The liberal Working Families Party told its members not to vote on the party’s line in a congressional swing district – over fears the “spoiler” candidate will give Republicans a victory.
Desperate party leaders told supporters Monday not to vote for party member Anthony Frascone and instead cast their ballots for Democrat Mondaire Jones in the tight race against first-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in the lower Hudson Valley’s 17th District.
Leaders of the minor party have bashed Frascone as a plant for Lawler and the Republicans who is running with the intention of splitting liberal votes — but the elusive candidate still managed to qualify for a June primary and defeated Jones for the WFP line.
“Normally, NY-WFP encourages voters to vote on the Working Families line in every general election,” the party said in a Monday memo.
“And every two years we must get at least 2% of voters to cast their vote on the WFP line to continue to have a ballot line,” the memo went on. “But because of the dirty electioneering tricks by Lawler’s camp, this year, we are sacrificing 8,000+ votes on the WFP line by asking voters in NY- 17 to vote on the Democratic line instead and defeat the threat of Lawler’s MAGA agenda.”
During a press conference in Tarrytown, Party co-director Ana Maria Archila complained at a press conference in Tarrytown that Lawler and the GOP had co-opted the WFP line by running Frascone, a former Republican, to manipulate the primary.
She called Frascone a “fake candidate” put up by Lawler and the GOP to “confuse” voters.
But Frascone, 70,defended his candidacy and described himself as a born-again Christian who volunteers as a chaplain at the Rikers Island jail complex.
“I’m here to help working families. I’m not a fake,” he told The Post on Monday. “I’m a biblical person. That’s my focus. I pray for God’s will.”
About 1,900 voters in the 17th district are enrolled in the Working Families party, more than Lawler’s narrow victory in 2022 over then-Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.
In 2022, more than 8,000 residents voted for Maloney on the WFP line instead of the Democratic line.
The WFP ballot line also garnered 6,000 votes in the 2020 House campaign in the 17th, a number that could make the difference between a Democrat winning and losing what is categorized as a “toss-up” race by the Cook Report.
A recent Emerson College poll had Lawler leading Jones 45% to 44% — with 3% of voters saying they would back Frascone.
The push from the scrambling WFP comes after a state Supreme Judge dismissed a last-ditch attempt to remove Frascone from the ballot backed by both the party and Democrats.
The WFP had initially endorsed Jones — a former one-term congressman looking to make a comeback — but went lukewarm on his candidacy after he endorsed moderate George Latimer in his successful primary race against left-leaning Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the 16th Congressional District, which includes parts of New York City and Westchester County.
The Lawler camp said the WFP has only itself to blame for losing a primary.
“The WFP should have done a better job of GOTV [Get Out the Vote] in the primary,” said Lawler campaign spokesman Chris Russell.
WFP activists visited Frascone’s Congers home Monday morning, and said he declined to discuss his platform and stealth campaign.
Frascone said he was going to let them in his house until he saw a “fake Frascone” sign.
“They never approached me before the primary. Now they approach me?” he said.
Frascone also shrugged off criticisms that he was formerly a Republican.
“Isn’t this the United States of America?” he replied.
