Working Families Party Accuses Lawler of Putting ‘Fake’ Candidate on Ballot

In an unusual political move, the left-leaning New York Working Families Party has urged its members to disavow the party’s candidate and vote for Democrat Mondaire Jones in the 17^th Congressional District race.

Party representatives claim that the race’s Working Families candidate Anthony Frascone is actually a “plant” by Republican Congressman Mike Lawler to draw votes away from Jones in the highly contested congressional race. Lawler is running for a second term.

At a press conference in Tarrytown on Monday, New York Working Families Party Co-Director Ana Maria Archila explained that although Frascone won the party’s June primary and appears on the Working Families line, it never endorsed him and he never sought its endorsement.

“There has been a lot of confusion on who the Working Families Party supports,” Archila said. “We want to set the record straight about the role that MAGA Republicans and Mike Lawler played in installing this fake candidate. Frascone is a MAGA plant and Mike Lawler is trying to use the Working Parties Families to siphon votes away from Mondaire Jones and help Lawler win.”

In 2022, Democratic incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney lost to Lawler by less than 1,800 votes. Maloney, however, collected 8,273 votes on the Working Families line.

In July, The New York Times reported that Lawler’s district director wrote to several hundred of Lawler’s Orthodox Jewish supporters asking for those not already registered to enroll in the Working Families Party. More than 200 of those Rockland residents registered with the Working Families Party just 10 days before the voter registration deadline, according to Rockland County Board of Elections enrollment data. Frascone won the June primary with 185 votes to Jones’ 153 votes, which allowed Frascone to appear on the November ballot.

According to Archila, the Lawler campaign has financially supported what has been a non-existent Frascone campaign to confuse voters by sending out mailers that mimic the style of Working Families campaign literature.

“That is a disgraceful ploy that speaks to the very little respect Lawler has for the people he wants to represent,” Archila said.

When asked to comment on the accusations that Lawler was behind helping Frascone get on the Working Families line, Lawler campaign spokesman Chris Russell said “the WFP should have done a better job of (getting out the vote) in the primary.”

When asked about the potential impact of Frascone holding the Working Families line, Jones blasted Lawler.

“His presence on the ballot shows that Mike Lawler is afraid to compete with me in a head-to-head election,” Jones said. “Mike Lawler knows that he can’t win this race fair and square, so much like Donald Trump, his hero, he has resorted to machinations that really undermine our democracy.”

On Monday, before the Tarrytown press conference, several Working Families Party members said they visited Frascone at his home in Congers, Rockland County.

“When we asked why he was running on the Working Families Party line, he said ‘I am doing it for Jesus.’ When we asked about his platform, he refused to answer,” Archila noted.

The party’s endorsement of Jones has come as a surprise for many of its members. Jones lost support of the Working Families Party after he endorsed Westchester County Executive George Latimer over Rep. Jamaal Bowman in the 16^th Congressional District primary in June.

Archila acknowledged the falling out.

“We’ve had a very public fracture with Mondaire,” she said. “But at this moment it matters most who is willing to stand up for our democracy over who wants to undermine our democracy. That is why we are determined (that) the voters in this district have the information that they need.”

In early October, Democrats and Working Families members petitioned the court to get Frascone off the ballot. But last week a state Supreme Court judge ruled that Frascone could remain.

Archila said that Frascone is a bankrupt construction executive and former registered Republican who has no campaign website or social media presence.

Joining Archila on Monday was Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg (D-Ossining), Jennifer Cabrera, the Westchester-Putnam Chapter chair for the state’s Working Families Party, and Theo Oshiro of Make the Road Action.

Levenberg said getting Frascone on the Working Families line was underhanded.

“Anything that is being done to make it harder to actually vote your values and your beliefs is not pro-democracy,” Levenberg said. “We need pro-democracy candidates, we need Mondaire Jones to win CD-17.”

Levenberg urged party members to vote the Democratic line.

“This is something really tough because the Working Families Party needs people to vote on their line,” she added. “But in this particular congressional election they are telling you not to vote on that line. Vote for the real Working Families Party candidate, who is Mondaire Jones.”

There are about 1,900 Working Families Party registrants enrolled in the 17^th Congressional District.

The race is one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country, which could potentially swing the balance of power in the House. An Oct. 1 poll by Emerson College showed Lawler leading Jones 45 to 44 percent, with Frascone polling at 3 percent.

Martin Wilbur contributed to this article.