This exciting array of candidates means the GRP will be taking it to the next level this year. 2010 is the year of the Green-Rainbow Party!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 27, 2010

CONTACT: Daryl Sprague, 617-459-0784

GREEN-RAINBOW CANDIDATES TO CHALLENGE INCUMBENTS IN 2010: FIELD REPORTS SAY VOTERS ARE READY FOR CHANGE

Voters are in the mood for change, according to the Green-Rainbow Party candidates nominated at the weekend meeting of the Party’s State Committee in Northampton. Nominated were: health and environmental advocate Jill Stein for Governor, Holyoke veterans’ activist Rick Purcell for Lieutenant Governor, Nat Fortune, a physicist at Smith College, for State Auditor. Scott Laugenour was nominated as a candidate for state representative in the 4th Berkshire District. The Party also endorsed independent candidate Peter White who is running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District (being vacated by Rep. William Delahunt).

Mark Miller, a former journalist and newspaper co-owner in Pittsfield, told committee members he has just launched a campaign for the House seat in the Third Berkshire District, and expects to apply for the GRP nomination in July.

Purcell told the gathering that recently he has spent a lot of time on the streets in Holyoke collecting signatures and has received a clear message from voters: “They’ve had enough of Deval Patrick. They don’t trust any of the guys from Beacon Hill. They ask me if I’m a Democrat or Republican, and when I tell them ‘neither’ they’re delighted to sign my petition.”

Fortune told the group that the job of the auditor is “to make sure the taxpayer’s money is being spent effectively.” He asserted that over the past few years a lot of politically-motivated spending has resulted in programs that aren’t giving the promised return on the investment – such as economic stimulus giveaways to corporations that fail to create jobs in return.

“It makes sense to elect an auditor who isn’t part of either of the big parties which created these programs,” Fortune said. “An independent auditor will be able to take a critical look and separate the expenditures that are working from those that are just wasting our money.”

Laugenour stated that “I’m honored to receive the Green-Rainbow Party’s nomination and have already hit the streets running, connecting with a wide spectrum of voters in each of the 18 towns and cities in the 4th Berkshire District who are glad that they don’t have to wait for an open seat to vote for real change.”

Jill Stein announced that her gubernatorial campaign has just opened a campaign office on Dorchester Avenue in Boston, which will be a center for the growing Green-Rainbow organizing efforts in the Boston area.

Stein noted that the media has given lots of attention to media stunts of the Tea Party movement, which she characterized as sincere but largely misinformed citizens being manipulated by the Republicans.

“In the end,” she said, “the real movement for change is going to be a Green Tea Party. And it is going to be independent of both Republicans and Democrats. This year the Green-Rainbow Party is helping people break through the resistance to change on Beacon Hill – and that’s getting people excited.”