Independence Party voters running for State Committee, Judicial Delegate and Election District County Committee Member where recently knock-off the Primary Day election ballot because their designating petition signatures were challenged at the Board of Elections by a Manhattan-based splinter group that operates within the party called “Social Therapy.”
Now calling itself the NYC Independence Party, this cult-like group is headed up by a guru named Fred Newman, his lieutenants Lenora Fulani and Harry Kresky, and locally by Molly Honigsfeld, a friend of State Senator Frank Padavan.
Together, with some key Republican Party operatives, they think that this kind of behavior is acceptable. It’s not. When these collaborators are challenged by well-organized Independence Party activists and their supporters, do not blame me
They are true Independents fighting for the future of the party without any kind of special interest interference. Just take responsibility for choosing a highly controversial political partner that said in print that the “9/11 terrorists attacks were our fault because of our arrogance and ignorance.”
The Newman-Fulani splinter group controlled the Wilson-Pakula cross-endorsement nomination certificate for candidates seeking our ballot line in 2001. The name refers to the Wilson Pakula Act of 1947, authored by Assemblymember Malcolm Wilson and State Senator Irwin Pakula, which forbids candidates from receiving the nomination of a political party if they are not registered as a member of that party, unless they receive permission to enter the primary from party officials. Wilson later became Governor when Rockefeller became Vice President under President Gerald R. Ford in 1974.
I am proud of our new die-hard Independence Party take-charge leaders that ran for elected party positions, but were knocked off the ballot at the Board of Elections hearings. They banded together as Pro-Se litigants and brawled with lawyer Harry Kersky in Jamaica’s Supreme Court and later in the Appellate Court in Brooklyn.
They have renewed my faith in the future of our great country from an Independence Party point-of-view. Thank you to both court house staffs for making justice user friendly for first timers.
Michael N. Niebauer is President/CEO of Spindoctor Inc. media & advocacy company, founder of the Independence Party of Queens County Organization and QPTV Producer of “The Independent,” a live cable TV talk show on Time Warner, RCN and Verizon Vios Cable Systems.
