Congressional Dems' Cruel Joke 
Here, the country is going to hell in a locomotive with Bush & Company in the driver's seat, and apparently the Democrats' biggest (or only!) concern is that they all be allowed to keep their seats on the train. Just when they have been exposed as weak and ineffectual, Congressional Democrats decide that, rather than reconsider their own party's shortcomings, they will instead change the rules so that no one else will have a fair chance of criticizing--and correcting--those shortcomings. Apparently, they would prefer that the train run off the tracks than to risk allowing steadier hands to take the throttle.
The Democratic Party is right to be 'running scared' these days; but its current strategy will do nothing to win votes from those of us who hold dear that Party's past principles. Many of us who used to be registered as Democrats, before that party sold out to the big money corporate interests, are demanding the opportunity to campaign for (and vote for!) candidates who actually represent The People's interests. This legislation would effectively scuttle any of our efforts in that direction.
It is obvious that this legislation has been deliberately--and cynically--crafted to subvert any third-party movement that would seek to bring a measure of sanity back to a government that is clearly broken...and which neither of the 'major' parties seems inclined to fix. Why else would ANY politician sign on to a scheme to limit our choices and undermine our democracy, leaving us with a perpetual "lesser-of-TWO-evils" politics? In any fair election, a candidate should be willing to let his or her character, proposals and public record determine his or her showing at the polls....against ALL comers.
As we have seen already, much to our collective dismay, when politicians put party before principle, we all suffer the consequences. I suggest that we encourage, cajole, and threaten those who came up with this outrageous proposal until they respond to our demands for MORE voices in the political debate and MORE choices on our ballots. Let's force them to withdraw this plan, and force them to come up with a NON-partisan plan for genuine electoral reform. The future of our nation depends on it.
Greens blast bill from Democrats that would bar
third parties in races for Congress.
Panic and retaliation among progressive Democrats
over Green challenges are behind HR 4694, say
Greens, citing the bill's prohibitive petition
requirements, ban on private contributions;
Greens call the bill patently unconstitutional.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called on
Congress to reject a House bill that combines
public funding of congressional campaigns with a
scheme to ban third party and independents from
such races.
HR 4694 ("Let the People Decide Clean Campaign
Act") would grant nominees of parties (i.e.,
Democrats and Republicans) that had averaged 25%
of the vote for House races in a given district
in the last two elections would get full public
funding.
All others (i.e., third party and independent
candidates) would be required to submit petitions
signed by 10% of the last vote cast for partial
funding, and 20% petitions for full funding.
Furthermore, candidates who don't qualify for
funding would be barred from spending any
privately raised money on their campaigns.
"10% and 20% in many districts represent
prohibitively large numbers of required
signatures," said Phil Huckelberry, co-chair of
the Illinois Green Party and co-chair of the
national Green Party's Ballot Access Committee.
"The goal behind HR 4694 is to use public
financing of campaigns -- itself a sorely needed
reform -- to eliminate third party challenges in
congressional races."
"In Missouri's 2nd congressional district, a
candidate with a party that won less than 25% of
the vote in the last two elections would need
nearly 70,000 signatures to qualify for the
public funding that her/his Democratic and
Republican opponents would get automatically, and
only signatures from the 2nd District would
count. Nearly 35,000 signatures would be
required in order to allow the candidate to spend
anything at all on the campaign." (St. Louis
Oracle, February 05, 2006
<http://stloracle.blogspot.com/2006/02/bill-would-ban-3rd-party-campaigns-for.html>)
The Green Party of the United States supports
public financing of campaigns as one of several
measures to remove the corrupting influence of
corporations on U.S. politics
<http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#316100>.
But Greens warned that HR 4694 uses public
financing of campaigns as a cover to destroy
democracy by reducing the field to two parties.
Greens called the bill patently unconstitutional
and, if passed, unlikely to survive a court
challenge. But Greens said that the bill is
significant because of the line-up of Congress
members supporting it.
The bill's eight sponsors include liberal
Democrats: David Obey (Wis.), Rosa DeLauro
(Conn.), Barney Frank and James McGovern (Mass.),
Henry Waxman and Bob Filner (Calif.), Steve
Israel (N.Y.), and Tim Ryan (Ohio). Mr. Obey,
Ms. DeLauro, and Mr. Israel faced Green
competition (Mike Miles, Ralph Ferrucci, and John
Keenan, respectively) in recent elections,
suggesting that their sponsorship is retaliatory.
Mr. Miles is seeking the House seat again in
2006 (Wisconsin, District 7); Mr. Ferrucci is
running for the U.S. Senate (Connecticut).
"The Democrats behind this bill have as little
regard for democracy and open elections as
Republicans who have use altered district lines
and other methods to fix elections," said D.C.
Statehood Green Party activist T.E. Smith.
"Hiding this strategem in a bill for public
financing of campaigns makes it doubly shameful."
"An obvious motivation behind HR 4694 is panic
over a Green insurgency. Voters have realized
that the Democratic Party has given President
Bush and the GOP a pass on various abuses of
power and radical actions, such as the invasion
of Iraq and the confirmation of Judge Samuel
Alito, which most Democrats declined to
filibuster. The time is ripe for a noncorporate
independent third party, and many Democrats are
worried," added Mr. Smith.
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Text of HR 4694
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-b
in/query/z?c109:H.R.4694:
KEYWORDS: Electoral Reform, Green Party, HR 4694
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