New York’s Two-Party System

Harry Siegel and Fred Siegel in City Journal have this amazing story:

Many political observers saw the rise of the Working Families Party as the big story of this year’s primaries, which in New York City are effectively the general elections for most offices. That’s accurate, but only part of the story. It would be more meaningful to say that in New York’s left-and-lefter political environment, the once dominant Democratic Party fell victim to its own strategy of minimizing turnout to guarantee that their core constituencies carry the day. In the WFP, the electoral face of Gotham’s public-sector unions, the Democrats found that a party to their left could beat them at their own game.

The dependably dutiful aside, virtually the only voters in this year’s primaries were those directly or indirectly connected with government. The record-low turnout of 11 percent in the primary and then 7 percent in the resulting run-offs left the city’s second-and third-highest posts, Public Advocate and Comptroller—usually platforms for future mayoral runs—in the hands of WFP candidates Bill de Blasio and John Liu, who both won with the support of about 4 percent of registered Democrats. At the same time, in what counts as a small earthquake, the WFP backed three of the five successful challengers for City Council seats—an incredible result in a body where only three incumbents had been voted out of office since 1997.

You'll want to read this whole amazing story.