Since its inception, critics of New York's Public Campaign Finance Commission have speculated it was a backdoor way to eliminate the influence of third parties in New York.

"This commission served no purpose other than to do the dishonest bidding of Governor Cuomo," NYS GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said.

The state gave the nine-member commission power to make recommendations on the future of fusion voting, which allows candidates to run on multiple party lines and aggregate their vote totals. A New York Times article published shortly before the commission's meeting in Buffalo once again sparked discussions about the actual intentions.

"Having every single person's vote count towards their elected officials and those that want to take it away are the ones that want to be dictators," Phil Rumore, a founding member of the NY Working Families Party, said.

Public Finance Commissioner and state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs confirmed the Times report that he sent an email asking questions about changing the requirements for a party to gain ballot access. In it, he asked about moving the threshold from 50,000 votes to 250,000.

"I haven't settled on any particular number yet," he said. "What I do know is I am going to propose a dramatic increase in that threshold."

Jacobs said if the state plans to institute a system giving public dollars to campaigns, the parties should have to demonstrate credibility.

"If we have a campaign finance program, it's going to have to be able to pay for those candidates if they qualify and that's what this is all about because the qualification levels now to become a minor party are way too low," he said.

But his suggestion that parties reach the threshold every two years, in both presidential and gubernatorial elections instead of just gubernatorial, plus mentioning a threshold only the Conservative Party has reached recently, has the Working Families Party believing it’s the target. Jacobs is the appointee of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has a tenuous history with WFP.

"I think the WFP stands a chance and a good chance of meeting any threshold that I'm going to be proposing," Jacobs said. "I'm more, my guns are aimed if you would like to know, more at parties like the Independence Party, which is a pure sham, and then you've got these smaller parties."

Meanwhile, the Erie County Conservative Party Chairman, Ralph Lorigo, argued Tuesday the commission actually has no authority because the members neglected to submit a timely oath of office.

"Therefore each of your positions have been vacated and none of you have the authority to conduct this meeting," Lorigo said.

However, the governor's office points to a section of the state officer's law which asserts uncompensated members of commissions are exempt.