A while ago in New York a small third-party fusion voting party was formed with the help of the unions. The Working Families Party has gone on to expand into several other states and it has worked hard to advance the cause of liberal and progressive leaders, especially those devoted to ending lopsided trade agreements that have hurt union manufacturing in the United States.

My first experience with WFP organizing efforts came during a special election in the winter of 2008. Longtime Republican State Senator Jim Wright had left his seat in New York’s 48th State Senate District and local Assemblyman Darrel Aubertine ran for the seat in the special election held that February. The WFP and their organizers helped to win that election for Senator Aubertine, and helped him win re-election in the fall of 2008. That was the first time that my local State Senator had been a Democrat since before the Civil War. It was big news, but the WFP and local Democrats did a lot more grass roots organizing than typically happens in local races. Of course a lot of money was also spent on advertising to secure the victory for Senator Aubertine, too, but more people were holding signs near polling stations in the snow that February than I can ever remember.

Senator Aubertine didn’t hold the seat long, he lost the 2010 election to Republican Patty Ritchie and she has held the seat ever since, but he defeated the son of former longtime State Senator H. Douglas Barclay, Assemblyman Will Barclay, a partner in major Upstate New York law firm Hiscock & Barclay and an heir to a sizable interest in Key Bank if I understand the family history correctly during that Special Election and it shocked New York. The farmer turned Town Councilman, turned County Legislator, turned Assemblyman turned State Senator was not supposed to win the race against Barclay. He definitely was not supposed to win the re-election in the fall of 2008, but the WFP organizers worked very hard to win that seat for the Democrats because they wanted a Democratic State Senate.

By the fall of 2010, the WFP had bigger fish to fry in the North Country of New York State. In 2009, President Obama had appointed Republican Congressman John McHugh Secretary of the Army from New York’s 23rd Congressional District -now New York’s 21st Congressional District- and a special election was held in November 2009 to replace the Congressman. The WFP organized hard, and a lot of money was spent on advertising in the race. The day after the election the first Democratic Congressman in New York’s 23rd Congressional District since the Civil War was headed to Washington where he was sworn in and became the deciding vote on the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Bill Owens first vote in the US House of Representatives was the winning vote for the Affordable Care Act.

I guess that explains how a freshman Representative becomes a member of the House Appropriations Committee. The President of the United States actually owed him a favor. In the fall of 2010, the WFP worked hard to get Bill Owens re-elected, and he won his hard fought re-election in a second three way race against a Conservative and a Republican. In the fall of 2012, Owens won re-election a second time more easily than his previous contests. He retired from Congress in 2014 and was replaced in 2014 by Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.

In 2014 here in New York there was a bit of a dust-up over the Working Families Party’s endorsement and nomination for Governor. Governor Cuomo got the nod, but a large part of the WFP wanted to endorse upstart candidate Zephyr Teachout. Teachout went on to run a solid primary campaign against Governor Cuomo, and managed to win many counties in Upstate New York, despite a massive funding disadvantage.

The WFP supported Bill De Blasio in his race for Mayor of New York City, and returned the job to Democratic Party control. Earlier this year the Working Families Party endorsed Senator Sander’s campaign for President and has been actively supporting his campaign efforts in states where the party is active.

It hasn’t been given a lot of attention, but the Working Families Party is going to be helping secure the nomination for the most progressive candidate in the Democratic race in New York next month, and the WFP has helped do the impossible at least twice before in my own very Republican part of New York State. The WFP is currently supporting Zephyr Teachout in her run for Congress in New York’s 19th Congressional District. The WFP of Michigan was working hard to help secure the Sanders victory there yesterday.

If the WFP’s work in local races here in New York State has taught me anything, it has taught me that if I were Secretary Clinton, I would be very concerned about the effort that the WFP will put forward to help secure the Democratic Party nomination by winning New York State for Senator Bernie Sanders. They are his greatest secret weapon.

For clarification, the WFP is a major organizing advantage in New York.