Green Party candidate for governor Laura Wells was arrested trying to attend a gubernatorial debate to which she had a valid ticket, because she was a gubernatorial candidate excluded from the debate itself. Marnie Glickman of GreenChange.org, and a spokesperson for Laura Wells, tells the San Francisco Chronicle about the incident here:
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Green Party candidate for governor Laura Wells was arrested trying to attend a gubernatorial debate to which she had a valid ticket, because she was a gubernatorial candidate excluded from the debate itself. Marnie Glickman of GreenChange.org, and a spokesperson for Laura Wells, tells the San Francisco Chronicle about the incident here:
From Nat Fortune for State Auditor:
October 6th, 2010
CONNAUGHTON OVERLOOKS OWN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM LOBBYISTS
In brief remarks today, Green-Rainbow Party State Auditor candidate Nat Fortune said Republican candidate Mary Connaughton was right to criticize Democratic candidate Suzanne Bump’s reliance on contributions from political action committees and lobbyists, but also noted that Connaughton failed to bring up her own campaign’s dependence on industry and lobbyists.
“Looks like Mary Connaughton needs to do a closer audit of her own campaign,” said Fortune. “As of 20 July 2010, the independent watchdog group National Institute for Money in State Politics http://www.followthemoney.org/ had identified at least a dozen contributions from lobbyists to her campaign, including prominent Beacon Hill lobbyists Thomas Trimarco of O’Neil and Associates and Robert White of Robert White and Associates,” Fortune continued. Other contributors included Daniel Haley and William Weld of the New York based lobbying group McDermett, Will, and Emery, recent lobbyists in Massachusetts for Raytheon Corporation and the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers (2008).
From Maggie Zhou, MA delegate to GPUS, to the peace contingent gathering for the 10/2/10 One Nation Working Together march in Washington, D.C.
Brothers and Sisters,
We are here today because we are angry at the multitude of problems that our government is responsible for, the many ways the system has failed us, and we recognize the root causes of all these problems are the same, and therefore they require common solutions.
Many of us here are peace activists. For nine years, we have been trying to stop the ongoing US wars for oil and for the expansion of the military-industrial complex. In fact, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are epicenters of the larger war we’re waging against Mother Earth & her children. It is where our death-dealing empire bombs the planet, drill her, bleed her for her oil, poison her with radioactivity, and rape her out of the life she had, the innocent lives of men, women and children, and the fertile soils that once was the food basket of the Middle East.
But, there are many other epicenters in this larger war against Mother Earth. A massive hemorrhage was just inflicted in the Gulf of Mexico by one of the worst perpetrators in this war. Mountain Top Removal coal mining has been denuding, defacing & poisoning the beautiful mountain ranges and streams of Appalachia and the entire coal country. Hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, for “natural gas” extraction, has been poisoning our groundwater, and consequently food production, anywhere it touched, and it’s taking over America with a vengeance. Looking around the globe, the gazillion mines where we humans extract the insides of Mother Earth & poison her outside with it, the many shopping malls and pavements and parking lots we built in place of her life-giving forests and grasslands, the many dams we built that chokes the life out of her ecosystems, the diversion of her rivers & streams & precious groundwater reservoirs for monoculture, chemical-laiden farming operations, and now devastatingly, the crazed worldwide expansion of “energy crops” for biofuel, biomass & biochar production…
Continue reading Maggie Zhou’s speech to the peace contingentFrom Jill Stein for Governor
October 1, 2010
AFTER LOSCOCCO’S DEFECTION, STEIN/PURCELL EMERGE AS THE TRUE INDEPENDENTS
BOSTON – As news spread of Paul Loscocco’s decision to abandon Tim Cahill’s campaign and join the Republican camp, Jill Stein, Green-Rainbow candidate for governor commented that “The Cahill campaign has never really established its independent credentials with voters who are looking for change. At this point its becoming clear that my campaign is the only one that is really independent of the Beacon Hill machines. We’re not going to surprise everyone by suddenly deciding to join the business-as-usual parties. We’re in this race to offer a true alternative, and the only alternative that really stands for change.”
Stein also reminded voters and political leaders that a solution exists for the so-called “spoiler” problem.
“The news around the high-profile defections from the Cahill campaign have focused primarily on how Cahill’s candidacy helps Deval Patrick and hurts Charlie Baker. The truth is there is a voting reform that gets rid of the problem that voting for the candidate you truly support might have unintended consequences – like helping a candidate you don’t like.”
Continue reading After Loscocco’s defection, Stein/Purcell emerge as the true independentsThe Boston Herald’s Hillary Chabot finishes her State House Insight series with this interview of Jill Stein. See the article here. All 4 videos below.
Continue reading Jill Stein talks voter revolt to the Boston HeraldWoo-frickin-hoo!!!!!!!!
From the Jill Stein for Governor campaign:
Dear friends and supporters,
YOU DID IT! YOU blew past the $100,000 we needed to ensure our place in the media consortium debate. Our voices will be heard! Voters will get to hear real vision and practical proposals for our common wealth and common health – not just the petty bickering of Beacon Hill insiders avoiding real issues.
AND THAT’S NOT ALL! Today just before the 5 p.m. deadline campaign staffers turned in qualifying contributions of over $129,000 to the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) – exceeding the required threshold for state matching funds. We are optimistic that the application will be approved, and we will keep you posted. If it is approved, we will have qualified our campaign for public financing, and every dollar we raise between now and the end of October will be matched by the state.
No matter what happens, though, it’s clear that a groundswell for democracy is rising up in this campaign. People sacrificed, people dropped everything, people put their lives on hold to make sure that we reached the threshold for debate inclusion and would not be silenced by the corporate press – and that we qualified for public finance matching funds. Your hard work and inspiration made it happen. Money is continuing to come in from all over the commonwealth, from everyday people who are fed up with the bailouts, layoffs, ripoffs and payoffs, and who are ready for the healthy, secure green commonwealth that’s within our reach today!
Jill Stein’s campaign has about 24 hours to raise $25,515 in order to ensure that Jill’s voice will be included in these debates that are so important to the future of the Commonwealth. She has expanded the public dialogue and political discourse, and the media drumbeat to shut her out from future debates is raging. If Jill can qualify for state matching funds, however, the media will have a hard time trying to justify excluding a candidate receiving public funding for her campaign.
Continue reading Join the Clean Money Tidal Wave for Jill SteinTwo recent polls of U.S. voters confirm 2010 as an interesting political moment for America, and I think the implication for the Massachusetts gubernatorial election is quite striking. A USA Today/Gallup poll finds record support for a major third political party. While 62% of Tea Party supporters want a third party, 61% of liberals want the same! The poll’s conclusion is that “fifty-eight percent of Americans believe a third major political party is needed because the Republican and Democratic Parties do a poor job of representing the American people.”
A recent New York Times/CBS News poll, meanwhile, finds that women voters, who historically outnumber voting men, and historically support Democratic Party candidates, are less likely to vote this year. While the Times is opaque about the actual poll results, they claim “the poll suggests that they may stay home this year, giving more of the decision-making to men by default” and that “so far in this election, women have not been nearly as attentive as men and have expressed less enthusiasm about voting.”
Taken together, I think Jill Stein’s gubernatorial bid in Massachusetts just might serve as an impetus for women to voice their distaste, and for Massachusetts voters on the whole to advance a potent political alternative.
Continue reading It’s time for a PARTY!While the Beat the Press media punditry traded barbs and elevated their own insights about who does and doesn’t deserve to be included in the gubernatorial debates that help determine who will be our next governor, there was only one clear voice among them who spoke up unequivocally for the voters’ right to decide, and that was Callie Crossley.
Continue reading Thanks Callie Crossley, for standing up for democracy!