{news} Support HB 6436: A bill that will reduce our petitioning requirements to 1000 SIGNATURES!

Sat Feb 14 20:07:09 EST 2009

Hi, Jean:

The lawsuit is not lost.  We have our last court "hearing" on March 11th in
Bridgeport.  

The legislation that we are talking about (HB 6436) only covers ballot
access. That is, how many signatures we need to get on the ballot.  This
bill does not have anything to do with the petitioning that is required to
gain access to the campaign finance grants for an office that require us to
collect  valid signatures from 20% of the people who voted for the office in
the last election(actually we are talking closer to 40% since many names
will be thrown off for obvious political reasons)(10%-15% signatures for
incremental grants of 33% and 66% respectively).

If you could come and speak at the legislature on Feb 18th, 2009 that would
be great.  You know how much work went into getting all of us the ballot in
2006. We had to realistically collect over 15,000 signatures(7500 valid) to
run an entire slate.  You could talk about the importance of people having
diversity in their political choices. Your voice would add a special
legitimacy to our effort, since you are the highest elected Green in CT.
Also you will get exposure on the CT Network.

We did bring up the fact to the committee co-chairs that the requirements to
obtain funding under CT campaign finance law were impossible to attain by
any minor or major party.  If we win we will have to come back to this
committee to negotiate a change in this part of the CF law.  But until the
judge rules in our favor and the appellate court confirms his decision (if
he rules in our favor) we will remain stuck in the land of "steady habits
and political amnesia".

I hope this clarifies the situation.

The following link will direct you to a PDF of HB 6436 (click here):

  <http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/TOB/h/pdf/2009HB-06436-R00-HB.pdf>
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/TOB/h/pdf/2009HB-06436-R00-HB.pdf. 

I have attached the document that we presented to the committee co-chairs.

In case anyone thinks that we don't suffer from political amnesia in this
state I have included this little piece of CT's suppressed history:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OELVyy0gbLw/SOv1QuUkFSI/AAAAAAAAAv0/46BW020Cyb8/s4
00/McLevy+Two.jpg

In the early 1930s, Bridgeport, an industrial city in southern Connecticut,
was plagued by corruption and hard hit by the Great
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression>  Depression. In 1931, voters
had ousted the incumbent Republican
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)>  mayor for
Democrat <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Buckingham&action=edit&red
link=1> Edward Buckingham, but by 1933, dissatisfaction had spread to both
parties. McLevy surprised the media and the public by winning the election,
along with a Socialist majority on the Board of Aldermen, Bridgeport's city
council. McLevy went on to be reelected eleven times  For more information
click here :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_McLevy

Sincerely,

Mike DeRosa

From: Jean de Smet [mailto:j.desmet at att.net] 
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 7:13 PM
To: 'Mike DeRosa'; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org; CTGP-elections at yahoogroups.com;
newhavengreens at yahoogroups.com; CTVOTER at yahoogroups.com;
RecountTheVotes at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: {news} Support HB 6436: A bill that will reduce our
petitioningrequirements to 1000 SIGNATURES!

I thought we were asking for Equal treatment, not just "not as bad as the
other requirements" treatment?  Is the lawsuit lost?

This is liberalism-but I'll support it, if you advise that this is our only
chance.

Jean

-----Original Message-----
From: ctgp-news-bounces at ml.greens.org
[mailto:ctgp-news-bounces at ml.greens.org] On Behalf Of Mike DeRosa
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 9:53 PM
To: ctgp-news at ml.greens.org; CTGP-elections at yahoogroups.com;
newhavengreens at yahoogroups.com; CTVOTER at yahoogroups.com;
RecountTheVotes at yahoogroups.com
Subject: {news} Support HB 6436: A bill that will reduce our
petitioningrequirements to 1000 SIGNATURES!

Greens,

Good News:

Today the GAE (Government And Elections) committee released HR 6436 in
written form.  I gave the bill to Atty. and CT Green Party co-chair Steve
Fornier to look at earlier today.  He says that the bill would reduce our
state-wide office and congressional petitioning requirements to 1000 valid
signatures  (VS 7500 SIGNATURES OR 1% OF THE VOTES IN LAST ELECTION UNDER
THE PRESENT LAW).

In the past we have been required to collect 7500 valid signatures to get on
the ballot for president or for other state-wide office and we have had to
collect over 3000 valid signatures for congress.  The bill also requires the
Sec. of the State to do all the checking of the signatures and takes the
responsibility away from the town clerks.

The following link will direct you to a PDF of HB 6436:
<http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/TOB/h/pdf/2009HB-06436-R00-HB.pdf>
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/TOB/h/pdf/2009HB-06436-R00-HB.pdf. 

Read it and let me know what you think!

There is going to be a public hearing on this bill VERY SOON.  Here is the
info from the GAE website:

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Download to Calendar

9:30 AM

Government Administration and Elections Committee Meeting followed by a
Public Hearing

LOB Room 2B

YOU NEED TO GET THERE AT 8AM TO SIGN UP TO SPEAK.  THE PUBLIC HEARING
SPEAKERS LIST IS AVAILABLE AT 8:30AM.  IF YOU GET THERE EARLY

YOU CAN GET OUT VERY EARLY AND MOST OF THE REPRESENTATIVES WILL BE THERE TO
HEAR YOUR TESTIMONY. THE WHOLE EVENT IS ON THE CT NETWORK,

 ANOTHER WAY TO GET OUR MESSAGE OUT.  THIS BILL CAME FROM THE CO-CHAIRS OF
THE GAE COMMITTEE AFTER SEVERAL OF US MET WITH THEM 

RECENTLY.

MAKE A SPECIAL EFFORT TO ATTEND THIS HEARING.  IF THIS BILL PASSES IT WILL
ABLE TO MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE TO THE GREEN 

PARTY AND WILL REDUCE ONE OF MOST UNFAIR AND DISCRIMINATORY MINOR PARTY
REQUIREMENTS FOR  BALLOT ACCESS.  CALL YOUR REP, AND

ASK THAT SHE OR HE SUPPORT THIS LEGISLATION.

Sincerely,

Mike DeRosa

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