ALBANY – State Democrats are shoving through a bill to give political party bosses more power to kick out members – a move that had Republicans railing “when Democrats can’t compete, they cheat.”
The bill, which would give state parties the authority to boot members at will, was cooked up after Democrat Mondaire Jones embarrassingly lost the liberal Working Families Party line to a spoiler candidate during the former congressman’s failed comeback 2024 bid against Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.
WFP member and former Republican Anthony Frascone did not campaign but still snagged the WFP line from Jones — sparking accusations he was urged to run as a spoiler by Lawler and prompting WFP leaders to urge their own members not to support the spoiler.
Frascone ended up netting 2% of the vote in a race that Jones lost by 6% for New York’s 17th congressional district, a swing district that includes parts of Westchester and Rockland counties.
“Frascone did not run a campaign for the Congressional seat,” a memo accompanying the bill sponsored by Hudson Valley state Sen. Pete Harckham (D-Westchester) reads. “There was no fundraising or significant outreach to gather any additional support, and Frascone did not have any previous affiliation with the party. It appears there was no genuine intent to truly represent the people of NY-17.”
A spokesperson for Harckham didn’t return a request for comment.
Under existing law, only local county party committees can initiate “disenrollment” of a voter. The WFP, however, doesn’t have local county parties.
“There was this gray area, this ambiguous area where they might want to throw someone out of the party for allegedly being a party raider, but were not able to without a county organization or a county chair,” Joe Burns, a partner specializing in election law at Holtzman Vogel, told The Post.
“I think it’s obvious that it was done at the behest of the Working Families Party,” he added.
A WFP spokesperson said it would allow “all parties to perform key functions without the costly and burdensome requirement” of building and maintaining county-level committees.
“This key change will help ensure a level playing field for all political parties,” the spokesperson told The Post.
The bill is expected to pass the state Senate, though its future in the state Assembly is unclear before the end of the legislative session this week. Democrats control both chambers of the state legislature.
Critics from other parties blasted the move as a power grab by the WFP.
“Well, well, well, how about that? The party of democracy disenfranchising voters who don’t agree with them… how democratic,” Lawler wrote in a statement.
David Laska, a spokesperson for the state Republican Party, blasted the provision as sour grapes.
“After years of pearl-clutching about ‘defending democracy,’ Albany Democrats now want to hand party bosses the power to silence voters and purge party rolls at will,” Laska said in a statement. “This is voter suppression disguised as party reform – when Democrats can’t compete, they cheat.”
The leader of the state Conservative Party was left confused by the proposed change.
“I don’t see the value of giving the political party more power over its enrolled membership,” Conservative Party Chairman Gerald Kassar told The Post.