Working Families Party Threatens Wavering Dems.

Politico reports that New York's Working Families Party (WFP) has announced that the party "will deny its endorsement to any member of Congress who votes 'no' on health care legislation."  WFP is ACORN's (now New York Communities for Change) unofficial political arm in New York State. (Among numerous other close ties to ACORN, ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis was the founding Co-Chair of the party.) Recently, City Hall reported that Lewis had quietly stepped down as the state Co-Chair of the party.

Working Families Party is in hot water for potential illegal in-kind contributions that Data and Field Services, a company controlled by the WFP, allegedly made to a Democratic City Council candidate for providing campaign management and services to the candidate's campaign. A recent piece at Human Events notes that the case "has drawn interest from both the Staten Island District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney for New York." Please click here for more on the WFP's recent troubles.

Smith notes that WFP's threat should be taken seriously:

New York is home to several moderate Democrats who are sitting on the fence on health care, and the party has in the past provided the margin of victory to some of those Democrats. Upstate Reps. Scott Murphy, Mike Arcuri, and Bill Owens, and Staten Island Rep. Michael McMahon, are all reportedly undecided or leaning against the bill.

The party's ballot line was the margin of victory for both Owens and Murphy last year, and a protest candidate to the left in a general election this fall would be a serious blow to a number of New York Democrats facing difficult races.

The Service Employees International Union, a Working Families Party constituent, has also threatened to drop its support for McMahon if he votes against health care reform.

This is not an enviable position to be in: Go against your constituents' wishes in moderate to conservative-leaning districts, vote for health care and risk getting voted out of office in November; or you can vote against the bill and have the Working Families Party (not to mention the SEIU) withdraw their support. Both options potentially cost you the election. A similar situation is playing itself out in Arkansas where Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat, is facing a primary challenge from the left. She risks losing the support of the state's Democratic primary voters if she votes against health care and risks losing the General Election if she votes for it.