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Democrats Push Bill That Would Bar Third Parties in Races for Congress

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

Thursday, February 9, 2006

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, [email protected]
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [email protected]

Text of HR 4694
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4694:

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 stratagem 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 non-corporate 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-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4694:

Mike Miles for the U.S. House of Representatives (Wisconsin, District 7)
http://www.milesforcongress.com

Ralph A Ferrucci for U.S. Senate (Connecticut)
http://ferrucciforsenate.org

Coalition For Free and Open Elections
http://www.cofoe.org

Green Party rebuttal to President Bush's 2006 State of the Union Address (Video News Release)
http://www.gp.org/video/2006stateofunion/


 

No, no, listen to the liberals; they know what's best for everyone!    

un-American.  

I truly hope it passes.  Maybe it'll wake some more people up.  If those leanig to a third party see this, maybe they won't think about voting Democratic again, which sometimes they did for spite..  A lot of things would have been, and will be different.

Some will say, "But they all too often split the Republicans" and point to 1992.  Maybe that year, but not all the time. ANd, to be crass, if the third party actually is kept out, then that can't happen.  It's not that I'm against third parties, I would be tempted to vote one myself.  But, it's this kind of fight that is good for the Republic, thrashes things out and keeps things honest.  Let the Democrats show how undemocratic they are.

Jeez, they should just hang a sign on the door.

"The Politicians' club is closed"
  "No vacancies"

If the founding fathers were around, they'd be out rounding up tar and feathers for the idiots who sponsored this bill.

Oh goodness.  Are the children fighting........ again?????


Remember folks.  Always vote Republican or Democrat. It's not just smart; It's the law!

Welcome to 2004, when the Dims sued to keep them off the ballot in numerous states.

Seems to me the Dems are endeavoring to hasten the Revolution

Figures, Waxman is involved.  That guy is an un-american douchebag.

"If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all." ~~Henry Waxman

Quoted: OMFG. If this passes, the constitution might as well be fucking torn up. This is bullshit.

+1

Quoted: Figures, Waxman is involved.  That guy is an un-american douchebag. "If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all." ~~Henry Waxman

Douchebag par excellance

Quoted: Figures, Waxman is involved.  That guy is an un-american douchebag. "If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all." ~~Henry Waxman

because the odds are that the weapons would be used against power grabbing tyrants like him.

btt

Quoted: "If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all." ~~Henry Waxman

Wow. I think that pretty well sums up the whole agenda right there.

I'm no fan of the greens, never will be, but thats fucked up!

toss up for me: greens suck, democraps suck...at least they're turning on each other

Quoted: toss up for me: greens suck, democraps suck...at least they're turning on each other

This would harm ANY third party!

I would probably stop voting altogether if this became law.

The Dems know the Green vote is keeping them out of office.

This is their tactic...


- BG

LMAO!  FUCKING AWESOME!  WAY TO ALIENATE YOUR OWN VOTERS DEMS!

Boys , if the Repubs , tryed some SHT. like this on any Party , what do you think the media , & dems would be screaming ?  

The GOP actually listens to us though.  Just look at Oct 2005 when Bush nominated Miers.  The intellectuals and true believers went nuts and W caved.

The Democrat machine is too smart to listen to its intellectuals and true believers, because they've got a tenuous grasp on the political reality of the American populace. But they cant shunt the kooks out without risking risking the creation of a fringe party that would doom the entire Left for sure, so they have to try to apply it to the Right so they wont remain fragmented while the Right's unified.

The Democrats face a serious problem, though:  They aren't the majority nor hold the executive office. They cant make this avenue law even if they wanted

Quoted: Figures, Waxman is involved.  That guy is an un-american douchebag. "If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all." ~~Henry Waxman

I guess congressmen Waxman is afraid of the american people....





He should be.

Quoted: Press Release Home | Press | Print Democrats Push Bill That Would Bar Third Parties in Races for Congress GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org Thursday, February 9, 2006 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, [email protected] Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, [email protected] Text of HR 4694 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4694: 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.

Looks like those bastards are finally figuring out how Unconstitutional laws feel.

The solution is to stop public funding altogether.

But I notice the high-minded Greens don’t want to stop that gravy train, rather they just want to keep their place on it.

Hypocrites!!