Cuts" descended on Hartford yesterday, heaping some damning praise on Republican Governor Jodi Rell for her steadfast refusal to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to close the state's $8 billion budget deficit.
The Connecticut Working Families Party sponsored the tongue-in-cheek rally as part of a month long campaign against the Governor's regressive budget proposal. Her plan calls for closing the gap with taxes on the middle-class and billions in cuts to basic services working families dependent on. But Rell is defiantly opposing a proposal to raise income taxes on the wealthy, what many progressive economists say is the best solution for states facing budget shortfalls.
The billionaires - "Robin Eublind, "Rich N. Luvenit," and "Iona Lottabotes" - called "Our Jodi" their "best investment." Arriving at the Capitol by limousine, they chanted a refrain the Governor has taken to heart, "taxes are for little people!"
For the first time, America has a community organizer in the White House. What if we put a whole slate of community organizers in City Hall?
That's what the Working Families Party is fighting to accomplish this year. After Barack Obama's inspiring victory, the WFP searched throughout NYC for the next generation of City Council candidates who, like our President, got their start organizing in the communities they're now running to represent.
The people we've found will blow you away. Their stories represent the best of New York City. Their values embody everything the Working Families Party stands for.
With the September 15 primary elections just six weeks away, we want you to meet a few of the candidates who make up our "Community Organizer Slate." Electing this new generation of leaders will shift the balance of power in City Government away from real estate moguls and Wall Street tycoons -- and back to working families.
But they need your help to get to City Hall. Read the brief introductions below and click to find out how you can get more involved in their campaigns:
Yesterday, we told you that 5 New York Democrats in the House were blocking President Obama's healthcare reform. The response was incredible. Over 4,000 of you have already signed the petition.
That's not all. We got confirmation that our strategy of holding the Democrats accountable is the right move when a right-wing anti-healthcare reform business group unleashed a pretty over-the-top attack. In a blustery email message, New Yorkers for Growth said:
New York, NY-July 23...New York State's high-spending, left-wing Working Families Party today launched a blistering attack on five New York Democrats who have not signed off on the ever-changing Democratic health care legislation in Washington, according to fiscal reform organization New Yorkers for Growth, which obtained a copy of the Working Families Party (WFP) email missive.
We have to act fast. Five Democratic Members of Congress from New York are putting the brakes on President Obama's historic campaign to reform our broken healthcare system.
Legislation that would expand healthcare coverage for tens of millions of Americans is gaining steam in Congress. But these five New York Representatives are stalling the bill because it pays for reform with a modest tax on the rich.
This is our best chance for healthcare reform in a generation, but now these five Democratic Members of Congress are putting real reform in jeopardy - even though less than 1% of all New Yorkers would be affected by the tax. Healthcare is too important to sit on sidelines.
It's enough to make the average taxpayer's head spin. But here's another outrage:the Daily News reported Monday that Goldman-Sachs could soon receive up to $321 million in city and state taxpayer dollars as part of an incentive program to keep their offices near Ground Zero. That's on top of $1.6 billion the investment firm has already received in tax breaks and publicly backed bonds for its shimmering new downtown headquarters.
Talk about third parties in most places and folks will either snicker or rail about Ralph Nader helping to elect Bush. Talk about the Working Families Party in New York, and you get “Kingmaker.” At least that’s what the New York Post, the mouthpiece of Rupert Murdoch has to say.
The WFP is backing progressive champion Richard Aborn in the hotly contested race to replace legendary Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who’s retiring after 35 years in office. That has the right-wing Post’s editorial page worried:
As promised earlier today, we're liveblogging from the Working Families Party's Mayoral Forum, at the Hotel Trades Council Union Hall in midtown Manhattan. We'll be joined by two leading Democratic candidates, Bill Thompson and Tony Avella, and the incumbent Michael Bloomberg. If you have any questions, comments or thoughts for us, please let us know in the comments, and we'll try to reflect those interests in our coverage.
7:55 Thompson finishing up. They all handled themselves respectably. People are ready for dinner in back. Is it a standing O for Bill or for the food line?
Thanks to Charles, Levitan and crew for welcoming blogging and getting wi-fi back up.
And thank you, WFP, for planning this forum a 3-minute walk from Rudy's...it is Drinking Liberally night (and we're late!). Come on out to keep the conversation going. -jk
7:50 From Thompson's case for his electability: "This is not 2005. The economy was booming, people liked where they were. This is 2009, the economy is failing, people are scared and want change in City Hall." -jb
7:48 To the final question, from Dan Cantor, about convincing WFP Thompson could beat the Bloomberg behemoth, Thompson just had the first laugh-out-loud line of the night: "I'll quote someone who said, 'Rich guys don't always win.'"...which was Bloomberg's defense of spending $100 million on the campaign just 40 minutes ago.
A second reference to Obama too... -jk
7:47 Judging by this forum, one line that is going to be used against Bloomberg consistently is that hat his response to every economic question is "But we love the rich." Oh, and "Why is Michael Bloomberg willing to run on the Republican line if he doesn't believe in parties?" -jb
7:46 Uh-oh, Bill...people in the backroom are starting to eat. You're competing with food!
Good answer on the pride of running on party lines...and asking "Can anyone imagine Barack Obama on the Republican line?" got some laughs. -jk
7:44 By the way, we're not the only ones watching. Public Advocate candidate just made this his Facebook status update: "is not impressed that the Mayor said at the WFP forum that calling 311 is a solution for tenants facing eviction from their home. Wrong answer!" (He's a WFP endorsed candidate) -jk
Later today, the Working Families Party will be hosting a Mayoral Forum for the two leading Democratic candidates, Bill Thompson and Tony Avella, and the incumbent Michael Bloomberg.
We wrote earlier this month about how the Working Families Party is doing some of the best work out there in creating an accessible narrative for progressives in the economic crisis, the most recent example being their use of Monty Burns in fighting for Fair Share Tax Reform. Well, in the aftermath of the AIG bonuses debacle, the WFP in Connecticut is doing some wonderful narrative-building of their own - drawing attention for their "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous" tour of AIG Financial Products Division executive homes - a story in today's New York Times, after some perfunctory "it's so hard to be an executive when people are angry at you" tearjerking, highlights the effort:
The Connecticut Working Families party, which has support from organized labor, is planning a bus tour of A.I.G. executives' homes on Saturday, with a stop at the company's Wilton office.
"We're going to be peaceful and lawful in everything we do," said Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families. "I know there's a lot of anger and a lot of rage about what's happened. We're not looking to foment that unnecessarily, but what we want to do is give folks in Bridgeport and Hartford and other parts of Connecticut who are struggling and losing their homes and their jobs and their health insurance an opportunity to see what kinds of lifestyle billions of dollars in credit-default swaps can buy."
There's a great debate in New York State right now -- great because it reflects a larger debate around the country: shouldn't the wealthiest New Yorkers pay their fair share?
As this video shows, there's some confusion already over who is paying what:
All New Yorkers earning over $20k, pay the same rate. Fair Share Tax Reformers in NY are calling on the Governor to follow the President's lead and ask those earning $250,000 to pay a higher rate.
One counter argument: "If we raise taxes on the rich, they'll move away."
The good news: the city's wealthiest resident isn't going anywhere -- in fact, he changed the law to ensure that he could stay in office 4 more years...and giving us 4 more years to raise his taxes.
Every battle needs a good villain. Not sure if that's a line out of a comic book, or the advice Matt Stoller has often offered on these pages, but it's true.
There's some healthy debate about whether Rush is the right villain or the wrong target. Brave New Films has done a great job their War on Greed to make the likes of Henry Kravis into a known nemesis. And in New York, the proponents for Fair Share Tax Reform just realized: why create a villain, if the entertainment industry's already done it for them.
Enter Monty Burns from the Simpsons, a no-goodnik we love to hate, and the new face of the plutocrats looking to sink New York's working class.
In anticipation of a major rally on Thursday, the Working Families Party -- leaders of the Fair Share push -- have turned to satire. They've circulated a letter from Homer's boss to his fellow fatcats. Who wants to be on the side of Mr. Burns? Well, except for Smithers, of course.
This open letter to the Netroots from Netroots New Yorkers is posted by other signatories on The Albany Project and Daily Gotham
Democrats are on the ascent, nationally and in states like ours, where the decades-old Republican stranglehold on Albany may finally be broken in less than one week.
If the Democrats are victorious, then the real battle will begin: how do we hold them accountable to progressive values against the enormous pressure they will face to play it safe?
As you may well know, they've led many of the big battles over the last ten years, from raising the minimum wage to putting paid family leave on the map, to fighting for affordable healthcare for all, public transportation, and most recently taking on Mayor Bloomberg's extremely undemocratic plan to extend term limits without a public vote.
It's not a far-off fantasy, it's the power of the green economy. And thanks to Albany's leadership, New York is set to become a national (and global) leader in harnessing green technology -- and making sure its benefits are enjoyed by everyone.
Yesterday, something amazing happened in New York City. John Liu rode a rainbow coalition to win the runoff for Comptroller and in November he'll become the first Asian-American ever elected to citywide office.
Turnout wasn't high. But those who did come to the polls cared deeply about the future of our city. New York has big challenges ahead. The affordable housing crisis. Rising unemployment. Every day, New Yorkers grapple with a city they love but fear they can no longer afford to call home.
