Vermont Working Families Party

Last updated
Vermont Working Families Party
ChairmanMarth Allen (Co-Chair)
Dan Brush (Co-Chair)
Jennifer Henry (Co-Chair)
Bernard Kuntzelmann (Co-Chair)
Richard Russell (Co-Chair)
Founded2006
Ideology Progressivism
Populism
Social democracy
Political position Center-left
Colors Blue and White
Website
http://www.vtworkingfamilies.org

The Vermont Working Families Party (VTWFP) is a minor political party in the American state of Vermont that is a "sister" party of the Working Families Party group, consisting of New York, Oregon, Delaware, Connecticut, and South Carolina.

Vermont State of the United States of America

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders the U.S. states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Vermont is the second-smallest by population and the sixth-smallest by area of the 50 U.S. states. The state capital is Montpelier, the least populous state capital in the United States. The most populous city, Burlington, is the least populous city to be the most populous city in a state. As of 2015, Vermont was the leading producer of maple syrup in the United States. In crime statistics, it was ranked as the safest state in the country in 2016.

Working Families Party minor political party in the United States

The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in New York, Connecticut, Oregon, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Nevada, West Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, and Illinois.

Contents

The Working Families Party was first organized in 1998 by a coalition in New York of labor unions, ACORN and other community organizations, members of the now-inactive national New Party, and a variety of public interest groups such as Citizen Action of New York.[ citation needed ]

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) was a collection of community-based organizations in the United States that advocated for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care, affordable housing, and other social issues. At its peak ACORN had over 500,000 members and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S., as well as in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, and Peru. ACORN was founded in 1970 by Wade Rathke and Gary Delgado. ACORN currently still exists internationally and in several cities across Canada. The rest of this article refers specifically to ACORN-USA, unless otherwise noted.

Community organizing process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest

Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest.

Electoral strategy

Like other minor parties in the state, the VTWFP benefits from Vermont's electoral fusion laws that allow cross-endorsement of a single candidate by multiple parties. This allows sympathetic voters to support a minor party without feeling like they are "wasting" their vote or are being a spoiler. The WFP typically endorses the Democratic Party or Vermont Progressive Party candidate.

Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that candidate. Distinct from the process of electoral alliances in that the political parties remain separately listed on the ballot, the practice of electoral fusion in jurisdictions where it exists allows minor parties to influence election results and policy by offering to endorse or nominate a major party's candidate.

The spoiler effect is the effect of vote splitting between candidates or ballot questions who often have similar ideologies. One spoiler candidate's presence in the election draws votes from a major candidate with similar politics thereby causing a strong opponent of both or several to win. The minor candidate causing this effect is referred to as a spoiler. However, short of any electoral fraud, this presents no grounds for a legal challenge.

Democratic Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Platform

The VTWFP launched itself with an agenda focused on investing in green jobs and technology, health care reform with an emphasis on universal access, and ballot reform that would reform Vermont's ballot access laws.

See also

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References

    Richard Lee Winger is an American political activist and analyst. He is the publisher and editor of Ballot Access News. He sits on the editorial board of the Election Law Journal. Winger publishes analysis, statistics and legal information and supports more equitable laws allowing access to the ballot for minor parties.

    Ballot Access News is a United States-based monthly online and print newsletter edited and published by Richard Winger of California, an expert on ballot access law in the United States. Published since 1985, the newsletter advocates "fair and equitable ballot access laws."

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