New York

Political parties

In addition to the Democratic and Republican parties, the major political groups, there has always been a profusion of minor parties in New York, some of which have significantly influenced the outcomes of national and state elections.

Party politics in the state crystallized into their present form around 1855. Up to that time, a welter of parties and factions—including such short-lived groups as the Anti-Masons, Bucktails, Clintonians, Hunkers, and Barnburners (split into Hardshell and Softshell Democrats), Know-Nothings (Native American Party), Wooly Heads and Silver-Grays (factions of the Whigs), and the Liberty Party—jockeyed for power in New York State.

Roughly speaking, the Democratic Party evolved out of the Democratic Republican factions of the old Republican Party and had become a unified party by the 1850s. The Democratic power base was—and has remained—the big cities, especially New York City. The most important big-city political machine from the 1860s through the 1950s, except for a few brief periods, was the Tammany Society ("Tammany Hall"). Tammany controlled the Democratic Party in New York City and, through that party, the city itself.

The Republican Party in New York State emerged in 1855 as the heir of the Whigs, the Liberty Party, and the Softshell Democratic faction. The Republican Party's power base includes the state's rural counties, the smaller cities and towns, and (though not so much in the 1970s and early 1980s as in earlier decades) the New York City suburbs. Although New York Republicans stand to the right of the Democrats on social issues, they have usually been well to the left of the national Republican Party. The liberal "internationalist" strain of Republicanism was personified during the 1960s by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, US Senator Jacob Javits, and New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay (who later became a Democrat).

The disaffection of more conservative Republicans and Democrats within the state led to the formation of the Conservative Party in 1963. At first intended as a device to exert pressure on the state Republican establishment, the Conservative Party soon became a power in its own right, electing a US senator, James Buckley, in 1970. Its power decreased in the late 1970s as the Republican Party embraced some of its positions. The Conservative Party has its left-wing counterpart in the Liberal Party, which was formed in 1944 by dissidents in the American Labor Party who claimed the ALP was Communist-influenced. Tied strongly to labor interests, the Liberals have normally supported the national Democratic ticket. Their power, however, has waned considerably in recent years.

Minor parties have sometimes meant the difference between victory and defeat for major party candidates in state and national elections. The Liberal Party line provided the victory margin in the state, and therefore the nation, for Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960. Other significant, though not victorious, minor-party presidential candidates have included the American Labor Party with Henry Wallace in 1948 (8% of the vote), the Courage Party with George Wallace in 1968 (5%), and the Liberal Party with John Anderson in 1980 (7%). Among radical parties, the Socialists qualified for the presidential ballot continuously between 1900 and 1952, reaching a peak of 203,201 votes (7% of the total) in 1920.

New York Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000
New York Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000

New York Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000

YEAR ELECTORAL VOTE NEW YORK WINNER DEMOCRAT LIBERAL 1 REPUBLICAN PROGRESSIVE 2 SOCIALIST SOCIALIST WORKERS PEACE AND FREEDOM
* Won US presidential election.
1 Supported Democratic candidate except in 1980, when John Anderson ran on the Liberal line.
2 Ran in the state as the American Labor Party.
3 Appeared on the state ballot as the Courage Party.
4 Supported Republican candidate.
5 Independent candidate Ross Perot received 1,090,721 votes in 1992 and 503,458 votes in 1996.
1948 47 Dewey (R) 2,557,642 222,562 2,841,163 509,559 40,879 2,675
1952 45 *Eisenhower (R) 2,687,890 416,711 3,952,815 64,211 2,664 2,212
1956 45 *Eisenhower (R) 2,458,212 292,557 4,340,340
1960 45 *Kennedy (D) 3,423,909 406,176 3,446,419 14,319
              SOC. LABOR    
1964 43 *Johnson (D) 4,570,670 342,432 2,243,559 6,118 3,228
            AMERICAN IND. 3      
1968 43 Humphrey (D) 3,066,848 311,622 3,007,932 358,864 8,432 11,851 24,517
            CONSERVATIVE 4     COMMUNIST
1972 41 *Nixon (R) 2,767,956 183,128 3,824,642 368,136 4,530 7,797 5,641
              LIBERTARIAN    
1976 41 *Carter (D) 3,244,165 145,393 2,825,913 2,724,878 12,197 6,996 10,270
                RIGHT TO LIFE CITIZENS
1980 41 *Reagan (R) 2,728,372 467,801 2,637,700 256,131 52,648 24,159 23,186
                  COMMUNIST
1984 36 *Reagan (R) 3,001,285 118,324 3,376,519 288,244 11,949 4,226
                NEW ALLIANCE  
1988 36 Dukakis (D) 3,255,487 92,395 2,838,414 243,457 12,109 15,845 20,497
1992 5 22 *Clinton (D) 3,346,894 97,556 2,041,690 177,000 13,451 15,472 11,318
                FREEDOM 4 GREEN (NADER)
1996 5 33 *Clinton (D) 3,649,630 106,547 1,738,707 183,392 12,220 11,393 75,956
2000 33 Gore (D) 3,942,215 77,087 2,258,877 144,797 7,649   244,030

Democrat Mario M. Cuomo was defeated in his run for a fourth term as governor in November 1994 by Republican George Pataki; Pataki was elected to a third term in 2002. In 2003 New York's US senators were Democrat Charles Schumer, elected to his first term in 1998 to succeed three-term Republican Alphonse D'Amato, and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, first elected in 2000. Following the 2002 elections, New York's US representatives included 19 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Republicans held 37 seats in the state senate while Democrats held 25. In the state assembly there were 103 Democrats and 47 Republicans.

In the November 1980 presidential elections, Republican nominee Ronald Reagan (with Conservative Party backing) won the state's then-41 electoral votes, apparently because John Anderson, running in New York State on the Liberal Party line, siphoned enough votes from the Democratic incumbent, Jimmy Carter, to give Reagan a plurality. Reagan carried the state again in 1984, despite the presence on the Democratic ticket of US Representative Geraldine Ferraro of Queens as the running mate of Walter Mondale; Ferraro was the first woman candidate for president or vice president on a major party ticket. New Yorkers chose Democratic nominees Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton in 1988 and 1992, respectively, and Clinton again won the state in 1996. In the 2000 presidential election, Democrat Al Gore won 60% of the vote to Republican George W. Bush's 35%; Green Party candidate Ralph Nader garnered 4% of the vote. In 2002 there were 11,246,362 registered voters. In 1998, 47% of registered voters were Democratic, 29% Republican, and 24% unaffiliated or members of other parties. The state had 33 electoral votes in the 2000 presidential election.

In November 1993, New York City mayor David Dinkins, a Democrat and New York's first black mayor, who had served since 1990, was defeated by Republican Rudolph Giuliani. Giuliani was legally barred from seeking a third term, and billionaire media tycoon Michael Bloomberg won the mayoral contest in 2001.