Does anyone know anything about the "New Party"

[holiday]

now this is the latest thing going around...

is it over something stupid? Is it false? do I need to send it to fightthesmears?

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/10/08/


here's some of it

Web Archives Confirm Barack Obama Was Member Of Socialist 'New Party' In 1996
UPDATE: WE WILL POST AT LEAST ONE MORE SOURCE COMING TOMORROW! Subscribe to feeds or bookmark page.

In June sources released information that during his campaign for the State Senate in Illinois, Barack Obama was endorsed by an organization known as the Chicago "New Party". The 'New Party' was a political party established by the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA) to push forth the socialist principles of the DSA by focusing on winnable elections at a local level and spreading the Socialist movement upwards. The admittedly Socialist Organization experienced a moderate rise in numbers between 1995 and 1999. By 1999, however, the Socialist 'New Party' was essentially defunct after losing a supreme court challenge that ruled the organizations "fusion" reform platform as unconstitutional.

After allegations surfaced in early summer over the 'New Party's' endorsement of Obama, the Obama campaign along with the remnants of the New Party and Democratic Socialists of America claimed that Obama was never a member of either organization. The DSA and 'New Party' then systematically attempted to cover up any ties between Obama and the Socialist Organizations. However, it now appears that Barack Obama was indeed a certified and acknowledged member of the DSA's New Party

[bunnies]

1. Send it to fight the smears.

Stupid fucking republicans. :eyes: Seems like this is their answer to the Palin AIP problem.

[1corona4u]

2. Yeah, it's stupid...and already debunked.

[holiday]

3. great thanks I will let the person who sent this know

[holiday]

4. okay does anyone have link or anything to point in my right

direction

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. The New Party has been around for at least ten years

I'm not allowed to link their website, but a quick Google will turn it up.

[jberryhill]

6. You nailed it - it's over something stupid

Come to think of it, this year I'd expect a lot of Republican candidates to be interested in ballot fusion.

In a nutshell, some states allow Party X and Party Y to both nominate the same candidate for an office. On the ballot, Candidate Jones might thus be listed twice (once each under each of those parties) but can only be voted for once. This allows voters to essentially cast a vote that says, for example, "Okay Jones, I'm voting for you as a Fiscal Conservative candidate, and not as a Republican."

This would certainly help R's to understand their coalition better, but is not available in most states.

One of the third parties in DE endorsed the D congressional candidate, so she is indeed on the ballot twice here.

[holiday]

7. you jogged my memory, I remember reading about this now

[regnaD kciN]

8. I used to be a member...

...and, frankly, I'm tired of typing the same information about it over and over here, so I'm not going to this time. If you want to know, use the search function here to look up any one of the 25 or so posts I've written about it since last week.

[On the Road]

9. I Went to Some New Party Meetings in 1997-98

and worked for Peter Shapiro's campaign in Prince George County, Maryland in 1998.

I would describe the New Party as a progressive third party that focused on local candidates. The difference is that they always saw themselves as supporting and complementing the Democratic Party. Unlike the Green Party, they did not try to run their own set of candidates. 90% were Democrats, regardless of what name appeared on the ballot.

The New Party had no interest in running third-party candidates at a national level, so they depended on "fusion" voting, in which a major party candidate is also listed on a third party line. The idea was that if you could vote for Obama on the New Party line, it would give the third party political clout with the candidate to advance its agenda, and if a Democratic candidate wandered unacceptably far from the progressive agenda the party was free to support another candidate.

Fusion voting was used by populist parties a hundred years ago, but was made illegal in most states and is now practiced pretty much only in New York. Major candidates are usually listed on the Liberal Party and Conservative Party lines as well as Democratic and Republican.

The New Party challenged the anti-fusion laws in federal court as an infringement of the first amendment protection on political association. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where amicus briefs were filed from a wide variety of organizations on both sides of the political spectrum. The case by argued by Lawrence Tribe. The Supreme Court ruled against them.

Although offshoots of the New Party continued to operate at the state level (there was a Working Family Party in New York), the court decision pretty much broke the back of the political effort.

I had no idea that Obama was ever involved with the New Party. At that time, it was exactly the sort of thing that would have appealed to him.