| Conservative Party of New York State | |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Michael R. Long |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Headquarters | 486 78th Street Brooklyn NY 11209 |
| Ideology | American Conservatism, Fiscal Conservatism, Social conservatism, |
| Website | |
| cpnys.org | |
The Conservative Party of New York State is an American political party active in the state of New York. It is not part of any nationwide party, nor is it affiliated with the American Conservative Party, which it predates by over 40 years.
In the United States House of Representatives elections, 2010, the Conservative Party netted 267,939 votes, the fourth-most of any political party nationwide (behind only the Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians and ahead of the Green and Constitution Parties) despite having operations in only one state.[1] As of November 1, 2011, a total of 147,993 voters are registered with the party.[2]
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The Conservative Party of New York State was founded in 1962 by a group including J. Daniel Mahoney, Charles E. Rice, and Charles Edison, out of frustration with the perceived liberalism of the state's Republican Party. A key consideration was New York's fusion voting, almost unique among US states, allowing candidates to accumulate separate votes from more than one party. This was being used by the Liberal Party of New York to encourage Republican and Democratic candidates to compete for left-leaning support.
The Conservative Party founders hoped to balance the Liberal Party's influence. An early supporter was National Review founder William F. Buckley, who served as the party's candidate for mayor of New York City in 1965. In 1970, William's brother James Buckley was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Conservative Party candidate; in 1976, he ran for reelection as a candidate of the Republican and Conservative Parties, losing to Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In the 2004 U.S. Senate election, the Conservative Party endorsed Marilyn O'Grady to oppose Republican candidate Howard Mills and incumbent Democratic Senator Charles Schumer.
The Conservative Party of New York State has often been aligned with Catholic voters and candidates.
| Chair | Tenure | Hometown while serving |
|---|---|---|
| Kieran E. O'Doherty | February 1962 – July 1962 | Manhattan |
| J. Daniel Mahoney | July 1962 – April 1986 | Manhattan |
| Serphin R. Maltese | April 1986 – December 1988 | Queens |
| Michael R. Long | December 1988 – present | Brooklyn |
Rather than nominating its own candidates, the Conservative Party usually endorses the same candidates as the Republican Party and campaigns against the Democratic candidates. It withholds this support from the Republicans if it deems them too liberal. For example, the Conservative Party withheld its support from Republican Rudy Giuliani's fusion campaigns with endorsement from the Liberal Party for New York City mayor in 1989, 1993[3] and 1997.[4] The decision not to endorse party-switching Syracuse state Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffmann cost the GOP that seat in the 2004 election. However it has also endorsed Democratic candidates as well, such as controversial former Buffalo mayor and presidential candidate Jimmy Griffin, who was initially elected mayor solely on the Conservative ticket but had Republican support as well for his subsequent campaigns. It also cross-endorsed such Democrats as former Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan and Capital District Congressman Michael McNulty. No Republican has won statewide office in New York without Conservative Party support since 1974.
Herb London was the Conservative Party's nominee for Governor of New York in 1990; that year, the Party broke from the Republican Party, declining to cross-endorse Republican nominee Pierre Rinfret.[5][6] London ran a strong campaign statewide and finished one percentage point behind Rinfret, while Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo easily won re-election.[7]
The party lobbied against Jeanine Pirro's candidacy for the 2006 Senate election against Hillary Clinton. Pirro was a liberal Republican and was supported by Governor George Pataki and other GOP leaders who saw her as the only candidate who could compete against Clinton. Under pressure from the Conservative Party and factions within the GOP, Pirro withdrew from the race in November 2005 to run for state attorney general (this time, with the endorsement of the Conservative Party). She was defeated in that race by Andrew Cuomo. Most Conservative Party state and county leaders supported John Spencer, former mayor of Yonkers, New York. While Spencer received the Republican nomination, he was defeated by Clinton in the general election.
In the race for Governor, Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long endorsed John Faso, the former Assembly Minority Leader and Republican State Comptroller nominee in 2002. Faso also received the endorsements of county branches of the Conservative Party. Bill Weld, John Faso's primary contender, received lukewarm support from the Conservative Party due to his support of abortion and same-sex marriage; Weld considered running on the Libertarian Party ticket. Faso was the nominee of both the Republican and Conservative parties, but was defeated by Eliot Spitzer.
The Conservative Party nominated Republican candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin for president and vice president in the 2008 election.[8]
The Conservative Party nominated Doug Hoffman for the special congressional election in the 23rd congressional district, an election won by the Democratic nominee, Bill Owens.[9] The Conservative Party chose Hoffman, a fiscal and social conservative, in reaction to the Republican Party's nomination of pro-choice, pro-same-sex-marriage, pro-union Assemblymember Dede Scozzafava, who Chairman Mike Long declared to be a "nice lady who is too liberal."[10] On October 31, 2009, Dede Scozzafava suspended her campaign,[11] leading prominent Republicans such as national chairman Michael Steele to endorse Hoffman.[12] The final election results showed that Owens prevailed over Hoffman by a margin of 48.3% to 46%.[13] According to one commentator, "tea party conservatives see the GOP loss as a victory for conservativism over mere political party loyalty. They’re describing the defeat as a warning shot fired in defense of principle."[14] In addition, elected officials and observers opined that the congressional race had an impact on the New York State Senate's December 2, 2009 vote against same-sex marriage legislation.[15][16][17]
Stephen Christopher, the party's nominee for Mayor of New York City, came in third in that race with 1.7% of the vote.[18] The party's nominees for Public Advocate and Comptroller also came in third with 3.5% and 2.3% of the vote respectively.[19] http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pdf/results/2009/General/3.11CitywideComptrollerRecap.pdf
Party chairman Michael Long publicly endorsed Rick Lazio for the New York gubernatorial election, 2010, and directed his allies to do the same. However, several county chairmen refused, and coalesced behind vice chairman Ralph Lorigo to assure Lazio would have a Conservative Party primary opponent. Long sent a letter demanding Lorigo to either cease his gubernatorial campaign or resign his position within the party, accusing him of being a stalking horse for another candidate, Carl Paladino, whom Long refused to consider (an allegation that, to this point, Lorigo has at least publicly denied, though his campaign is being run by family members of the Paladino campaign). Long did not state any consequences for refusing to do so.[20] The Conservative Party insisted it would continue to campaign for Lazio regardless of whether or not he won the Republican primary, assuming that he would win the Conservative Party primary; if he had lost both primaries, which Long dismissed as an impossibility, he would have been off the ballot. The presence of Lorigo on the primary ballot had no effect on the party's eagerness to promote Lazio as their presumed candidate.
Lazio defeated Lorigo in the primary election by a roughly 60-40 margin, though write-in candidates were significant in several upstate counties, many of which voted for Lorigo over Lazio. Paladino defeated Lazio in the Republican primary. Since that time, Long has barred Lorigo from party meetings.[21] Lazio dropped out of the race on September 27, requiring a vacancy committee to convene and select a replacement; Lorigo claims that Suffolk County chairman Ed Walsh held a meeting among his party's members that claimed a 90 percent support rate, at odds with Long's claims.[22] Long eventually endorsed Paladino, and the vacancy committee followed, placing Paladino on the line.
Paladino eventually drew 232,264 votes on the Conservative Party line, propelling the party past the Independence Party of New York to retake Line C for the first time since the 1998 elections. The surge came at the expense of Paladino's Taxpayers Party, which did not qualify for automatic ballot access.
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