I got a fair amount of crap from people about my coverage of the Working Families Party scandal, wherein WFP was caught red handed violating campaign finance laws. Several people told me to lay off them because they are progressives. To me, though, corruption by people I agree with on policy is worse than corruption by Republicans, who I expect it from. So I covered the WFP scandal despite attacks from fellow progressives.

Well, now WFP and one of their star candidates, Developer Shill Bill de Blasio, have been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney's Office. So folks, it isn't just me who thinks WFP, Developer Money, and Bill de Blasio are rotten to the core despite their progressive rhetoric. From the New York Observer:

The Working Families Party has received a subpoena from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District seeking information in connection with its efforts in the 2009 elections, a spokesman for the labor-backed party confirmed...  read more »

This year I am endorsing quite a mixed bag for the general election. It is an unusual list for me, mixing Greens, WFP and Democrats. I have some serious beefs with both the Greens and WFP, but sometimes they do hit on a superior candidate. But I am so not about Party line this year (somewhat uncharacteristically).

Mayor: Bill Thompson (Democratic Party)  read more »

WFP and six local candidates, including Bill de Blasio (candidate for Public Advocate, ironically enough), Brad Lander, Daniel Dromm, et. al. broke campaign finance laws. That is a simple fact. WFP, and SOME (by no means all...John Liu for example did not participate) of their endorsed candidates played a little money scheme that allowed them to escape campaign finance laws that are designed to keep elections a tad cleaner and more transparent. They violated these laws, in effect using opaque and shady schemes to boost their effectiveness illegally.

Those are the facts and I personally think WFP needs to be held accountable for their violations...as do the candidates that participated.

Now some right wing nut cases (who I won't do the dignity of linking to) are picking up on this legitimate scandal and using it to show their attacks on ACORN (which WFP grew out of and is still connected with) were legit.  read more »

I have been watching the unfolding WFP scandal with some interest, but have been waiting to comment. Partly I wasn't at first sure if we were talking minor technicalities that WFP ran afoul of or if we are talking about a deeper pattern of disregard for campaign finance laws. I am now thinking it is a deeper pattern of disregard for the law, or at least an attempt to skirt the laws, that we are talking about. [Couple of UPDATES added]

An article in City Hall News covers this developing scandal in considerable detail. Here is the breakdown they give of the scandal:  read more »

Working Families Party just sent out an email whose level of egomania seems inflated even for them. They are touting their slate of candidates (or at least some of them) as potentially "The Next Obama."

Now I do not know all the candidates they mention, but I have to say this kind of grossly exaggerated and self-important rhetoric strikes me as particularly egregious when considering the WFP. But here is their list of potentially budding Obamas:

JUMAANE WILLIAMS
SJ JUNG
DEBI ROSE
YDANIS RODRIQUEZ
DANIEL DROMM
BRAD LANDER

I don't know the first four individuals to know whether they deserve to be crowned by WFP as "The Next Obama." Perhaps one of them does. Or perhaps one of them might be the "Next Clinton," or the "Next Tyler" or "Next James K. Polk." Who knows? I know Daniel Dromm by reputation and find him very impressive and endorsed him long before WFP did. However, to declare him potentially the "Next Obama" is beyond the range of even my ego. And I think all bloggers have a fairly large ego, but WFP beats us all.  read more »