{news} (Hartford Advocate) "THIRD PARTY ANIMALS"

[Green Party-CT]

Third Party Animals
Meet Ralph Ferrucci and John Mertens, the other next Senators from Connecticut 
  by Adam Bulger - July 13, 2006 
   
                  NICK LACY PHOTOS         Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Ralph Ferrucci.                  John Mertens is running for senate on the Independent Party CT. When Joe Lieberman announced on July 3 that he was collecting signatures in anticipation of running as an independent candidate in the event he lost the August 8 Democratic primary, it sent shock waves throughout state and national politics. Commentators called the move a betrayal of the Democratic Party.   Lieberman could, of course, still win the primary. However, one of his opponents in the race doubts he will.   ¨We think it´s pretty much a foregone conclusion that it´s going to be a three way race,¨ Republican Senatorial candidate Alan Schlesinger told the Advocate in a phone interview.   As such, Schlesinger is preparing to run a campaign on two fronts, with Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont as the Democratic nominee and Lieberman running as an independent.   But Lieberman, Lamont and
 Schlesinger won´t be the only names on the ballot. There have been third party candidates in the race for a while. If Lieberman does run as an independent, he´ll find the playing field fairly crowded.   Ralph Ferrucci, a veteran political activist from New Haven, is running for the U.S. Senate on the Green Party ticket. Along with Avon drug-legalization activist Cliff Thornton´s bid for the governor´s job, Ferrucci´s campaign is part of the Green Party´s first bid for statewide office.   When I met with Ferrucci at his apartment in New Haven, we spoke in his modest living room, which was packed with DVDs like the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury , and books by Michael Moore and other left-leaning writers. He had a somewhat quiet, laid back demeanor and a sly sense of humor, which ran counter to his active history in state politics.   This is not Ferrucci´s first bid for public office. In 2003, he ran for Mayor of New Haven on the Guilty Party platform in a
 campaign that was steeped in political theater. The only prior candidate the Guilty Party had was an unconvincing drag queen named ¨Little Miss Mess-up.¨ During Ferrucci´s campaign, volunteers tried to ¨buy¨ votes with self-printed three dollar bills.   ¨The Green Party wasn´t ready to run a mayoral campaign at that time. And there was no other opposition to the Mayor [John DeStefano]. So we felt somebody should run against him,¨ Ferrucci said. His platform included taxing Yale and converting the city´s school buses to biodiesel fuel.   Ferrucci first got involved in politics through the 1999-2000 Ralph Nader presidential campaign. A full-time truck driver -- he delivers cookies for the Entenmann´s company, Ferrucci has continued to be active in New Haven Green and statewide party politics since then, working on the successful John Halle Alderman campaign in 2001 and Charlie Pillsbury´s 2002 bid for Congress, among other races.   Healthcare led him to the Green Party, and
 remains his dominant issue.   ¨The biggest thing, especially with the Nader campaign and the Green Party, has been health care. That´s actually my biggest issue. I talk about health care more than I talk about the war. A lot of people want to talk about the war. Strangely enough, on my website, I get more hits on my section about healthcare than the war.¨ Ferrucci said. His concerns about universal healthcare are due in part to a vested interest. ¨I´m one of 45 million people in America without it.¨   On his website, ferrucciforsenate.org, Ferrucci outlines his plan for a single-payer universal health care system.   He said his strategy for the race, in part, depended on the outcome of the Democratic primary.   ¨This is all about taking down Lieberman at all costs,¨ Ferrucci said, adding that he had no interest in acting as a spoiler for Lamont, the more progressive of the two candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. The Greens plan on endorsing Lamont for the
 Democratic primary, and had offered the Lamont campaign help if needed.   ¨I don´t plan on going up against Lamont. If Lamont wins and I´m going to throw the election, I won´t stay in that campaign. I don´t want to throw it to Lieberman,¨ Ferrucci said. ¨But I will stay in the race to attack Lieberman.¨ 
    
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  When I spoke with California native and West Hartford resident John Mertens, the senatorial candidate for the Independent Party CT, he spoke fast and intensely, in logically sorted bullet points. Looking at my notes, it´s almost like an outline of a book: Energy and oil addiction. Social Security. Budget deficits. Overspending. Pork.   ¨I´m about solving problems. We need to bring in solutions that very smart people have figured out about very important questions,¨ Mertens said.   It´s not surprising that Mertens approaches government and politics the same way that an engineer approaches any problem that needs solving. The first-time political office seeker is a tenured professor in the engineering department at Hartford´s Trinity College. His engineering background was evident both in his subject matter -- he´s a proponent of wind power and a fan of nuclear power -- as well as his choice of words. Talking about his campaign platform: he used the word ¨quantifiable¨
 several times.   He explained his campaign in pragmatic terms.   ¨I´m running for two reasons. The first is to help build a viable third party in Connecticut by getting at least one percent of the vote,¨ Mertens said. ¨The other is to scream from the mountain top about the solutions to problems that career politicians won´t talk about.¨   On his website, www.mertens2006.com, Merten describes himself as a ¨fiscal conservative¨ and a ¨social liberal.¨ While that equation usually adds up to ¨Libertarian,¨ Mertens said he ¨couldn´t cotton to the ideas of the Libertarians,¨ since he believes government has responsibilities to its citizens.   ¨I hate the terms conservative and liberal. I like the terms responsible and freedom,¨ Mertens said.   The Independent Party CT grew out of dissatisfaction with local politics in Waterbury, when party chairman Mike Telesca formed it in 2003.   ¨We realized that the only way to change the system was from the outside,¨ Telesca said.
 Subsequently, the Independent Party picked up four seats on the city´s board of aldermen. The Independent Party is forwarding five candidates in this coming election, their first bid for statewide offices. Like Ferrucci, Merten spoke favorably of Lamont, but had harsh words for Lieberman.   ¨If Lieberman loses the Democratic primary, I´ll try to take votes away from him,¨ Mertens said.   But if the election goes south for Lamont, Merten said, ¨honestly, watch my dust.¨   
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