{news} GP RELEASE Greens blast Dem bill to bar 3rd party races for Congress

[Justine McCabe]

 GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
> http://www.gp.org
>
> For Immediate Release:
> Thursday, February 9, 2006
>
> Contacts:
> Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
> mclarty at greens.org
> Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
> starlene at greens.org
>
>
> Greens blast bill from Democrats that would bar third
> parties in races for Congress.
>
> Panic and retaliation among progressive Democrats over
> Green challenges are behind HR 4694, say Greens,
> citing the bill's prohibitive petition requirements,
> ban on private contributions; Greens call the bill
> patently unconstitutional.
>
>
> WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called on
> Congress to reject a House bill that combines public
> funding of congressional campaigns with a scheme to
> ban third party and independents from such races.
>
> HR 4694 ("Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act")
> would grant nominees of parties (i.e., Democrats and
> Republicans) that had averaged 25% of the vote for
> House races in a given district in the last two
> elections would get full public funding.
>
> All others (i.e., third party and independent
> candidates) would be required to submit petitions
> signed by 10% of the last vote cast for partial
> funding, and 20% petitions for full funding.
>
> Furthermore, candidates who don't qualify for funding
> would be barred from spending any privately raised
> money on their campaigns.
>
> "10% and 20% in many districts represent prohibitively
> large numbers of required signatures," said Phil
> Huckelberry, co-chair of the Illinois Green Party and
> co-chair of the national Green Party's Ballot Access
> Committee.  "The goal behind HR 4694 is to use public
> financing of campaigns -- itself a sorely needed
> reform -- to eliminate third party challenges in
> congressional races."
>
> "In Missouri's 2nd congressional district, a candidate
> with a party that won less than 25% of the vote in the
> last two elections would need nearly 70,000 signatures
> to qualify for the public funding that her/his
> Democratic and Republican opponents would get
> automatically, and only signatures from the 2nd
> District would count.  Nearly 35,000 signatures would
> be required in order to allow the candidate to spend
> anything at all on the campaign." (St. Louis Oracle,
> February 05, 2006
> <http://stloracle.blogspot.com/2006/02/bill-would-ban-3rd-party-campaigns-for.html>)
>
> The Green Party of the United States supports public
> financing of campaigns as one of several measures to
> remove the corrupting influence of corporations on
> U.S. politics
> <http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#316100>.
> But Greens warned that HR 4694 uses public financing
> of campaigns as a cover to destroy democracy by
> reducing the field to two parties.
>
> Greens called the bill patently unconstitutional and,
> if passed, unlikely to survive a court challenge.  But
> Greens said that the bill is significant because of
> the line-up of Congress members supporting it.
>
> The bill's eight sponsors include liberal Democrats:
> David Obey (Wis.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Barney Frank
> and James McGovern (Mass.), Henry Waxman and Bob
> Filner (Calif.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), and Tim Ryan
> (Ohio).  Mr. Obey, Ms. DeLauro, and Mr. Israel faced
> Green competition (Mike Miles, Ralph Ferrucci, and
> John Keenan, respectively) in recent elections,
> suggesting that their sponsorship is retaliatory.  Mr.
> Miles is seeking the House seat again in 2006
> (Wisconsin, District 7);  Mr. Ferrucci is running for
> the U.S. Senate (Connecticut).
>
> "The Democrats behind this bill have as little regard
> for democracy and open elections as Republicans who
> have use altered district lines and other methods to
> fix elections," said D.C. Statehood Green Party
> activist T.E. Smith.  "Hiding this strategem in a bill
> for public financing of campaigns makes it doubly
> shameful."
>
> "An obvious motivation behind HR 4694 is panic over a
> Green insurgency.  Voters have realized that the
> Democratic Party has given President Bush and the GOP
> a pass on various abuses of power and radical actions,
> such as the invasion of Iraq and the confirmation of
> Judge Samuel Alito, which most Democrats declined to
> filibuster.  The time is ripe for a noncorporate
> independent third party, and many Democrats are
> worried," added Mr. Smith.
>
>
> MORE INFORMATION
>
> Green Party of the United States
> http://www.gp.org
> 1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
> Washington, DC 20009.
> 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
> Fax 202-319-7193
>
> Text of HR 4694
> http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4694:
>
> Mike Miles for the U.S. House of Representatives
> (Wisconsin, District 7)
> http://www.milesforcongress.com
>
> Ralph A Ferrucci for U.S. Senate (Connecticut)
> http://ferrucciforsenate.org
>
> Coalition For Free and Open Elections
> http://www.cofoe.org
>
> Green Party rebuttal to President Bush's 2006 State of
> the Union Address (Video News Release)
> http://www.gp.org/video/2006stateofunion/
>
>
> ~ END ~