For Immediate Release: November 4, 2008
Contact: Dan Levitan
Albany – Today, The Working Families Party celebrated the victories of Democratic Senate candidates Brian Foley and Joe Addabbo and the resulting defeat of the decades-old Republican State Senate majority, calling it “potentially an incredible boon for New York’s working people.” Statewide, the WFP knocked on over a half-million doors to help put Senate Democrats over the top.
“It’s a new day in Albany. After decades of regressive politics, the commonsense progressive ideas New Yorkers have been demanding will finally get a real hearing,” said Dan Cantor, Working Families Party Executive Director. “Whether it’s fixing our broken rent laws, finding a fair solution to the looming budget gap, or finally reforming Albany itself, there is so much we need to get done, and we can’t wait to get started.”
In the run-up to Election Day, the Working Families Party deployed massive field operations across the state in close collaboration with Senate Democrats.
The effort included embedding over a dozen full-time staff in 6 key campaigns (Addabbo, Aubertine, Dollinger, Foley, Mesi, and Stachowski) and running a canvass operation that knocked on just over half a million doors statewide to identify tens of thousands of campaign supporters and help turn them out on election day. Along with its affiliated unions, the WFP deployed more than 2,000 people on Election Day.
Many of the grassroots third party’s top legislative priorities – public financing of elections to clean up Albany, fixing New York’s broken rent laws, enacting a statewide paid family leave program, and finding a fair solution to state’s budget crisis – had been stalled, in some cases for years, by inaction on the part of the regressive Senate Majority leadership.
Today’s Senate victories are the latest in a series of close contests where the Working Families Party’s endorsement and field operation has made the difference. In 2007, the WFP ran the field and communications operations for Craig Johnson’s upset victory in Nassau County. In February of this year, the Working Families Party knocked on over 30,000 doors in the mostly rural district to help Darrel Aubertine secure a shocking win in one of the state’s most Republican districts.
“I’m proud to say we poured everything we had into taking back Albany for working people. We did it through feet on the ground and a positive message; this is a real triumph for small-d democracy. The Senate Democrats made this happen with a pledge to return to progressive government, and we’re excited to help them make that a reality,” added Cantor.
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