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

[David Bedell]

Mike's post was actually a story about Richard that ran last month in the
Stamford Times and Norwalk Hour.  Below is the post-convention story by the
same reporter.  It appeared online as top story in the Wilton Villager, on
page 3 of the print edition of the Norwalk Hour, and should be in the next
issue of the Stamford Times.  (The Hour is Norwalk's daily; the Times is a
weekly spinoff; I've seen nothing in Stamford's daily the Advocate yet, or
Bridgeport's CT Post.  The Hersam-Acorn small-town weeklies will probably
run a story.)

http://www.wiltonvillager.com/wilton_templates/wilton_story/290766605211423.php

Duffee gets Green Party nomination in 4th District

By JARED NEWMAN

NORWALK - On Sunday, Fairfield County's Green Party chapter nominated
Richard Duffee to run for the 4th District seat in Congress.

Duffee now needs roughly 2,100 signatures - 1 percent of district voters in
the last election - to appear on the ballot alongside Republican incumbent
Christopher Shays and Democratic candidate Jim Himes.

Duffee's major campaign platform is the impeachment of President George W.
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. In the second floor auditorium of the
Norwalk Public Library, Duffee often yelled, pointing a finger wildly in the
air as he talked of civil rights violations and government exploitation of
foreign countries.

He said the government is running a plutocracy under the cover of a
republic, and it's because Congress keeps giving its powers away. The
Constitution, he said, needs to be upheld.

"I want a republic," Duffee screamed during his closing remarks. "I pledged
my allegiance to a republic, not an empire. I have no allegiance to an
empire. It is morally reprehensible."

The crowd, in turn, applauded.

Of the 10 members of Fairfield County's Green Party chapter, seven chose to
nominate Duffee, and three voted not to nominate anyone. Another candidate,
Gerry Falbel, received no votes.

Two years ago, Duffee withdrew from the ballot to avoid pulling votes away
from Diane Farrell, who was running a close race with Shays. This time,
Duffee said he won't pull out unless a more likely candidate to win seems
dedicated to impeachment. Besides, said David Bedell, the chapter's
secretary, it's too much effort to put a candidate on the ballot only to
remove him or her at the last minute.

Mike DeRosa, the party's state co-chairman, expects that Duffee will do a
lot better than many people think.

"I think the issue is going to be raised that we're the spoilers," DeRosa
said, "but you can't spoil something that's rotten to the core."

Himes attended the party meeting, and pledged to Green Party members that he
would listen to them and would try to incorporate the party's key values
into his platform.

In a later interview, Himes wouldn't commit to being for or against
impeachment. "I don't really have a comment on impeachment," he said. "I
haven't developed a position on it."

Himes added there's no time to impeach once the new Congress takes hold Jan.
3, 2009, but Duffee has said Bush's 17 remaining days as a lame duck is
enough.

Clifford Thornton, a state and national co-chairman for the Green Party,
said he approved of Duffee's nomination, though the party, he said, should
mainly focus on gaining state Senate and House seats.

There are six state senate candidates and four state House candidates
running, and Thornton hopes at least one will be elected.