{news} New Canaan Advertiser: Green Party runs to stay on ballot

[David Bedell]

http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/article_2138.shtml

New Canaan Advertiser

Election 2005: Green Party runs to stay on ballot
Nov 7, 2005

Running to preserve the Green Party’s spot in local elections, Margaret 
Manion hopes the prospect of fresh eyes and opinions in Town Hall will have 
voters checking her name on the ballots this Tuesday, November 8.

A resident since 2003, Ms. Manion has only seen the workings of one 
administration in New Canaan, but has had experience on the Board of 
Elections in Alaska, where she lived for two decades before moving east.

Area coordinator of Amnesty International in Connecticut, Ms. Manion said 
she believes in her party’s platform, which includes: A commitment to 
grassroots democracy; social justice; ecological wisdom; nonviolence; 
decentralization; economic justice; gender equity and cooperation; respect 
for diversity; personal and global responsibility, and future focus.

If elected, she told the Advertiser, the first thing she would do is have an 
open house at Town Hall to invite feedback from community members.

“I think local politics is probably the most important because it impacts 
directly on people’s lives,” said Ms. Manion, who has never before held 
public office.

She cited finding a “more permanent or acceptable solution” for school bus 
parking and preserving open space as two major issues she would undertake if 
elected.

John Amarilios was the 2003 Green Party candidate for first selectman, but, 
Ms. Manion said he was unavailable this year. She added that she was chosen 
to represent the party in New Canaan so that it would not have to repetition 
for ballot access.

In Alaska, Ms. Manion was acting state president of the National 
Organization of Women.

No money, she said, has been spent on her campaign.

“Sometimes it is the case that someone from outside can notice things that 
just by virtue of being in the community you don’t notice as easily,” Ms. 
Manion said. “It’s important to get another voice in there.”

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