Press Release

Assemblyman Brindisi and Mayor Palmieri Featured Speakers

Utica, NY – The New York State Working Families Party will host its third annual fundraiser on Thursday, January 28 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at The Stief, 618 Varick Street, Utica. Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi and Mayor Robert Palmieri of Utica are featured speakers.

Hosted by the Herkimer-Oneida-Madison Counties Working Families Party Chapter, the Winter Cocktail Party will celebrate 17 years of progressive victories on the local, state, and national levels.

Tickets are $125 and two for $200 (WFP enrolled voters and regular monthly contributors can qualify for special pricing). Tickets may be purchased by contacting John Furman (315-725-0974), Jesse Lenney (585-414-4274), uticaromewfp@gmail.com, online or by sending a check made payable to “Working Families” to: Working Families, P.O. Box 20498, Rochester, NY 14602.

Special event sponsor opportunities include: Chair Level – $1,250 (8 tickets), Champion Level – $1,000 (7 tickets), Leader Level – $750 (6 tickets), Activist Level – $500 (4 tickets), Friend Level – $350 (3 tickets). More information on the event can be found at the Facebook event page.

Founded in New York in 1998 by a coalition of progressive unions, community organizations, and activists, the Working Families Party’s goal is to use electoral politics and issue campaigns to win concrete victories for working people. In the November 2015 election, the Working Families Party recruited and supported 111 candidates through its Progressive Pipeline Project in local races in New York State. Seventy-one of them won. More information can be found at: WorkingFamilies.org.

With chapters in ten states and a supporter-base that spans the nation, the Working Families Party has won public policies that make a difference in the lives of working families, from paid sick days laws and minimum wage increases to reforms to criminal justice laws and policing practices to wins on student debt and environmental protection. The WFP’s progressive candidates’ Pipeline is recruiting, training and electing the next generation of progressive leaders.

2015 has been a momentous year for the Working Families Party. On December 8, it endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary for President, the first-ever national endorsement for the Working Families Party. In Chicago, United Working Families backed Jesus “Chuy” Garcia for Mayor and held Mayor Rahm Emanuel to a historic run-off election, and helped elect the largest-ever progressive city council caucus. Working Families Party members won special elections for state legislative seats. Connecticut State Senator Ed Gomes and New York State Assembly member Diana Richardson became the first two state legislators elected only on the Working Families Party ballot line. In Ferguson, Missouri, WFP helped increase African American turnout in the city’s municipal elections following the killing of Michael Brown. Pennsylvania Working Families successfully backed Philadelphia Mayor-elect Jim Kenney in his competitive Democratic Primary. In November, Elizabeth, New Jersey voters approved a ballot measure guaranteeing paid sick days with 86 percent of the vote, making Elizabeth the tenth municipal paid sick days victory for New Jersey Working Families; and Hartford elected three WFP members to the Hartford City Council. New Working Families chapters were launched this year in Wisconsin and Rhode Island.