Third parties assign support: Democrats Spitzer, Clinton and Republican Pirro all gain key endorsements Saturday

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau
Times New Union
First published: Sunday, June 4, 2006

Spitzer, the state attorney general, and Clinton received the state Independence Party's nod and were then endorsed by the labor-backed Working Families Party. For the two Democrats, who already enjoy big leads in public opinion polls, these lines could further increase their likely margins of victory come Election Day.
For Pirro, the state attorney general candidate many Republicans view as their best hope for a win in November, the Independence Party line could offer Democrats a place to support her that is more palatable than either the GOP or Conservative Party lines, which she received earlier this month.
Although both the Independence and Working Families parties selected their slates by majority votes Saturday, their respective conventions were not without drama.
A faction of Independence Party members abstained from voting to protest party leaders' efforts to sideline the organization's most controversial member -- Lenora Fulani -- whose past anti-Semitic statements led Spitzer and Clinton to threaten not to accept its line.
At the Working Families Party, there was a passionate debate over whether to back Jonathan Tasini, a Democrat running against Clinton on an anti-Iraq War platform, or forgo an endorsement altogether to protest the senator's "Yes" vote on the war and subsequent refusal to call for immediately withdrawing the troops.
In the end, both parties chose pragmatism over ideology -- a move that rankled some.
"You've just witnessed the disenfranchisement of the Independence Party," said Joe Ferris, an Independence member who lost his party's U.S. Senate endorsement to Clinton in a landslide vote at the Holiday Inn on Wolf Road. "The party members will have no choice in November."
The Working Families Party gave Tasini 6.4 percent of its weighted vote to Clinton's 93.6 percent, but later approved a strong anti-war resolution by voice vote. Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor insisted the party was not being hypocritical.
"It's a complicated world," Cantor said. "Our members are very unhappy about the war in Iraq, but we also have a lot of things our members are passionate about that Hillary Clinton is great on, like education."
Clinton was supposed to attend the Working Families Party convention at the Desmond hotel, but the inclement weather prevented her from flying, adviser Howard Wolfson said.
Tasini, who also did not receive enough support at the Democratic convention this past week to land a spot on the ballot, plans to petition his way into a primary with Clinton. Tasini said he was unsurprised yet "sad" about the Working Families Party vote.
"This party is supposed to be an alternative to the Democratic Party" he said. "Unfortunately, too many of the organizations that make up the Working Families Party are beholden to some of the very same powers that influence the Democratic Party in not good ways."
Both the Independence and Working Families parties endorsed Spitzer's running mate, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, D-Harlem, for lieutenant governor and state Comptroller Alan Hevesi. The Working Families Party also gave its line to Democratic attorney general front-runner Andrew Cuomo.
When it comes to the governor's race, at least, both parties acted with an eye toward self preservation by tapping a front-runner like Spitzer. Their gubernatorial candidates need at least 50,000 votes for the parties to retain their ballot status for another four years.
A ballot line is power in New York, as it is one of the few states that allows parties to cross-endorse and lets candidates combine the votes they receive on each line -- a practice that can prove crucial in close elections.
This is the first time the Independence Party has cross-endorsed its entire slate of candidates since it was established in 1994. Billionaire B. Thomas Golisano, a party co-founder who helped land its prominent ballot line -- Row C -- with his three gubernatorial runs, decided to forgo a fourth run this year.
Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, a Republican who is running for governor, also sought the Independence Party line Saturday, but was rebuffed, receiving only 3 percent of the party's weighted vote to Spitzer's 81 percent.
Clinton and Spitzer accepted the Independence Party nomination only after its leaders heeded their call to sideline Fulani because of anti-Semitic statements she made in 1989 but has repeatedly refused to repudiate.
Fulani and her supporters abstained from voting, and called the party's convention "undemocratic."
Spitzer ran into difficulty Saturday when he tried to explain why he ran for re-election for attorney general in 2002 with the Independence Party's support, despite the fact that Fulani was a significant presence in the organization, but would not so do this year unless her role was was diminished.
Spitzer maintained Fulani's anti-Semitic comments "had not come to everybody's attention" in 2002, despite the fact that Clinton had refused to seek the party's support when she first ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000 specifically because of Fulani's presence.
"I honestly don't remember what the dynamic was," Spitzer said. "The party came to me and said they would be proud to have me on their line, and I accepted ... This time, when we focused on the issue, I said: I will not do so unless she's been removed."
Clinton did not attend the Independence Party convention. In prepared remarks read by Watertown Mayor Jeff Graham, who ran against Clinton for the U.S. Senate in 2000 on the Independence line, she praised the party for "taking real and decisive steps to reject anti-Semitism and extremism" within its ranks.
Some in Fulani's camp found Clinton's comment disingenuous, noting they believe she attacked Fulani in 2000 because she had little chance at landing the line over Graham and wanted to diminish him as an opponent.
Fulani on Saturday said she believed Spitzer and Clinton inappropriately intervened in the party's business. She also maintained that her controversial statements made over a decade ago "has absolutely nothing whatsoever" to do with the party and its nominating process.
The uproar over Fulani is a result of her statement that Jews "function as mass murderers of people of color" and "had to sell their souls" to acquire Israel. She has refused to disavow or clarify the comments she has denied being anti-Semitic and noted that several of her friends are Jewish.
Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at [email protected].