{news} National Green Party focuses on Stamford

Wed Oct 21 23:47:12 EDT 2009

The latest issue of "Green Pages" (national Green Party newspaper) has
an article by Rolf Maurer about this year's candidates in the Stamford
area.  

Stamford candidate Megan Cassano is also included in the photo montage
on the cover.

David Bedell

http://gp.org/greenpages-blog/?p=1443

Tue 13 Oct 2009

Greens
run for several offices simultaneously in Stamford, Connecticut
Posted by admin under 2009 Fall
Elections 

Hoping to enable political viability with
multi-pronged approach

by Rolf Maurer, Connecticut Green Party and Stamford
Mayoral and Constable candidate

While the Green Party is quite prominent in
New Haven and elsewhere in Connecticut, Stamford, located in Fairfield
County, because of its status as a corporate center and its intimate
ties to Manhattan’s financial community, produces voters who tend to go
with what is tried (if not true) when considering their options.

This learned helplessness succeeds only in the
perpetuation of well-financed favoritism at public expense as the
political norm, with election outcomes limited to Democrats or
Republicans as little more than fait accomplis.

By permeating the local political scene with
several Greens running at once for different government offices -
Constables (Mary Farrell, Rolf Maurer,
David Bedell), Board of Representatives (Ted
Hanser, Mary Farrell, David Bedell),
Board of Education (Megan Cassano), as well as Mayor (Rolf Maurer),
it is hoped such a multi-pronged strategy will enhance the political
viability of Greens as a constructive alternative to the status quo.

Chapter Secretary David Bedell, a Justice of
the Peace, who is running for two positions this year and has run for
other positions in the past, commented, “We want to continue increasing
the number of offices to which we have ballot access, while providing
voters a Green option in as many races as possible. Even with limited
resources, we can do this through a combination of placeholder
candidates and active campaigns.”

The platform collectively emphasizes support
for enhanced mass transit (including light rail and more buses on more
routes) and a bicycle-friendly infrastructure, through adoption of Safe
Routes to School’s bikeways and traffic-calming practices in the
vicinity of public schools, as well as training in the responsible use
of bicycles as vehicles, just as with autos. In particular, students of
driving age could be encouraged to participate by having high school
student parking repurposed into parks, or even pilot community gardens.

The three candidates for constable, a position
whose duties mainly consist of serving legal papers, have pledged to
perform their tasks year round using bicycles or mass transit. All
three have already eliminated the use of automobiles in their personal
lives.

Concerning community gardens, a major
component of promoting environmental/agricultural sustainability is the
conversion of unused downtown spaces, such as the “hole” adjacent to
the Stamford Town Center (STC) mall, as proof-of-concept community
gardens to encourage people to plant more throughout town.

A private/public partnership with the STC to
lease part of the mall for exclusive use by local businesses would
boost the local economy by keeping more dollars circulating in
Stamford. While a private/public partnership already exists in the form
of the Downtown Special Services District, expanding its
commerce-building activities beyond the Bedford Street environs would
benefit the whole of Stamford, by nurturing the evolution of several
adjoining retail and cultural hubs. Like local agriculture, the
incremental adoption of local currency, in the form of notes, or time
bartering, already in place in Willimantic and New Haven, would
strengthen social bonds among Stamfordites, while further softening the
blow in the event of catastrophic economic collapse.

In addition to emphasizing community gardens
and a pedestrian and bicycle friendly city, Thaddeus Hauser, a
candidate for the city board of representatives, has a platform which
notes the need to clean up toxic landfills in residential areas and the
importance of creating jobs by supporting local businesses rather than
giving tax breaks to large outside corporations, which will frequently
relocate for a better tax break.

Megan Cassano,
candidate for the Board of Education, is a licensed clinical social
worker and also teaches at area colleges. Having a passion for
education, she is emphasizing every child is given opportunities to
achieve and that those with behavior problems should not be simply
pigeonholed into categories such as hyperactive. She believes a
“whole-istic” approach needs to be taken, examining all aspects of a
child’s life to determine why there are behavior problems and
addressing those problems.

Elsewhere in Fairfield County, Greens are running
for other Constable positions. In New Canaan Hector Lopez,
a two-term incumbent, is joined on the ballot by his daughter, Estela
Lopez, and Cole Stangler, while in Redding
is Leif Smith, who is also a Justice of the Peace.

Greens in Fairfield County, and most
especially Stamford, are demonstrating several methods to start
building the party as a political entity by running candidates for
offices in which there is not a lot of prestige, but a lot of work,
such as constable or school board, and by running both active and
placeholder candidates, giving Green voting options and making the
party more visible.

Rolf Mauer works in trade and directory
publishing and is running simultaneously for mayor and constable.

  “We want to continue increasing the number of
offices to which we have ballot access, while providing voters a Green
option in as many races as possible.”

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