Most voters stayed home for stunning Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez win

[Jim Lane]

122. Let's look at the facts and see who's spinning.

Technically it's true that he didn't place himself on the ballot as an Independent. Some posts in this thread have overlooked a distinction: Someone who's on the ballot as an opponent of the Democratic nominee can be there as an independent, or can be there as the nominee of another party. Crowley is in the latter category.

But "Crowley did not place himself on the ballot" is absurd. He wanted to be the Working Families Party nominee on the general-election ballot.

You seem to be implying that the WFP leadership put him on the ballot against his vehement protests. Wrong. He could not be the WFP nominee unless he had accepted that nomination. In fact, the WFP leadership would now like to remove him from the ballot, but it can't do so without his cooperation, which he's refused to give.

And you repeat the tired old Bernie-bash canard about Bernie switching parties. It's a lie, it's been exposed here as a lie multiple times, yet the Bernie-bashers care more about their commitment to demonizing Bernie than they do about the facts. So I won't even bother to repeat the facts, or to give relevant links. You go right on believing what makes you happy.

The fact remains that Bernie Sanders was not on the 2016 general-election ballot as a candidate opposing the Democratic nominee. The same is true of his two previous Senate runs, and it will almost certainly be true this year, because the Democrats of Vermont persist in rejecting the DU Bernie-Basher Brigade's reiterated attacks on Bernie. Crowley, by contrast, will be on the 2018 general-election ballot as a candidate opposing the Democratic nominee (unless he relents and acts to remove his name). It's good that he himself is (so far) not campaigning, but he'll take some votes away from the Democratic nominee just based on name recognition, not to mention whatever benefit his candidacy may get because sleazeballs like Lieberman are pushing him.