{news} As Dodd loses in polls- Time to draft a GREEN candidate for Senate in 2010??

[James Lavin]

A month ago, Tim McKee wrote 
(http://ml.greens.org/pipermail/ctgp-news/2009-March/003141.html):

Dear Greens,
 
Dodd is losing to Republicans in the polls. He is tainted with several 
scandals and conflicts of interests. Most people can trace the financial 
meltdown to his BIG money donations and looking the other way as the 
crooks made off with our money.
 
We have NOTHING to lose by running a candidate for U S Senate- we can't 
spoil this race at all! Odds are the republicans will WIN this seat!
 
Let us begin to discuss the race. I have one BIG TIME candidate in mind 
as a draft, and i want to win the race,, let;s begin dicussing this race 
on the FORUM list serve.
 
Tim McKee
(860) 778-1304

----

I could not agree more. Because Connecticut voters deserve/need a better 
2010 Senate option than Dodd vs. Simmons, I wondered who the Green Party 
is considering running. I visited your website and saw Mr. McKee's 
message, but it seems no one has yet replied.

My only foray into politics began in January 2006 when I read about a 
guy in Greenwich named Ned Lamont who was thinking about running for the 
Senate. People laughed at the idea of a complete unknown taking on Joe 
Lieberman, but I sat in Ned's office two months before he announced his 
campaign, and I urged him to run, saying he could win. As we met, 
Connecticut's powerful Democratic leaders kept calling and urging him 
not to run because they all supported Lieberman. I'm proud of the 
research and advice I gave Ned as he wrested the Democratic Party 
nomination from Lieberman. (I was scarcely involved in the general 
election because "professional" political consultants took over Ned's 
campaign.)

It's unlikely the Green Party candidate will win the Senate seat, but it 
IS a possibility... if the candidate runs an attention-grabbing 
grassroots campaign. Dodd's unpopularity and the public's (totally 
deserved) disgust with Republicans means voters will seriously consider 
a third option. And if the Green candidate grabs enough early attention, 
he/she could muscle his/her way into debates and -- at worst -- 
positively impact the debate and public consciousness and -- possibly -- 
shock the world by establishing the Green Party as a real alternative as 
the Republican Party continues to self-destruct.

I'm sick of corporate media and corporate political control. I'm beyond 
mad at our broken economy, our broken government, our broken healthcare 
system, our broken educational system, our broken electoral process, our 
broken regulatory bodies, and our our failing environment. About the 
only things not failing in America today are the prison-industrial 
complex, warfare spending, and incomprehensibly large taxpayer bailouts 
of failed megabanks... the same megabanks that blew up our economy and 
bought our politicians with campaign contributions. I've been mad for 
decades. In recent years, I've laughed my pain away with "The Daily 
Show" and "The Colbert Report," but the Obama Administration's 
continuation of the Bush Administration's pro-war, pro-big business, 
anti-privacy, and anti-Constitution policies proves our major parties 
are hopelessly addicted to green... money, that is, not the party.

Someone needs to act before we leave our children a country and a planet 
broken beyond repair. I doubt I'm the person for this challenge, but I 
sure hope someone waves the Green Party banner in 2010 and takes the 
fight to Dodd and Simmons on behalf of working people, 
small-enough-to-fail businesses, and future generations.

Cheers,

James Lavin