{news} Ken Dixon in the CT Post comments on Thornton, Burton campaigns

[David Bedell]

http://www.connpost.com/kendixon/ci_4315100

Green Party making points on issues
By Ken Dixon

Consider the Green Party with its warts, threats to the status quo and all. 
Decriminalizing and "medicalizing" drugs could jeopardize the judicial 
system, where a disproportionate percentage of inner-city blacks and 
Hispanics fill the state's prisons.

That's one of the Green Party planks that, in real life, marginalizes the 
group in so-called mainstream public-policy debates. While it may make 
eminent sense to many people around the world, any Democrat or Republican 
who even utters the word "decriminalize," is soft on crime and a candidate 
for early political retirement. Every year it costs about $600 million in 
your tax dollars to keep Connecticut's prisons operating, including paying 
for its 7,000 employees. This week, more than 23,300 are being "supervised" 
by the state's Department of Correction, including 17,334 men and 1,403 
women in prison, plus nearly 5,000 people in local jails awaiting court 
appearances.

The judicial system costs another $395 million a year.

At the intake end of the system, defense lawyers make millions trying to 
keep dealers and users out of the slammer. So if the Green's ideas of 
decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana and turning cocaine and heroin 
into prescription drugs were realized, does that mean more defense lawyers 
would be driving Chevys instead of Mercedes? What if you could cut the DOC 
budget in half? You could offer $300 million in state-college scholarships. 
Chances are, if you see Cliff Thornton, the Green's candidate for governor, 
during the upcoming gubernatorial debates, he'll point out the fiscal and 
social costs of institutionalizing a portion of the state's population at 
per-capita costs comparable to room, board and classes at a state 
university.

"This is a tremendous uphill battle," Thornton admitted in an interview last 
week. "But we're the only party that's going to raise the issues that people 
are most concerned with."

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell last week asked Democratic challenger John 
DeStefano to include Thornton in whatever debates they may agree to along 
the way to November.

It's a good strategy for Rell. Another person on the stage means less time 
for the New Haven mayor to possibly attack her. "She is for real democracy," 
Thornton said of the governor. "If we're on the ballot, we should be part of 
the debates."

Thornton also understands the governor's motives for adding another voice in 
the debate, especially one that's not expected to win.

"Pawns, in the game of chess, can become queens," he said, noting for you 
non-players that if a pawn occasionally survives the game, it reaches the 
opponent's end of the board, then is transformed into the most-powerful of 
pieces. Thornton and the rest of the Green Party slate, including Ralph 
Ferrucci, the Green's candidate for U.S. Senate, have two chances on Nov. 7 
— slim and none.

But for the first time, the little national party has a complete team of 
high-level candidates in Connecticut. Consider the Greens more than a 
boutique party for the patchouli-oil-and-water-pipe set in Connecticut 
college towns. Then ponder the similarities between Connecticut Republicans 
and Democrats.

Forget those whines from hyperventilating Democrats over Green Party icon 
Ralph Nader's 2000 Election Day showing. He siphoned so many Florida votes 
from Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, that they conveniently forgot that they 
couldn't even win Gore's home state of Tennessee.

During a coming-out event for Nancy Burton, the Green's candidate for 
attorney general, last week in Hartford's Bushnell Park, the campaign staff 
busily erected a circle of campaign signs, arranged campaign material on a 
table and tethered the green balloons.

The staff then jogged over to the parked Jeep and changed from garden boots 
into black pumps and kicked off the brief press conference for herself. The 
odds are so stacked against Burton, that it's quite likely the issue of her 
having been disbarred as an attorney in Connecticut will never come up. It 
is intriguing to think, though, what would happen if she were elected to a 
job that requires a lawyer have their license. "Anyone who votes for me is 
voting for someone who qualifies for this office," Burton said last week, 
adding that she's still a member of the New York bar and if she wins, will 
apply for reinstatement in Connecticut. "I'm qualified for this office and 
would serve this office well. I should have my law license returned."

Burton's main platform is a promise to close the Millstone nuclear complex 
in southeastern Connecticut. "There are good grounds to shut it down as a 
public nuisance," she said.

What about the argument that Connecticut needs the megawatts? She recalled 
that in 1996, the state was without any nuclear generation for two years.

"There was never a blackout or brownout, but we should have learned our 
lesson long ago," said Burton, of Redding. "We need clean, sustainable 
energy including solar, wind and other sources."

Connecticut voters, emerging from their summer slumbers, should pay 
attention to the Greens and the resulting public policy issues that will 
rise during the march to Election Day.

Ken Dixon's Capitol View appears Sundays in the Connecticut Post. You may 
reach him in the Capitol at (860) 549-4670 or e-mail him at dixon.connpost@ 
snet.net