The Working Families Party is subverting democracy by gaming the city’s ranked-choice voting system.
Last weekend, the WFP endorsed four Democrats — Adrienne Adams, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, and Zellnor Myrie — in the ranked-choice primary for mayor.
The idea is to get voters to not rank Andrew Cuomo, Scott Stringer, Jessica Ramos, or any other less fanatically left candidate, in hopes that a WFP pick will wind up sneaking into a majority by the final ranked-choice count.
The fact is, the ranked-choice “reform” favors such insider games, despite being promoted as empowering regular voters and promoting friendlier campaigns (i.e., less mud-slinging).
The WFP is no stranger to gaming the system; it narrowly escaped criminal prosecution a decade ago over a scam involving Data and Field Services, its for-profit campaign arm, which end-ran campaign-finance law by charging WFP candidates below-market price for campaign services.
Fact is, the city’s campaign-finance system — with its ridiculous 8-1 match — also favors organized insiders like the WFP, as well as fanatic ideologues like the Democratic Socialists of America: Witness how Mamdani became the first to max out on primary fund-raising.
It’s too late to undo any of this “progress” this year, but the next mayor should take a serious look at having a Charter Reform Commission ask the voters about unwinding “reforms” that only make city politics sicker.