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Dark horses. Rabblerousers. Dissenting voices. Spoilers. These are roles that third parties usually play in our politics. With the election looming, Democracywise reporter Leigh Paynter explores our local third parties and their influence.
Syracuse is home to an outspoken, politically passionate UPS truck loader, who has tried to change Central New York politics 13 times. Howie Hawkins continues campaigning under the Green Populist ticket — this time for the 25th District Congressional seat. He says 13 losses haven’t hurt his motivation to change politics.
“I’m a long-shot. I’m a dark horse, but I think there’s a definite shot. This has been a volatile year in elections. A lot of surprises, not just in the presidential primaries, but in the congressional districts. And I think my positions are the positions that a majority of the people in the district hold.” (Howie Hawkins, Green Populist Congressional candidate.)
It’s the right to representation and the opportunities to make a difference that keep third parties motivated and active. In Central New York, there are five active third parties: Conservative, Green, Independent, Libertarian, and Working Families Party.
Syracuse University political science professor Danny Hayes says third parties play multiple roles in politics on national, state, and local levels.
“One of the things third parties do is to provide a different voice, that’s saying something different from major parties. You can also think of them as challenging the dominant ideologies.” ( Danny Hayes, Syracuse University political science professor.)
Third parties also expand the public discourse on issues and seek to influence existing politics.
Conservative Party chairman, Austin Olmsted, says the Conservative Party was founded in order to influence the two major parties. The Conservative Party in Central New York does not have an interest in developing its own power base.
“Our goal was to drive them back into a conservative position where they first started before the 1950s. In fact, our stated goal was once we forced or encouraged the Republicans to move back to the right, we could easily disband and consider our job as finished.” (Austin Olmsted, Conservative Party chairman.)
And minor parties can have major influence. S-U political science professor Danny Hayes says that often many third parties run in obscurity, almost ignored. But third-party candidates have won major offices. For example, in 1998 pro wrestler and radio talk-show host, Jesse Ventura, became governor of Minnesota under the Reform Party ticket. And third parties don’t have to win to change elections. They can also pull in enough votes to be spoilers.
“Only a few cases, rare cases from time to time, where third parties prove to be consequential in elections. One of which is in the 2000 campaign, Ralph Nader was able to win enough votes that we can say Al Gore probably would have won that election.” (Danny Hayes, SU political professor.)
Many Democrats and Republicans have found that it’s more beneficial to work with third parties than it is to fight their influence. For example, in New York candidates can run under multiple party tickets. That enables them to have their names on the ballot multiple times and to attract voters who don’t see themselves as either Democrat or Republican.
Conservative Party chairman, Austin Olmsted, says that in New York, it is often necessary for a major party candidate to be endorsed by a third party.
“Putting our count down with a major party line is the difference between winning and losing. Just putting the candidate in office is major. That’s what most candidates are interested in — our help to get them elected.” (Austin Olmsted, Conservative Party chairman.)
The Conservative Party has endorsed Republican Dale Sweetland for the 25th District Congressional seat and the Working Families Party has endorsed Democrat Dan Maffei. Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins is the only candidate running under one ticket, a third-party ticket.
Third-party candidates also struggle against big obstacles: Too little money. Too few volunteers. Too little media attention.
But Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins is becoming a familiar face in Syracuse. He is even credited for pushing the Syracuse Common Council to enact the living-wage ordinance. It requires some employers to pay a wage of $10.08/hour to employees receiving healthcare benefits and $11.91 for those without.
Local third-party members say they hope voters pay more attention to the issues and the messages they are sending, than the advertisements and media publicity before elections. Working Families Party chairman, Rick Oppedisano, says voting on a third-party line or for a third-party candidate is never a wasted vote. He says that’s how voters draw attention to what matters to them.
“The message I think would be ‘Holy hell, look at all the people that voted on this line.” (Rick Oppedisano, Working Families Party chairman.)
Oppedisano adds:
“The more people vote on our line sends a message to all candidates and to all politicians that these issues that our party stands for are important.”( Rick Oppedisano, Working Families Party chairman.)
For his part, as the only third-party candidate running this time around, Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins is taking all the opportunities presented to him. This is the first year he will debate with the major-party candidates in all scheduled forums. Hawkins hopes that if his message appeals to voters, they too will take their opportunity to vote for him.
“I think if I get elected everyone’s gonna say ‘Whoa, how’d this guy get elected? He was outspent 100 to one. What were the issues that got him elected?’ And other members of Congress, members of the media will say, ‘There’s something here. People want this. Otherwise he wouldn’t be elected.’” (Howie Hawkins, Green Populist Party candidate.)
The election is November 4th.
For Democracywise, I’m Leigh Paynter.
(Leigh Paynter is a broadcast journalism graduate student.)
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