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The party supported Truman's [[Fair Deal]]. During the 1949 election they supported repealing the [[Taft–Hartley Act]], allowing the Communist Party to legally exist, expanding Social Security, and the creation of a national healthcare system.{{sfn|Soyer|2012|p=150}} It supported a referendum on the [[Puerto Rico statehood movement|status]] of [[Puerto Rico]].{{sfn|Soyer|2021|p=79}}
The party supported Truman's [[Fair Deal]]. During the 1949 election they supported repealing the [[Taft–Hartley Act]], allowing the Communist Party to legally exist, expanding Social Security, and the creation of a national healthcare system.{{sfn|Soyer|2012|p=150}} It supported a referendum on the [[Puerto Rico statehood movement|status]] of [[Puerto Rico]].{{sfn|Soyer|2021|p=79}}


The party opposed the [[Mundt–Nixon Bill]] and [[McCarran Internal Security Act]], although Berle supported an amended version of the Mundt–Nixon Bill. Berle opposed banning the Communist Party.{{sfn|Soyer|2021|p=92-93}}
The party opposed the [[Mundt–Nixon Bill]] and [[McCarran Internal Security Act]], although Berle supported an amended version of the Mundt–Nixon Bill. Berle opposed banning the Communist Party.{{sfn|Soyer|2021|p=92-93}} Palestin called for an investigation into the Communist Party's involving in the deaths or disappearance of [[Juliet Stuart Poyntz]], [[Carlo Tresca]], and [[Leon Trotsky]]. Palestin supported seating a Communist replacement on the city council following the death of [[Peter Cacchione]], but Goldberg opposed it.{{sfn|Soyer|2021|p=110-111}}


==Membership==
==Membership==

Revision as of 00:34, 3 February 2024

Liberal Party of New York
ChairpersonVacant
SpokespersonMartin I. Hassner
FounderGeorge Counts
Founded1944; 80 years ago (1944)
Split fromAmerican Labor Party[1]
HeadquartersNew York City, NY, U.S.
IdeologyModern liberalism
Social liberalism[2]
Progressivism[3]
Political positionCenter-left
ColorsGreen, red
New York State Assembly
0 / 150
New York State Senate
0 / 63
New York City Council
0 / 51
Website
www.liberalparty.org

The Liberal Party of New York is a political party in New York. Its platform supports a standard set of socially liberal policies, including abortion rights, increased spending on education, and universal health care.[4][5]

History

Creation

Members of the Communist Party USA started joining the American Labor Party and Israel Amter, chair of the Communist Party, called for the "building of the American Labor Party".[6] Although its constitution specifically barred Communists from the organization, there was no enforcement for this provision and large numbers flocked to registration as ALP members from the Communist-led United Electrical Workers, Transport Workers, and State, County, and Municipal Workers.[7]

Communists in the ALP opposed reelecting Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election and the party's leadership started an attempt to remove them from the party. The party condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Fights broke out at the party's convention, where Roosevelt was given the nomination despite an attempted resolution condemning Roosevelt.[8]

Sidney Hillman, a member of the left-wing, threatened to have the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America become involved in the 1944 state committee elections if the party's leadership voted against a proposal to increase union control over the party. The right-wing rejected it. Adolf A. Berle and Eleanor Roosevelt supported the party's right-wing while Franklin Roosevelt wanted to avoid conflict between the factions. Fiorello La Guardia proposed a compromise in which the state executive committee would be divided between the factions and no communist would be on the election slate. Hillman accepted the proposal, but David Dubinsky rejected it. The left-wing won 620 of the 750 committee seats.[9]

1,124 delegates attended the convention from May 19 to 20, 1944, where Franklin D. Roosevelt was given the presidential nomination.[10][11] Many of the leaders of the Liberal Party were former members of the Socialist Party of America and American Labor Party.[12] Paul Blanshard, August Claessens, and Harry W. Laidler were among the founders.[13] John L. Childs was selected to serve as the party's chair.[14] The party was given $50,000 by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and spent $200,000 during the 1944 election, three times what the ALP spent.[15]

Alex Rose was one of the strongest leaders in the party until his death in 1976. Raymond Harding succeeded Rose as chair and served until 2002.[16]

The party had 150 union affiliates by 1948.[14]

Rise

The Liberals attempted to give their mayoral nomination to Wendell Willkie, but he died and they instead nominated Jonah J. Goldstein.[17] Dubinsky stated that the "national third party project died" with Willkie.[18] Berle replaced Childs as the party's chair in 1947. He did not support the creation of a national party and was more supportive of the Democrats.[19] The party was a member of A. Philip Randolph's National Educational Committee for a New Party from 1945 to 1947.[18]

Louis Goldberg and Ira Palestin were elected to the New York City Council in the 1945 election, becoming the first elected Liberals.[20] The party supported James M. Mead and Herbert H. Lehman in the 1946 gubernatorial and senatorial elections, but both lost and less than 180,000 people voted on the Liberal line compared to over 400,000 votes on the ALP line. The party received enough votes in the gubernatorial election to become a recognized party.[21]

In 1947, the Liberal, Communist, ALP, Socialist, and other third parties successfully opposed legislation to increase the threshold to become a recognized party, but the Liberals supported the Wilson Pakula act, which was opposed by the Communists and ALP. The Liberals unsuccessfully opposed the referendum to end the usage of proportional representation for city council elections in New York City.[22]

The Liberals supported Henry A. Wallace's cabinet appointment causing The Wall Street Journal accused the ALP and Liberals of grooming him for a presidential run in the 1948 election. However, Liberal opinion soured on Wallace with Dubinsky calling him a "darling of the fellow travelers" and Berle calling him the front man for Communists.[23] In March 1947, the Liberal Party Policy Committee called for a presidential campaign by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The passage of Hubert Humphrey's pro-civil rights plank at the 1948 Democratic National Convention was one of the main reasons the Liberals endorsed Harry S. Truman on September 1, 1948.[24]

A cheering group of people point to a campaign banner that reads, "Register to Vote, Enroll Liberal Party."

Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives mainly with the Liberal nomination, and the Four Freedoms Party ballot line obtained with the aid of the Liberals, in 1949.[25][26] The 1949 New York City mayoral election was the first time that the Liberals received more votes than the ALP in a city-wide election.[27] Berle, Dubinsky, and Rose pushed for Herbert H. Lehman to seek the Democratic nomination in the 1949 U.S. Senate election[28] and the amount of votes he receieved on the Liberal ballot line was greater than his margin of victory.[29]

In 1960, the Liberal Party endorsed John F. Kennedy for president. On September 14, 1960, he accepted the nomination, giving almost a 20-minute speech defending American Liberalism and his campaign. Here he also gave a famous quote about liberalism, stating "I'm proud to say I'm a Liberal."

Liberal Party rally in support of John F. Kennedy for president, 1960. Party leader David Dubinsky is at the podium.

While the Liberal Party generally endorsed Democratic candidates, this was not always the case. They occasionally supported Republicans such as John Lindsay and Rudy Giuliani for mayor of New York City, and Jacob Javits and Charles Goodell for U.S. Senator, and independents such as John B. Anderson (a former Republican) for President. The Liberal Party endorsed Anderson for president in 1980 instead of incumbent Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. Carter had been the Liberal candidate in 1976 even though many people considered the evangelical southerner Carter to be less liberal than his moderate northern Republican challenger, Gerald Ford.

In 1969, Lindsay, the incumbent Republican Mayor of New York City, lost his own party's primary but was reelected on the Liberal Party line alone, bringing along 'on his coat-tails' enough Liberal candidates for City Council to replace the Republicans as the Minority Party in city government. In 1977, after Mario Cuomo lost the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York to Ed Koch, the Liberal Party endorsed Cuomo, who proceeded to again lose narrowly in the general election.

The Liberal Party sometimes played the role of spoiler by being the possible cause of the defeat of Democrat Frank D. O'Connor in the race for governor in 1966 by naming Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. as its candidate in the race against incumbent Republican Nelson Rockefeller. The Liberal Party played the role of spoiler even more in 1980 when they again decided to endorse long-serving liberal Republican senator Jacob Javits, instead of Democratic candidate Elizabeth Holtzman, despite the fact that Javits had recently been diagnosed with ALS and had lost in the Republican primary for United States Senator to his eventual successor, Al D'Amato. Later that year, in the 1980 general election for Senator, Javits took many Jewish votes and some liberal Republican votes away from Holtzman, as they both lost to the conservative D'Amato.

The Liberal Party declined in influence following the 1980 election. Its 1998 candidate for governor, Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross, received just 1.65% of the vote, with the party receiving criticism for its endorsement considering McCaughey's more conservative policies on healthcare in particular. The party endorsed Hillary Clinton's successful campaign for the United States Senate in 2000, but this did not revive its fortunes. After a very poor showing in the 2002 gubernatorial election when former Clinton administration Cabinet member Andrew Cuomo abandoned his campaign before the election but remained on the ballot as the Liberal candidate and received just 15,761 votes statewide, the party lost its automatic place on the ballot and ceased operations at its state offices.

Another hurdle to the efforts to reestablish the Liberal Party was the formation in mid-1998 of the Working Families Party, a party that enjoys, as the American Labor and Liberal Parties did in their prime, strong labor union support.

Decline

The Liberal Party also suffered allegations of corruption and of abandoning its liberal roots in favor of a system of patronage and nepotism – Harding relatives were given appointments in the Giuliani administration, and it was argued that it was a quid pro quo deal, since Giuliani is not generally considered a "liberal" by New York City standards. In 1999, The New York Observer called it an "ideologically bereft institution more interested in patronage than in policy."[30] In 2009, Raymond Harding pleaded guilty to having accepted more than $800,000 in exchange for doing political favors for Alan G. Hevesi, a New York politician who was a frequent Liberal Party endorsee.[31]

The Working Families Party became a new place for liberal or center-left voters to place their votes, and it did not help the Liberals that the Green Party, another left-wing organization, also expanded greatly at the same time. Around the same time that there was a surge in Working Families Party voting power, the Liberal Party failed to qualify for automatic ballot status, which robbed it of its inherent political power. The centrist campaigns of Tom Golisano boosted the Independence Party of New York into an automatic ballot line, due in large part to heavy campaigning against Republican George Pataki, which also helped siphon away potential Liberal Party votes.

In 2005, the New York Daily News reported that incumbent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then a liberal Republican who favors abortion rights and same-sex marriage, was seeking to revive the Liberal Party – and thereby run on a "Republican/Liberal" ticket – in an effort to win over Democratic voters in the overwhelmingly Democratic city.[32] Bloomberg was re-elected in 2005, but nothing came of these rumors of his campaign being used as a basis for a Liberal Party revival. In 2006, for the first time since the early 1940s, there was no Liberal candidate for Governor. Edward Culvert was the party's candidate for governor in 2010, but the party lacked the resources to muster the necessary petition with 15,000 valid signatures of registered voters to get him onto the ballot.

The Liberal Party's current chairman is Jack Olchin. Its executive director is Martin Hassner. Prior to former New York City Parks Commissioner Henry Stern taking over as chairman in 2004, the Liberal Party's longtime leader was Raymond Harding (born Branko Hochwald; January 31, 1935 – August 9, 2012).

The Liberal Party cross-endorsed Republican candidate Bob Turner in the New York's 9th congressional district special election, 2011, marking one of the rare times the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party have agreed on a candidate other than an unopposed one.[33]

Raymond Harding died August 9, 2012, in the Bronx of cancer, aged 77, depriving the Liberal Party of its best-known long-term figure.[34]

While the Liberal Party still has a website, the last election in which it endorsed candidates, all on other party lines, was the New York City Council races in 2017.[35]

Political positions

The party supported Truman's Fair Deal. During the 1949 election they supported repealing the Taft–Hartley Act, allowing the Communist Party to legally exist, expanding Social Security, and the creation of a national healthcare system.[36] It supported a referendum on the status of Puerto Rico.[37]

The party opposed the Mundt–Nixon Bill and McCarran Internal Security Act, although Berle supported an amended version of the Mundt–Nixon Bill. Berle opposed banning the Communist Party.[38] Palestin called for an investigation into the Communist Party's involving in the deaths or disappearance of Juliet Stuart Poyntz, Carlo Tresca, and Leon Trotsky. Palestin supported seating a Communist replacement on the city council following the death of Peter Cacchione, but Goldberg opposed it.[39]

Membership

Year Members/Registered voters % Change
1949 14,702 Steady[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Left | Definition & Facts".
  2. ^ The New York Public Library Archives & Manuscripts. "Liberal Party of New York State records". archives.nypl.org. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
  3. ^ "Brief History and Platform of the Liberal Party".
  4. ^ "The Liberal Party of New York and Independent Labor Politics". Process: a blog for american history. 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  5. ^ "News Copy, New York: Liberal Party". 2008-04-10. Archived from the original on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  6. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 29.
  7. ^ Parmet 2005, p. 156.
  8. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 29-31.
  9. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 33-34.
  10. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 1.
  11. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 42.
  12. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 3.
  13. ^ Johnpoll 1986, p. 70.
  14. ^ a b Soyer 2021, p. 39.
  15. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 43.
  16. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 7-8.
  17. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 46.
  18. ^ a b Soyer 2021, p. 64.
  19. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 59.
  20. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 51.
  21. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 55-56.
  22. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 57-59.
  23. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 62-63.
  24. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 67.
  25. ^ Soyer 2012, p. 148.
  26. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 70.
  27. ^ Soyer 2012, p. 171.
  28. ^ Soyer 2012, p. 174.
  29. ^ Soyer 2012, p. 176.
  30. ^ Benson, Josh, "Liberal Boss Ray Harding: Will He Take Rudy Over Hillary?", Observer.com, 11/08/99.
  31. ^ Hakim, Danny (October 7, 2009), "Ex-Political Boss Pleads Guilty in Pension Case", The New York Times, pp. A1, retrieved 2009-10-07
  32. ^ Saltonstall, David (August 2, 2005). "Mike a party animal: Eyes Liberal backing". New York Daily News. p. 2. Retrieved November 26, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  33. ^ Reisman, Nick (August 19, 2011). Koch robos for Turner. State of Politics. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
  34. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (August 9, 2012). "Raymond B. Harding, Ex-Liberal Party Leader, Dies at 77". The New York Times.
  35. ^ "Our Candidates". Liberal Party of New York. June 11, 2017. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
  36. ^ Soyer 2012, p. 150.
  37. ^ a b Soyer 2021, p. 79.
  38. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 92-93.
  39. ^ Soyer 2021, p. 110-111.

Works cited

Further reading

  • Armato, Michael A. 2022. “‘The One Who Spells It with a Capital L': Liberal Party Activism in the Hudson River Valley, 1948–1963.” The Hudson River Valley Review 38 (2): 44-62.
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