{news} Burbank's report on his election race

[David Bedell]

Harold, thank you very much for this detailed report.  There's one thing
that I think can be clarified, as Richard also brought it up in a meeting in
Stamford tonight.

You had mentioned earlier a growth of 5th District Greens from 50 to 350
between July and November, and I wondered where you had gotten the list of
50 from, because I didn't think such fast growth was possible.  In this
report you explain that the names came from a list I gave you.  But the list
I gave you only included Greens in Fairfield County (Danbury area) and a few
in New Milford, plus a handful of other Greens I knew lived in the 5th
District. It did not include Meriden, New Britain, Waterbury, Torrington, or
most of the rest of the 5th District.

I apologize for the misunderstanding; I should have made this clearer and
urged you to obtain the complete list.

Now that CT has a centralized voter database, we should look into getting an
updated list every year or two from the SOTS instead of contacting
individual town registrars, and then we should make sure every candidate and
every chapter organizer gets relevant parts of this list.  In the past there
was a significant fee charged by the SOTS, which was sometimes paid by
generous individuals in the Green Party. We need to find out the SOTS policy
regarding fees, and whether the major parties and candidates have to pay for
the list.  I've found that every town has a different policy in releasing
its list: fees from $0-100; lists available in paper, PDF, or Excel format;
all data included or just names and addresses. It would be better to get a
uniform list from the SOTS and then divide it up as needed.

The official voter list is not perfect; for example, some voters don't
update their addresses when they move within a town, and as long as they
keep voting, they remain on the voter list with their old address.  Some GP
chapters also keep lists of Green sympathizers who are not registered Green,
which should be used to supplement the voter list. Also, candidates develop
their own lists; for example, you have a list of supporters which I hope you
will make use of if you run for Senate, or share with anyone else who runs
for Senate.

David Bedell



----- Original Message -----
Subject: {news} Burbank's report on his election race
From: Tim McKee timmckee at mail.com
Date: Mon Nov 10 14:40:10 PST 2008


----- Original Message -----

From: "Harold Burbank II"
To: "'Tim McKee'"
Subject: Re: {news} Proposed agenda for the 7PM 11-11-08 SCC CTGP meeting
at Portland Senior Center
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:46:28 -0500

Tim: I will be unable to make the 11-11-08 Portland meeting.  Please
enter the following into the record if that is appropriate re my 5th
District US House run: Facts:  My name is Harold Burbank, Canton, CT, and
I was the Party's 5th District US House candidate.  I began the campaign
when Democrat Chris Murphy announced  publicly 9-07 that he would not
support Bushco impeachment for war crimes against the Constitution and
humanity in the Iraq war.  I was nominated, vetted and selected by a
committee of 5th District Greens per party rules.  Dave Bedell gave me
the Party list of 5th District Greens in July, 2008  numbering 50 Greens,
all of which I called in July, 2008,  only 3 or 4 of which took any
interest in my campaign, and only 2 of which donated and offered
support.  I obtained my CT Secretary of State ballot access petition in
May, 2008 and collected about 4800 signatures, virtually alone, by the
8-6-08 due date (thanks to candidate Richard Duffee who helped me collect
signatures  for 2 days and Hector Lopez who worked for me in Danbury).
By 8-26-08 I was noticed that I had made the ballot.  In July and August,
2008 I was contacted by the Litchfield and New Britain chapters
respectively  of CT League of Women Voters and invited to debates in
October, 2008, acts voided by the League board at Hamden by 9-16-08, on
specious claims of lack of voter outreach, lack of  campaign funds, and
lack pf position papers. The board's hostile action caused Central CT
State University, host of the New Britain debate, to bar the League from
campus.  I maintained a campaign website at the Green national website
which got over 4800 hits. I produced a 28 minute campaign TV infomercial
broadcast district-wide for about 6 weeks on Simsbury, Plainville, and
Danbury public access cable TV.  I was interviewed occasionally by
regional papers, including the Danbury Newstimes, the Waterbury
Republican American, the Litchfield Times, The Meriden Record Journal,
The New Britain Herald and Hartford Courant, and on WAMC, WTIC, WNPR,
WWUH and maybe 2 other radio stations, and CTN, CPTV and Cablevision
 television. I appeared in 1 all candidates debate with Murphy,
Republican David Cappiello, and Independent Thomas Winn, sponsored by the
Farmington Chamber of Commerce at Farmington High School and was well
received (some say I won).    I was invited to speak at events sponsored
by CT United (religious activists for universal health care and
immigration reform), and 3 other district human services groups, and
Cheshire High School (200 students and faculty)  and was very well
received.  I held a protest counter-debate at Litchfield next door to the
League debate there, and was generously supported by a free appearance of
Charle's Keil's Berkshire Brass Stompers and Friends (band), and
volunteers Dorothea DiCecco, Janet Buonaiuto, Justine McCabe and John
Battista, though only about 16 people attended, including no one from
Cornwall which was close by and fully noticed of the event. I was
endorsed by Ralph Nader, Dr. Bob Bowman (chair of Star Wars missile
defense program), and Dr. Francis A. Boyle, and strongly supported by Dr.
Daniel Ellsberg and Ramsey Clark.  I was very kindly supported strongly
by about 12 key volunteers, some of whom are Republicans
and other non-Greens, who supplied the bulk of my funding, and
considerable moral and other support.  They were mostly from Litchfield
County.  I raised less than $2000 for the campaign and spent most of that
on gas, photocopies of campaign handouts (I could not afford a printed
leaftlet), a few signs for the Litchfield event and another appearance at
Canton High School, and miscellaneous travel costs.  I scored 2838
election votes, finishing 3rd of 4 candidates; but with just less than 1%
of the vote needed for a 2010 ballot line. Comments:  Greens must
organize managers for the candidates.  It is impossible to line up good,
multiple speaking engagements, interviews, press releases - all
absolutely critical to get required public exposure - without managers.
As Ralph Nader commented to me, Greens will not be taken seriously even
by sympathetic donors until such staff exist.  Greens must notice
candidates of new Party members before election day.  Apparently 350
Greens were registered in the 5th District by 11-4-08, while only 50 were
in 7-08.  No one told me of the new members, which I would have called,
and likely persuaded to hold speaking events and otherwise attract voters
who would have given Greens 1% of the 5th District vote for a 2010 ballot
line (we missed by about .26%).  I found speaking in small and moderate
sized groups to be very effective and critical for public awareness.  I
got great feedback from human services agencies and school staff as
opposed to 5th district students who were not very enthused (this was not
the case in other districts I noticed).  Greens need a visible presence
in Danbury, Waterbury, New Britain and Torrington to win this district.
Greens need more money to do public mailing and brochure printing.  I
could have used much more help gathering signatures.  This was very, very
hard work, for which I sacrificed considerable work and family time.  I
invested hundreds of hours at about 4  Stop & Shop  stores (this was the
ONLY major CT retailer who supported this effort for me) and frankly the
Green brand name was not well received by at least 40% of the people I
solicited.  They either did not know what Greens stood for or outright
objected and refused to sign.  I did a LOT of selling the brand for those
4800 signatures. I would have done better as an independent, based on
what voters' said. Conclusions:  I accepted this candidacy because of the
war crimes committed by Bushco and the threat this poses to my children,
the Constitution and the world.Phil Donohue said last week exit polls
show only 10% of voters cared about the war(s) in the election, due to
the economy.  This was clearly the case in the 5th District, which is so
wealthy and "removed" from the war(s) that almost no voters I spoke with
cared about the wars (with notable exceptions); a very great
disappointment, and why Murphy won in a landslide, despite being a war
criminal (voted for war funding many times).  Given the extremely poor
support of Greens in the 5th District for me (Cornwall, an alleged Green
haven, gave me only 10 votes), the hostile attitude of the CTLWV board,
the media black out, and the extraordinary commitment it takes to do this
work, I will not do it again unless there are major state party volunteer
and funding supports in place.  It was good to get the Green message out
to the 5th as best I could, but given the meager results, there is
obviously much organizing to do, with little expectation of success for a
US House seat in the foreseeable future.  I think I was a good candidate,
but that clearly is not enough to even get noticed by the 2 major
"industrial" parties or most of the public, who mostly did not know or
care I was running, despite superior Green views on substance. Richard
Duffee expressed some interest in running against Chris Dodd for US
Senate.  I recommend that the Party consider right away if it will take
that race seriously and, as Richard suggested to me, in the next few
months form some means of vetting candidates.  I might be interested in
running, but do not consider myself a strong candidate, where Ralph
Ferrucci, Scott Deshefy and Steve Fournier got considerable 2008 support
in their regions compared to me. Harold Burbank Attorney Harold H.
Burbank, II
84 N. Mountain Rd.
Canton, CT  06019
860.693.2687
email haroldburbank at comcast.net