The Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of New York. The party was founded in 1991 by Dr. Gordon Black, Tom Golisano and Laureen Oliver from Rochester, New York, and acquired ballot status in 1994. Although the party is often associated with Ross Perot, and came to prominence in the wake of Perot's 1992 presidential campaign, the party was actually created prior to Perot's run. As of November 2006, there were 345,957 members statewide. [1] Image File history File links Ind_logo. ... Timothy P. Gordon is an independent member of the New York State Assembly. ... YOU SUCK!!!!! ... Political parties Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties/Parishes/Boroughs, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      A U.S. state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of... NY redirects here. ... Blase Thomas Golisano (1942-) is the billionaire founder of Paychex, the second-largest payroll processor in the United States, and owner of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... Henry Ross The Boss Perot (born June 27, 1930) is a American businessman from Texas, who is best known for seeking the office of President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. ...

Leadership

The chairman of the Independence Party of New York is Frank MacKay, who is also leader of the party in Suffolk County. A Chairman is the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Power struggles

The party has seen several major internal struggles. In 1997, the founding Chair, Laureen Oliver, declined to run again as State Chair and went on to be the party's State Secretary. She was succeeded by Suffolk County Chair Jack Essenberg. Essenberg had a tendency to run the party autocratically, and actually took the Richmond County chair, Thomas William Hamilton, to court to block his forming a recognized county committee, as this would have allowed the local people the sole voice in who could run locally on the party line. When Essenberg lost this case, Richmond, Jefferson, and Suffolk Counties formed county committees. Suffolk ousted Essenberg as County Chair, electing Frank MacKay, who became State Chair when much of the party united in rebellion against Essenberg. Since the summer of 2005, it has seen an internal factional struggle between followers of Marxist psychotherapist Fred Newman based in New York City and non-ideological party members and leaders in upstate New York and on Long Island. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Staten Island (IPA: ) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Fred Newman is a controversial philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist. ... Map showing Long Island; to the north is Connecticut and to the west are New York City and New Jersey. ...

History

The unexpectedly strong showing of Ross Perot in the 1992 U.S. presidential election raised the profile of political independents in the country and led to centrist political parties in many states. The Independence Party of New York had been founded in 1991, but rode to prominence on this wave, achieving ballot status in New York in 1994. The Independence Party is not associated with the Reform Party of the United States, which was directly founded by Perot in 1995. Henry Ross The Boss Perot (born June 27, 1930) is a American businessman from Texas, who is best known for seeking the office of President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. ... The United States presidential elections of 1992 featured a three-way battle between Republican George Bush, the incumbent President; Democrat Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas; and independent candidate Ross Perot, a Texas businessman. ... In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. ... The Reform Party of the United States of America (abbreviated Reform Party USA or RPUSA) is a political party in the United States, founded by Ross Perot in 1995 who said Americans were disillusioned with the state of politics – as being corrupt and unable to deal with vital issues – and...

In the elections for Governor of New York in 1994, 1998, and 2002, the party's candidate was businessman Tom Golisano, who had been the most important person in the party's founding. His personal wealth enabled him to mount well-funded campaigns. In each election, he finished in third place, far ahead of all other candidates not running on the Democratic or Republican ballot lines. Because Golisano received more than 50,000 votes each time, the party was each time guaranteed an automatic ballot line for the following four years and has enjoyed the third line on the ballot continuously since the end of the 1998 gubernatorial election cycle. This is a list of the Governors of New York. ... Blase Thomas Golisano (1942-) is the billionaire founder of Paychex, the second-largest payroll processor in the United States, and owner of the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. ... The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. ... The Republican Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States of America, along with the Democratic Party. ...

In the 2000 elections Newman initially backed Reform Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan but then switched to Natural Law candidate John Hagelin as a result of squabbles between Newman's faction and the Buchanan campaign. Hagelin was eventually chosen as the party's nominee over Ralph Nader. While New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was considered for the party's U.S. Senate nomination, the party ended up endorsing party member and Watertown Mayor Jeff Graham against Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio when Giuliani did not run. Patrick Joseph Buchanan (born November 2, 1938) is an American politician, author, syndicated columnist, and broadcaster. ... The Natural Law Party was a trans-national political party with national branches in over 80 countries. ... John Hagelin (June 9, 1954) is a theoretical physicist specializing in superstring theory, a practitioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation and yogic flying, an electronic designer of high-end audio equipment and was a candidate for President of the United States three times. ... Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934), is an American attorney and political activist Issues he has promoted include consumer rights, feminism, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Rudolph William Louis Giuliani III, (born May 28, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, businessman, and Republican politician from the state of New York. ... Watertown is the name of some places in the United States of America: Watertown, Connecticut Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown, Michigan Watertown, Minnesota Watertown, New York Watertown, South Dakota Watertown, Tennessee Watertown, Wisconsin Watertown Township, Michigan Watertown is also a nickname for Area 51 This is a disambiguation page — a navigational... Hillary Rodham Clinton (born Hillary Diane Rodham on October 26, 1947) is the Biggest loser/retard these united states have seen from New York. ... Enrico Anthony Rick Lazio (born March 13, 1958) is a former U.S. Representative from the state of New York. ...

In 2001 the party endorsed Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire Republican candidate for mayor of New York City. He offered each of the five county organizations within the City $5000, which all but Staten Island (Richmond County), still led by Hamilton, accepted. He also created his own independent ballot line, which he named the Students First Party, that was merged with the Independence Party's line on the ballot. The votes he received on the combined Independence Party/Students First Party ballot line, which counted toward his total under New York's fusion rule, exceeded his margin of victory over Democrat Mark J. Green, who also appeared on the Working Families Party line. It is theoretically possible, though not necessarily probable, that Bloomberg would have lost the election without the Independence Party endorsement. The following year, the New York City Industrial Development Agency approved an $8.7 million bond to help finance a new headquarters for a youth charity controlled by Newman and Lenora Fulani, Newman's chief spokesperson and the party's best-known public figure except for Golisano. The bond came to be seen by much of the media as a reward from the mayor as well as an incentive from Governor George Pataki (see below) to obtain Newman and Fulani's support for his reelection campaign. Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born 14 February 1942) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and the founder of Bloomberg L.P., currently serving as the Mayor of New York City. ... For a list of the Dutch Director-Generals who governed New Amsterdam (as New York City was called when it was a Dutch-run settlement) between 1624 and 1664, see: Director-General of New Netherland. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties support a common candidate, pooling the votes for all those parties. ... Mark Green Mark J. Green (b. ... The Working Families Party (WFP) is a left-wing-progressive minor political party in the US state of New York, which has now expanded efforts into a number of other states, including the creation of the Connecticut Working Families Party and organizing projects in a number of other states. ... Lenora Branch Fulani (b. ... George Elmer Pataki (born June 24, 1945) is the current Governor of New York State, USA serving since January 1995, and as of late 2006 is the longest-serving of all current U.S. governors. ...

In 2002, Golisano again sought the party's gubernatorial nomination. Although Pataki won the endorsement of the Newman-influenced IP state convention, with the full support of party Chair Frank MacKay, in May (only four days after final approval of the IDA bond), Golisano supported by Party Founder Laureen Oliver and many of the orginial founder members launched a primary challenge and achieved victory in September by a narrow margin. During the campaign, Golisano charged that Pataki's supporters had filed thousands of fraudulent Independence Party registrations in an attempt to marginalize upstate New York's already limited power in state government and to undermine Golisano's threat to the Republican power-base. In the primary battle and in the general election, Pataki was supported by MacKay and followers of Newman within the IP, including Fulani. A primary election is an election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election (nominating primary). ...

In 2004 the party endorsed Ralph Nader in his independent bid for president. Nader also petitioned for an independent line, which he named the Peace and Justice Party. Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934), is an American attorney and political activist Issues he has promoted include consumer rights, feminism, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. ...

With the approach of the 2005 elections for municipal offices, Bloomberg gave the Newman-controlled Manhattan branch of the party $250,000 to fund a phone bank seeking to recruit volunteers for Bloomberg's re-election campaign.^[1] The New York City mayoral election of 2005 occurred on Tuesday November 8, 2005, with incumbent Republican mayor Michael Bloomberg defeating former Bronx borough president Fernando Ferrer, the Democratic nominee. ...

On May 28 2005, the Independence Party endorsed Michael Bloomberg for re-election. Bloomberg won by a wide margin. During the campaign a consulting outfit controlled by the Newman wing of the party received an additional $180,000 as a Bloomberg campaign subcontractor, according to the New York City Campaign Finance Board. May 28 is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Fulani and other Newman followers were ousted from the party's state executive committee in September 2005 as a result of media controversy over Fulani's refusal on cable news channel NY1 to disavow her now-infamous 1989 statement that Jews are "mass murderers of people of color." Their opponents on the state executive committee received proxies from 75 percent of all state committee members for this move. But Fulani — whose comrades called the purge racist, sexist, McCarthyistic and even anti-Semitic — continues to be active in the party's Newman-controlled New York City machine, which is run on Newman's behalf by New York County chairperson Cathy Stewart and party strategist Jacqueline Salit. The New York City organization remains the most influential of the party's factions because of its small army of hard-working volunteers and the financial support it has received from prominent politicians and from Newman's own political and psychotherapy base. NY1 (pronounced New York One) is a twenty-four hour news channel available exclusively to over two million cable television customers within the five boroughs of New York City, nearby Bergen County, New Jersey, Mount Vernon in Westchester County as well as Time Warner Cable systems throughout New York State. ... Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. ...

On February 4 2006, the Executive Committee of the Independence Party of the State of New York dissolved the Interim County Organizations of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx which had been controlled by Newman and Fulani. It stated in its resolution that the action was a result of the anti-Semitism and racism espoused by Fulani and Newman, which are antithetical to the principals of the Independence Party.^[2] One week later an attempt was made to suspend the chair of the Staten Island IP, a member of the Fulani group. The attempt was made at a meeting held during a blizzard, attended only by two IP members and a Young Republican. The resulting court action saw the Chair remaining in office, but giving the opposing faction the right to make party endorsements for several local offices in the 2006 election. Although the "Newmanites" still control the Manhattan county organization, the recent revolt has probably ended their ability to influence the selection of the party's nominees anywhere in New York State except the borough of Manhattan. is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

On June 4 2006, the State Chairman, Frank MacKay, started dis-enrollment hearings against Fred Newman, Lenora Fulani, and almost 140 of their followers from the party, in order to seize control of the New York City county organizations. Three different judges, in three different counties, repudiated MacKay’s efforts to dis-enroll Fulani, Newman and the other 140 New York City leaders and activists. June 4 is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

In July 2006, more than 4,000 New York City Independence Party members created duly constituted County Committees in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, so that the State Chair could not take away local control in New York City.

In Nov 2006, Eliot Spitzer received over 190,661 votes on the Independence Party line, more than enough to secure the party's spot on Row “C” for the next four years. Also, 19% of those votes were produced by the New York City organization. Additionally, in 2006, the party saw its first member elected to the state legislature with the election of Timothy P. Gordon, who also ran with the Democratic endorsement. Timothy P. Gordon is an independent member of the New York State Assembly. ...

References

1. ^ "Mayor hires Indys to hunt volunteers", 'New York Daily News', 2005-01-05. Retrieved on 2006-12-16. 
2. ^ Text of the resolution accessed 16 December 2006

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... December 16 is the 350th day of the year (351st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• The Independence Party of New York County website
• Unofficial website
• Unofficial website of the Bronx, Candidate for 77th AD State Committee
• Ex-iwp.org's archive of articles critical of Newman-Fulani wing of party