NY Post, May 11, 2018

One month ago, notes the New York Green Party’s Howie Hawkins at Gotham Gazette, the Working Families Party endorsed Cynthia Nixon for governor. Three days later, the WFP “said they didn’t really mean it” when political director Bill Lipton suggested the party would take her off its November ballot line if she loses the Democratic primary to Gov. Cuomo so as not to play the “spoiler.” Hawkins says he feels for the WFP’s rank-and-file: “They got double-crossed by Cuomo in 2014 when they endorsed him. This year they got strong-armed by Cuomo when they didn’t.” But that’s the problem with New York’s cross-endorsement “fusion” system: All the minor parties (except the Greens, who always field their own separate slate of candidates) “function like political clubs inside the major parties,” instead of like “independent parties.”