New York: Minor parties play major role in New York politics....

From Newsday's Spin Cycle:
...But even there, "they don't have enough muscle to have much impact," Muzzio said.
Still, the minors have managed to provide a bit of drama in an otherwise predictable year.
The Working Families Party, a liberal organization affiliated with labor unions, held a heated debate over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's support of the Iraq War before finally endorsing her over anti-war challenger Jonathan Tasini. And both Clinton and Eliot Spitzer accepted the Independence Party's nods only after its leaders distanced themselves from member Lenora Fulani, who uttered anti-Semitic remarks [sic] about a decade ago..... [more]

By the way, apparently Michael Rothfeld, Lauren Weber, J. Jioni Palmer, Celeste Hadrick, who wrote this article, have just joined the chorus of anti-Fulani writers that Newsday can count on. For as much as the press uses "Lenora Fulani" and "anti-Semitic" in the same sentence, doesn't make it true (in fact, the use of this attack is itself grossly anti-Semitic). They repeat this mantra ad nauseum as an attempt to scare voters -- increasingly independent -- away from the Independence Party. The NYIP is the third largest party in the state with almost 340,000 members. There are nearly a million IP and unaffiliated voters in the City of New York, so it's no wonder that the big shots, party hacks and their minions are scared...

And just for the record, the state leadership of the Independence Party wouldn't have it any other way. State Chair Frank MacKay suddenly became anti-Fulani after a 7-year partnership, right after the City operation of the IP won 75,000 votes for Mayor Bloomberg and pulled 47% of the black vote last year, as well as 70% of the Jewish vote for the independent mayor - much of it on the IP line. For a little background on this fight, see The Hankster from May 28....