DOES THE LIBERAL PARTY HAVE A FUTURE ?
by Henry J. Stern
November 8, 2002
Despite the Liberal Party's dismal showing on Tuesday, obituaries for the 58-year-old third party are premature.
The Liberals fell well below the 50,000 minimum required for recognition as a political party in New York State. But this does not necessarily mean they will go out of existence. They may organize, if they wish, and nominate candidates by petition as other minor parties do and have done in the past. This is an issue the party must decide for itself.
There are several major reasons for the debacle. The main one is that the party's candidate for Governor, Andrew Cuomo, withdrew from the race early in September, even before his anticipated defeat in the Democratic primary. He then supported his former rival, Carl McCall, in hopes of retaining his future political viability. My article on Cuomo's untimely withdrawal can be reached by clicking You Gotta Be In It to Win It.
But the presence at the top of the ticket of a non-candidate who was in fact supporting someone else created an impossible situation for the Liberals. Why should anyone vote for Andrew Cuomo if he won't even vote for himself. ? This was the problem when Alan Hevesi ran on the Liberal line for Mayor in 2001, he received a mere 8027 votes. However, in politics, as in baseball, there is always next year, as State Comptroller Hevesi has just shown us.
It was originally hoped that Cuomo would receive a protest vote, such as Betsy McCaughey Ross did in 1998, which gained Column E for the Liberals. But the presence of Thomas Golisano on the Independence line meant there was another Italian-American seeking protest votes, and he spent more than $60 million to find them.
Another reason for the loss was the presence of competing left parties, the Greens and Working Families. These groups are more radical than the Democrats; they appeal to those who feel the Democratic Party is too moderate, too Republican for them. People who actually believe in socialism, the welfare state and appeasement of hostile regimes now have two homes from which to choose, and the Liberal Party is neither of them.
The logical choice for the Liberals this year, if they were to choose a major party candidate, was Governor Pataki, for whom many centrist and liberal-minded New Yorkers voted. The Conservative Party is said to have vetoed such an endorsement, on the ground that a tent that big was just too much for a party founded in 1962 to drive the Republican Party to the right.
The Liberals could also have tried to recruit an independent candidate, preferably self-supporting, whose best attribute would have been integrity, since the major parties are hopelessly compromised by what politely may be called the requirements of politics, more rudely stated as honest graft. But in recent years this has not been a Liberal strong point.
I believe there is a place in the New York State political spectrum for a center party, a liberal influence on the Republicans and a standard of integrity for the Democrats. But a political party requires men and women who believe in its principles and are willing to work hard to carry them out. It cannot be created by a single person, no matter how talented he or she may be.
The above is not intended as an examination of the Liberal Party and its historic and valuable role in New York State and New York City politics. It is simply a comment on yesterday’s events and a suggestion that the party’s role is not yet concluded, although that is a possibility, depending on the will of its members.
Mr. Stern was elected councilmember-at-large on the Liberal Party line, representing the Borough of Manhattan, in 1973. He was re-elected in 1977, and resigned on April 1, 1983, when he was appointed Parks Commissioner by Mayor Koch. He later served (1994-2002) as Mayor Giuliani’s Parks Commissioner.
His Liberal Party ties go back to 1951, when he was elected chair of the Young Liberals at City College, and participated in Rudolph Halley’s successful campaign on the Liberal line for City Council President. When he was appointed to Parks in 1983, he resigned from all party positions; he was then serving as a state vice-chairman and had previously been New York County chair of the Liberal Party.