{news} Cliff Thornton in Stamford Advocate

Tue May 30 00:43:26 EDT 2006

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-green6may29,0,5349869.story
Green Party candidate stares down the odds

By Tobin A. Coleman
Staff Writer

May 29, 2006

Clifford Thornton Jr. doesn't mince words -- he knows his Connecticut Green
Party candidacy for governor has little chance.

But Thornton, 61, hopes his campaign will spur discussion on the war on
drugs and on related issues of race and class.

"There's no one out there who is speaking to these issues," said Thornton,
who was nominated last month as the Green Party candidate at a convention in
New Haven. "No one is talking about the war on drugs. No one is talking
about education and how it relates to the drug war. No one is talking about
the failure of our infrastructure."

After major party conventions earlier this month chose gubernatorial
nominees Dannel Malloy, Stamford's Democratic mayor, and Republican Gov. M.
Jodi Rell, Thornton said he deserves his share of the media spotlight as an
officially recognized candidate who is raising money and attempting to get
his message out.

"I want to get these people to talk about the issues," the Glastonbury man
said. "How many people are talking about the war in Iraq? How many people
are talking about the war right here? How many people are talking about the
race issue?"

Thornton is the first black man to run for governor from an established
party in Connecticut.

"If I inspire minorities, it's great. But it's not what I deem really
important," he said.

Thornton, whose mother died of a heroin overdose when he was 18, said his
concentration on the drug trade does not make him a one-issue candidate.

The drug trade is "two degrees from everything" and the "so-called war on
drugs" promotes racism and wastes large amounts of money, he said.

The 2004 report of the state Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in
the Criminal Justice System ranked Connecticut highest nationwide for
disparity in rates of incarceration of whites, blacks and Hispanics, who
mostly are arrested on drug charges.

In 2000, the incarceration rate for black men was 18 times higher than the
rate for non-Hispanic white men. One in 11 black men ages 18 to 64 in
Connecticut was in prison or jail in 2000, according to the report.

Thornton said marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol. Hemp, a
form of the marijuana plant that is not psycho-active and can be used to
make clothing, automobile parts and other items, also should be legalized,
he said.

Heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine should be "medicalized,"
meaning users would come under a doctor's care, Thornton said. Other drugs,
mostly hallucinogens, should be decriminalized but studied honestly, without
researchers bent on finding reasons to make them illegal, he said. Their use
would depend on the outcome of such studies, he said.

Thornton said he uses marijuana less than once a year, but no other drugs.

Ending the drug war would save billions of dollars in the cost of
maintaining police departments and the criminal justice system, he said. The
money could be used to pay for better schools, improved transportation
infrastructure and universal health care, Thornton said. Getting addicts
health care could prevent deaths like that of his mother, he said.

Children would benefit by breaking the cycle of addiction, Thornton said. In
the 40 years of the national war on drugs, 20 million children have been
"orphaned" because one or more of their parents served prison time for drug
offenses, he said. Those children are most likely to act out and be
suspended or expelled from school, which puts them on the street, where they
invariably get in trouble, usually with drugs, he said.

"It's the culture," Thornton said. "We started with it. We have to pay for
it."

Asked to comment about the positions of his opponents, Thornton reiterated
that they miss the point on fundamental issues.

Malloy "has said it's one of the safest cities to live in, and he won't
admit to the drug problem that they have in Stamford," Thornton said. "You
can quote me when I call them cowards on the drug wars . . . because I want
to draw them into a fight any way."

Other than the drug issue and differences with Malloy's universal
health-care plan, Thornton said he has no specific differences with
candidates, including New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who is expected to
challenge Malloy's nomination in an Aug. 8 primary.

Thornton said he is on the side of the plaintiffs and not "the business or
status quo politicians" in the New London eminent domain case, Kelo v. New
London Development Corp., in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that
municipal governments can hand over private residences to businesses to
redevelop for profit. Thornton favors campaign finance reform, which will
take effect in Connecticut in 2008 and provide partial public funding of
campaigns.

Third-party candidacies have succeeded in Connecticut, most notably the
victory of A Connecticut Party gubernatorial candidate Lowell Weicker Jr. of
Greenwich in 1990 in a three-way race. But political experts say third
parties in Connecticut are successful statewide if they have a well-known
figure, such as Weicker, who was a Republican U.S. senator before running
for governor.

"While the Green Party is stronger in Connecticut than it is in any state,
it's really on the local level," said William Salka, associate professor of
political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. "In this year's
gubernatorial election, the candidate doesn't strike me as particularly
strong, and strong enough to get enough media attention to pull votes away
from the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be. You really need a big
name to start to get the attention."

The major parties have an unfair monopoly on the political system, Thornton
said. The Quinnipiac University Poll, for example, will not include his name
among gubernatorial candidates, he said.

Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said many factors decide whether third-party
and petition candidates are included in gubernatorial polls.

"Our policy is that a third-party candidate has to show that they can
significantly affect the outcome of the election," Schwartz said. "We look
at such things as media coverage, fundraising, inclusion in other polls."

Thornton said his candidacy is about supporting the pillars of the Green
Party -- grassroots democracy, social justice, non-violence and ecological
wisdom.

"My goal is to, first of all, make the Green Party a viable strong third
party, reach the tens of thousands of people in this state that no longer
think they have a voice or they can't make a difference and show them that
they do have a voice," Thornton said.

Thornton, a retired businessman, lives with his wife, Margaret Thornton.
Between them they have five daughters, ages 24 to 43.

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