I am a moderator of https://reddit.com/r/NYConCon. That means, among other things, I’ve been on the look out for any coverage of Proposition 1 on the upcoming ballot for New York State on November 7th.

Proposition 1 is “Shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?”

I am up to the gills in information and coverage of this issue. I can point you to any resource you need to help you decide if you want to Vote Yes or Vote No.

Several times in recent weeks, I’ve been confronted with a question that I have trouble answering, and that is the one that I’ll address here. What is the real reason so many organizations have banded together and spent millions on the Vote No campaign?

On the surface it seems like you could just pick one of the myriad of reasons any Vote No advocate will happily tick off for you. Cost of the convention, endangered pensions, endangered forest protection, eroded civil liberties, too few controls, etc, etc. And I do believe most people who are in the Vote No camp really do believe in those causes, and aren’t easily swayed by the numerous debunking articles the Vote Yes camp has carefully prepared.

However, there is something that doesn’t quite fit with the standard narrative. Specifically, that there is a standard narrative at all.

There are some really strange bedfellows in the Vote No camp. Literally, the NYS Conservative Party, and New York Republican State Committee, are on the same Vote No side as multiple county Democratic and Progressive committees. Indeed, looking at this list of Vote No organizations there seems to not really be a common theme of what defines a Vote No organization.

Being an opposition campaign, Vote No is obviously trying to cite as many reasons as they can why a New York State Constitutional is a really bad idea. They largely boil down to fear that whomever your opponent is will get more control and enshrine dangerous things into the state constitution, or special interest money will pour in to affect the outcome.

Maybe I’m cynical, but this makes my skin crawl. We aren’t exactly living in times where it is easy to reach across the aisle and here we have the unions teaming up with the Republicans, and LGBTQ organizations teaming up with gun rights activists. At least for the NYConCon they’re united in cause and not acting like it’s abnormal, at all.

Seemingly polar opposite organizations are operating in lockstep with the same messaging trying to stoke fears about a convention by claiming they’ll lose to the other side, but they’re clearly acting in concert, whether overtly or simply because sharing messaging is convenient when you’re on the same side.

Looking at the yes side we have voting rights enthusiasts, the NY Bar Association, several major publications, and multiple “good government” and anti-corruption organizations, but no one who is actively pressing an issue unless fair government and honestly is an “issue”.

I’m strongly progressive, so it was super weird when I had to rationalize being against the unions on this issue. It was also bizarre to get into a heated tweet storm with the NYCLU.

It was crazy because it didn’t make any sense. Seriously, how did all these organizations wind up on the same side that is advocating for no change in the well documented corruption in the NY State Legislature. Aren’t we supposed to be fixing this? Or at least trying to fix it? What gives?

I would expect NYCLU to want to fight to enshrine expanded civil liberties into the NYS constitution. I would expect Planned Parenthood Empire State Acts to want to constitutionally protect a woman’s right to choose. I would expect public unions to want to fight for labor rights. But they aren’t. They’re citing risk as if they don’t currently have an overwhelming advantage.

Even if that advantage didn’t play out, these fears that they are citing aren’t very likely — given anything a potential convention would produce is subject to a popular vote as well. And the “special interest money” that should be pouring into the Vote Yes campaign by that narrative doesn’t exist.

I think to discern the real reasoning behind the Vote No camp we have to look at what common thread unites Vote No. What does this block stand to gain or lose if it gets its way? If Vote No is successful literally nothing happens, so we can safely assume that this entire list of seemingly opposed organizations is afraid of losing something if the Convention is convened.

One great point that Vote No has is we can amend the NYS Constitution any time we want. We just need to go through the Senate and the Assembly and then put it to a vote of the people. The only difference that a Constitutional Convention makes is that amendments can be proposed outside of the legislature and still put to the vote of the people.

It would stand to reason that the big fear isn’t about endangered pensions, or forests, or runaway special interest money — it’s what a NYConCon might do to the current state legislature that these organizations don’t want to see happen.

And… that makes a good deal of sense. If I were working for a union, or a forest council, or a gun and pistol association and had spent a lot of time and money grooming my pet politician, and benefited from making that relationship great, I’d not want them to be endangered either.

The unfortunate reality is that corruption works. It works if your end goal is to enrich yourself, or if your end goal is to be a strong union, or a advocate for civil liberties.

The main difference between Vote No and Vote Yes is those who can benefit from a corrupt Albany and those that want to root out that corruption.

It is not #VoteYes vs #VoteNo it is #NYAgainstCorruption vs #NYForCorruption.