Overview

The NY WFP Legislative Affairs Manager will develop and support progressive governance work: leading issue campaigns, coordinating with coalitions, staffing and managing key legislators, and spending significant time building deep relationships with state electeds in Albany. In the months leading up to even-year state elections, the Legislative Affairs Manager will also support electoral work in state legislative races. The work ahead in NY includes significant power building within the state legislature to deliver materially for people statewide.

Depending on the final candidate’s experience, the role, workplan, and supervision may change. 

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

  • Progressive governance:
  • Spend significant time with state legislators in Albany, building deep relationships of trust, developing progressive legislators as organizers and as a bloc
  • Develop staff-to-staff relationships, including with central staff and staff at core bureaucratic agencies
  • Help plan state elected retreats, gatherings and trainings
  • Participate/present at internal organizing opportunities such as caucus weekend and committee hearings
  • Represent the Party in key coalition spaces, lead priority issue campaigns across politics, comms, field, and more
  • Regularly report back on politics within Party governance structure
  • State legislative electoral campaigns (in months leading up to even-year state elections): 
  • Help assess political and field landscape, recruit and vet candidates, develop membership
  • Support electoral work on campaigns, especially candidate management, fundraising, politics and comms 
  • Navigate internal democracy structures around early candidate work through deep alignment with the organizing and party business staff

Skills and Qualifications

  • Experience navigating complex political landscapes and building deep relationships across political alignments
  • Significant experience across at least three electoral, issue and/or organizing campaigns
  • Strong project management skills with a proven ability to ensure various, distinct parts of a campaign are executed coherently and to a high standard
  • Excellent leadership and communication skills, with a high degree of comfort facilitating meetings, getting to strategic decisions, assessing effectiveness and impact, and quickly pivoting to execution
  • Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings and weekends from time-to-time, but especially during key legislative and electoral dates
  • Familiarity with NYS progressive politics and issue areas and relationships with NY elected officials, labor unions, and community groups, preferred
  • Hard field electoral skills a plus, but must be open to learning if not
  • Able to carry out the majority of work remotely with minimal supervision. 

Preferred:

  • Experience navigating complex political landscapes
  • Significant experience across at least 4 electoral, issue and/or organizing campaigns
  • Familiarity and existing relationships with NYS progressive politics and issue areas and relationships with NY elected officials, labor unions, and community groups
  • Hard field electoral skills