The Right Wing

Yesterday I told you I would delve deeper into  this matter and give you more details.  Here they are.

First off, do not get the New Party we are talking about here confused with the New Party that ran Eugene McCarthy for President in 1968.  They are unrelated.  The New Party was mostly active in the mid 1990’s and was an openly socialist party.  This party was an offshoot of the Democratic Socialists of America or DSA which created and supported the New Party in order to get socialists elected at the local levels which would then hopefully move socialism up the political ladder.  For you liberals who have already yelled that I am lying read this archived 1996 newsletter from the group.  The New Party’s method for getting elected was a process called “fusion” where the candidate combines votes from multiple parties.  In other words, the candidate would be on two ballot lines.  The New Party tactic of fusion was shut down in 1997 by the Supreme Court in the case Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party.   For a better explanation of fusion read this from Red State:

Fusion is a pretty simple concept. A candidate could run as both a Democrat and a New Party member to signal the candidate was, in fact, a left-leaning candidate, or at least not a center-left DLC type candidate. If the candidate — let’s call him Barack Obama — received only 500 votes in the Democratic Party against another candidate who received 1000 votes, Obama would clearly not be the nominee. But, if Obama also received 600 votes from the New Party, Obama’sNew Party votes and Democratic votes would be fused. He would be the Democratic nominee with 1100 votes.

So big deal you say, how do we know he was actually a member unless you have his signed copy of the agreement?  There are multiple sources mostly from the archived New Party website.  The newparty.org website is still up but once hints of Barack’s membership started leaking out earlier this year they and the DSA removed all material mentioning Barack Obama.  Not to worry though, there are archives of the New Party website and DSA newsletters that can be easily accessed.

The first piece of evidence comes from the August 1996 DSA newsletter I mentioned earlier.  Simply do a search for Obama and you will come to this:

Secondly, the NP’s’96 Political Program has been enormously successful with 3 of 4 endorsed candidates winning electoral primaries. All four candidates attended the NP membership meeting on April 11th to express their gratitude. Danny Davis, winner in the 7th Congressional District, invited NPers to join his Campaign Steering Committee. Patricia Martin, who won the race for Judge in 7th Subcircuit Court, explained that due to the NP she was able to network and get experienced advice from progressives like Davis. Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration.

Illinois: Three NP-members won Democratic primaries last Spring and face off against Republican opponents on election day: Danny Davis (U.S. House), Barack Obama (State Senate) and Patricia Martin (Cook County Judiciary).

Illinois: Danny Davis (U.S. House of Representatives, 1996, 1998), Miguel Del Valle (Illinois State Senate, 1998), Willie Delgado (Illinois State Legislature, 1998), Barack Obama (State Legislature, 1996), Michael Chandler (Chicago City Council , 1995), , Patricia Martin (Cook County Judge, 1996).