{news} local papers cover Nancy Burton's campaign launch

[David Bedell]

Redding Pilot & Weston Forum, 9/14/06

Burton launches her campaign for the attorney general's post

Last week in Hartford, Nancy Burton, a Reddingite, formally launched her 
campaign as Connecticut Green Party candidate for state attorney general, 
vowing "to work to purge the courts of judicial corruption and to close the 
Millstone Nuclear Power Station."

Ms. Burton is challenging Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the 
Democratic incumbent, and Robert Farr, a Republican state representative 
from West Hartford.

If elected state attorney general, "I will be in court to close Millstone 
before the sun sets on my first day in office," said Ms. Burton.  "Our laws 
give the attorney general enormous powers to protect the public interest.  
These laws have been underutilized."

She called Millstone and its New York twin, the Indian Point nuclear power 
station, "the worst threats to the health, safety and welfare of the people 
of this state, and we need to close them now," Ms. Burton said.  She 
criticized Attorney General Blumenthal for not providing enough oversight at 
Millstone.

"When ordinary citizens have to step forward alone to defend their 
communities against nuclear perils, it's time for a radical shake-up in 
government," Ms. Burton said in a release prepared for her campaign 
announcement.  "The Green Party is here to provide a new voice and a new 
choice for the people," she said.

Ms. Burton worked as a public interest attorney for 20 years, successfully 
bringing suit in 1999, she said, to shut Millstone Unit 2 temporarily during 
the annual fish spawning season.

As a public-interest attorney, Ms. Burton took on many controversial cases 
successfully, advocating for environmental protection and against gender 
bias and racism, her release said.

However, when she petitioned the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1995 to 
investigate three Superior Court judges for a pattern of misconduct, Ms. 
Burton said she paid a heavy price for her judicial whistleblowing.

Ms. Burton was disbarred from the practice of law for five years on Nov. 2, 
2001, by a Superior Court judge whose decision was upheld by the Connecticut 
Supreme Court.

Superior Court Judge A. William Mottolese said Ms. Burton misled a group of 
Monroe residents fighting a housing plan into signing on as plaintiffs in a 
lawsuit to block the development when they thought they were signing a 
petition.  Ms. Burton said at the time that the intent of the document was 
clear and called the judge's ruling "an affront to the due process, to 
justice and to the people of Connecticut."

She "will eventually be fully vindicated," Ms. Burton said in her releases.  
She is eligible to apply for re-admission to the bar prior to Election Day 
on Nov. 7, 2006.  She remains licensed to practice in New York.

"Honoring the attorney's oath should not be a path to career suicide," Ms. 
Burton said.  "If I am elected attorney general, I will work for passage of 
a law which would make it a crime for anyone who becomes aware of judicial 
misconduct to fail to report it."

Ms. Burton appeared at a press conference with Cliff Thornton, Green Party 
gubernatorial candidate, and other members of the Green Party.

"The Green Team will bring a new spirit of opportunity, responsibility and 
community to Connecticut," Ms. Burton said.

"This is an historic moment," Ms. Burton said, noting that this year Green 
Party members successfully petitioned to put their candidates for top state 
and federal races on the ballot for the first time.  The secretary of the 
state qualified the requisite 7,500 petitions on Aug. 21.

Ms. Burton said she will invite Mr. Blumenthal to a debate.

The candidate said she will campaign for the following issues, among others:

- Abolition of the death penalty.
- Universal health care.
- An energy policy that "would radically reduce consumption and spur 
development of sustainables on an emergency basis."
- Mandatory "green" building requirements.
- Ballot access and campaign finance reform to eliminate barriers to 
third-party participation.
- Action by the governor as commander-in-chief of the Connecticut National 
Guard "to recall troops from fighting in the illegal war in Iraq."
- Legalization and medicalization of drugs as an alternative to the failed 
drug wars.
- Land use reform by the legislature to discourage suburban sprawl and loss 
of farmlands.
- Major investment in local and organic agriculture, with incentives to 
provide schoolchildren "with a healthy diet of locally grown, pesticide-free 
food."
- Addressing the transportation crisis by reviving freight train service 
operating with clean renewable energy and expanding mass transit.
- Expansion of equal educational opportunities to all the children of the 
state.
- Legislation giving the people the right to referendum.
- Repeal of "the failed electricity deregulation law" and resumption of 
state regulation of Millstone.
- Legislation making it a crime to conceal knowledge of judicial misconduct 
and protecting judicial whistleblowers from retaliation.

During the last state election in 2004, Ms. Burton was the Green Party's 
candidate in the 135th state House District.  She was unsuccessful in her 
bid to unseat the Republican incumbent, Westonite John Stripp.