{news} Richard Duffee wins Green Party nomination for 4th District Congressional Seat: Stamfor Times

[Mike DeRosa]

Stamford Times


This year, Green Party will not back off the ballot

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By JARED  <mailto:jnewman at thehour.com> NEWMAN 

jnewman at thestamfordtimes.com 



REGION - Richard Duffee wants another shot at impeaching the president. 


A member of the Green Party who ran for the state's fourth district seat in
congress two years ago, Duffee is seeking the party's nomination again for
the 2008 elections. Impeachment is so important to him that if nominated,
he'll continue to run even if it means less votes for the Democrats in a
close race.




"I do not think it's much better to have democrats in office than
republicans until the democrats say that they will fulfill their oaths of
office," Duffee said. "You're not going to reinstate the constitution if you
can't even say that violating it is wrong." 

Duffee pulled out of the 2006 election only a couple weeks from election
day. A poll found that Diane Farrell, a democrat, had a chance at unseating
Chris Shays, the republican incumbent, and the Green Party was afraid of
siphoning votes from Farrell. 


This time, the party has said if they place a candidate on the ballot, they
won't back out. 


"It's an enormous effort to get onto the ballot," David Bedell, secretary of
the Fairfield County chapter of the party, said. "You have to collect a lot
of signatures, and then to do all that work and change our minds - it's a
wasted effort." 


Duffee is a 59 year-old retired lawyer who has traveled to almost 30
countries and lived in India for seven years. After graduating from Pace Law
School, he said he lost faith in the democratic party when the Legal
Services Corporation, a federal agency that provides free legal aid, reduced
it's scope under President Bill Clinton. 


Now a resident of Stamford, Duffee talks extensively, when prompted, about
the aspects of America that anger him. His voice cracks when describing how
much money the country spends on defense - roughly 50 percent of the entire
world's spending - and how other countries view the U.S. as an empire. 


"We in this country don't understand how the rest of the world perceives us,
or why, because we don't look at ourselves from the outside," Duffee said. 


He wants progressive taxes to even the country's distribution of wealth. At
a more local level, he wants the license revoked for Indian Point, a nuclear
power plant in Buchanan, N.Y. 


On Iraq, Duffee said the U.S. should pull out immediately and pay
reparations. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza
Rice should all stand trial before an international criminal court for
leading the country to war, Duffee said. 


But Duffee's marquee issue remains impeachment, a stance supported by the
Green Party. The new congress takes office Jan. 3, 2009, providing a 17 day
window to get it done. 


"You can impeach, even in a day," Duffee said. 

 
 
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