And the WFP ranking is… maybe happening, maybe not?

With less than a month to go until the New York City mayoral primary, the Working Families Party is still determining how to rank its four candidates – or even whether to rank them at all.

The progressive third party sent a survey to its dues-paying members Tuesday evening asking them to help chapter leaders determine the answers to three questions: should WFP rank the slate, and if so how; if WFP elevates a pair of candidates, which pair should it be; and in order of preference, who should WFP rank No. 1?

“We only get one shot at ranking, so if we must rank, it must be a well informed and strategic decision that helps us achieve our goal to defeat Andrew Cuomo,” reads the survey obtained by City & State, referencing the former governor who has so far maintained a dominating lead in the mayoral race. Under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, voters are allowed to rank as many as five candidates in order of preference, with their lesser choices being counted if their top choice is eliminated. 

The WFP endorsed a slate of four candidates on March 29: Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, Comptroller Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie. Though they did not explicitly commit to a ranking strategy for those four candidates, they have been widely expected to settle on a ranked endorsement, elevating a strong progressive around whom the rest of New York City’s lefties could coalesce.

The emailed survey to members doesn’t rule out any strategy, but it does suggest that WFP has yet to determine how it’ll best attempt to leverage ranked-choice voting in the June 24 mayoral primary to achieve its goal to defeat Cuomo. The individual members who received the online survey do not have a direct say in endorsements; the results of the survey will only be advisory. The WFP's Regional Advisory Council – which includes leaders of local chapters (such as the Brooklyn WFP), WFP state committee members and representatives of affiliated organizations and unions – will meet on Friday to vote on whether to rank the mayoral slate. If they vote to rank the slate, that decision would need to be ratified by the WFP's executive officers – the ultimate authority on the group's endorsements.

This has been a major point of interest this election cycle. None of the three Democratic mayoral candidates endorsed by WFP in 2021 made it to the final round of ranked-choice voting, stirring criticism that the Party had failed to coalesce progressives – thus widening the door for Mayor Eric Adams to seize victory. WFP pulled its endorsement of Scott Stringer following accusations he’d sexually assaulted a campaign volunteer years prior (he denies wrongdoing), suspended its endorsement of Dianne Morales after she refused to comply with her staff unions’ demands, and ultimately ended up backing their third pick Maya Wiley as No.1. 

This time around – the city’s second go at ranked-choice voting in a mayoral primary – WFP launched its endorsement process in December, vowing to improve upon its 2021 strategy: requiring candidates to work together and encouraging their supporters not to rank the former governor or Adams. While WFP co-directors Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper didn’t express a preference or ranking of the Party’s choices in late March when announcing its four candidate slate – the first of its two-step approach – they said the WFP members would at some point make a choice about how to rank the slate. “I will be totally honest, we could say 1, 2, 3, 4, (or) 1, 2. There are many options,” Archila said at the press conference announcing the slate. “All of us are going to make these decisions together like we made the decision that arrived here.” 

An increasing number of people believe the person best positioned is Mamdani, who trails Cuomo by about 12 points in the first round of ranked choice voting according to the latest major poll, and he finishes 8 points behind Cuomo after the ranked choice voting simulation. But WFP leadership appears reluctant to jump solely behind the 33-year-old democratic socialist who has rocketed to a clear second place. This is in part because of concerns about Mamdani’s electability – his youth, his initial limited name recognition and unabashed progressive stances, according to two WFP members who are familiar with the endorsement process. Both requested anonymity to freely discuss internal deliberations.

“It feels like there’s a growing group of people who don’t know how to handle this,” one member said. “It’s a total mystery at the moment. Obviously there’s one front-runner for us – it’s turned into a race between (Mamdani) and Cuomo. Acting like it's a bigger field is a little bit foolish.” 

The WFP is also operating partly out of loyalty to Lander, who has struggled to break out in the polls despite his longstanding reputation as a champion for progressive issues, according to the two WFP members. Further complicating things, a number of WFP’s member organizations have also endorsed Lander as their No. 1 pick, like the New York Progressive Action Network and Make the Road Action NY. 

Asked about the survey’s implications, Archila said in a text that WFP surveys its members “all the time and in different ways.” Neither Lander’s nor Mamdani’s campaigns responded to a request for comment.

Both WFP members expressed frustration with the approach, describing the Party’s shifting communication about its plans for the slate of candidates as confusing and divisive. 

“There’s almost been an overemphasis on trying to play nice with everyone. Part of the strategy around the slate made sense – in part to get candidates not to attack each other as much as they attack Andrew Cuomo,” another member said. “WFP seems to be not wanting to make anyone feel bad or feel like they are not appreciated by the Party, but then that’s precluding them from making hard choices or taking decisive steps.”