[GNC] Re: Ballot Access

[Gil Obler]

I respectfully disagree.

I think this sends the wrong message on several levels:

1) The Naderites - The Nader folks already offered us a deal where we
	help them get ballot access. We told them the price was
accepting
	the USGP nomination. They refused. Now we want to help them get
	ballot access anyway, or worse offer empty support after the
	fact? This would either make us seem like poor negotiators or
	like duplicitous posers. I have a taste for neither.

2) Other political parties - If our true goal is proportional
	representation and coalition governments, we must be respected
	as negotiators. See above for why this would be a horrible
	precedent in this regard. The message should be "Deal straight
	with us or suffer your indiginities alone".

3) The working poor - I started parting ways with Nader in 2001 when
	I was volunteering for a week in Portland, Maine for a Democracy
	Rising Nader rally. I was told by the Nader folks not to join
	and participate in a local take-the-streets protest against
	housing gentrification being organized by Maine Greens and other
	local groups because it would tarr Nader as "too radical". I
	chose to stand with my brothers and sisters in the streets.
	These "radical rejects" got John Eder elected.

	What I believe prevents the working poor and disenfranchised
	in general from joining us is they do not believe that we will
	be tough enough in fighting for them. They think we will abandon
	them for intellectualized "principles" when the chips are down.

	If we are going to protest something, how about why the Nader
	folks in Pennsylvania were willing to pay liberal white college
	students to collect Nader signatures but refused to pay homeless
	people who also wanted to collect signatures?

               Gil Obler, "Hoffa" Green-Rainbow

               GRP Alternate (MA), USGP Coordinating Committee
               Middlesex Delegate, Green-Rainbow Party State Committee

                                             
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-----Original Message-----
From: gnc-bounces at green-rainbow.org
[mailto:gnc-bounces at green-rainbow.org] On Behalf Of Yarden
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 11:11 PM
To: Green National Convention; mrg-discuss at green-rainbow.org
Subject: [GNC] Re: Ballot Access



On Friday, August 6, 2004, at 11:07 PM, Yarden wrote:


Hello to everyone who is trying to think ahead in terms of Party
building:

I just heard on NPR about Nader's difficulties in getting ballot access
in Massachusetts. I believe that it is important that the Green-Rainbow
Party of Massachusetts protest any Democratic Party attempt to keep
rivals off the ballot. Interference with someone seeking the electoral
authority to speak for a constituency is damaging to all of us. The
failure to protest unjust bureaucratic regulations is damaging to all
who seek justice. Just because the organizers of the DNC and their
cohorts fail to protect general access and participation in political
discourse -- to privilege their own -- our refusal to take cheap
advantage of Nader's absence from the ballot. For us to accept this
favor from the Democratic Party would be even more disgusting than Nader
accepting money from the Republican Party in swing states.

It would be best to get to people who know precisely what is going on
before making public any Party position.
Elie Yarden
CAmbridge



Nader effort to gain Mass. ballot access is in doubt 

By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff  |  August 6, 2004 

The effort to place Ralph Nader's name on the Massachusetts presidential
ballot this fall is "in serious trouble," the state's top election
official said yesterday, a sign that the third-party candidate's
troubles have extended even to the generally liberal Bay State. 

Secretary of State William F. Galvin said yesterday that "it is in
doubt" that the Nader campaign will get the required 10,000 certified
voter signatures necessary to get the presidential candidate's name to
appear alongside that of President Bush and US Senator John F. Kerry on
the Nov. 2 ballot. 

Galvin attributed the problem to the campaign's failure to meet
Tuesday's deadline to submit signatures for certification at local city
and town halls because many of the papers were mailed too late and
missed the legally established 5 p.m. deadline. 

"Because of mistakes made by his campaign in filing their papers too
late, I think he is in serious trouble in getting on the ballot," Galvin
said. 

Nader's campaign disputed Galvin's assessment. "I don't share that
view," Michael Richardson, the national ballot access coordinator for
the Nader campaign, said when informed of Galvin's statement. "I feel
pretty confident we will make it." 

Richardson said the campaign submitted between 14,000 and 15,000
signatures to local officials and he expressed confidence that a high
percentage -- enough to qualify for the ballot -- will be certified. 

Galvin's election division yesterday notified the Massachusetts Nader
campaign that it faced serious problems getting on the ballot and
apprised them of their rights to review the certification process. 

Galvin said that his office's computerized system that monitors the
certification process showed that Nader had 5,700 valid signatures late
yesterday, with most of the communities that would be Nader strongholds,
such Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston, having reported. 

"We are getting calls and other communications that the city and town
officials are receiving them late in the mail, after the close of
business on Tuesday," he said. "They cannot count them." Galvin said
that, because the Nader campaign is facing a potential problem, he has
asked the local election officials to speed up the certification
process. 

"We want to make sure the Nader campaign can pursue his right of
review," Galvin said. 

Nader won 6 percent of the Massachusetts vote in 2000. His trouble in
Massachusetts this year prompted analysts to note that he is facing
difficulties nationally, compared with his draw among the left wing of
the Democratic Party in 2000. Nader is frequently blamed for costing
former vice president Al Gore the 2000 election. 

"It is a completely different political atmosphere," said Elizabeth
Sherman, a research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government's
Center for Public Leadership. "Ralph Nader's message that the others are
Tweedledee and Tweedledum, that there is no difference, no longer
resonates." 

"A lot of Nader voters rue the day that they voted for him in 2000
because we can now see it has made all the difference in the world --
the Iraq War, women's reproductive freedom, and now big changes looming
on the Supreme Court," she added. 

But Richardson said it is a Democratic "myth" that Nader cost Gore the
presidential election four years ago. He conceded, however, that the
concept has taken hold in Massachusetts. 

"The hostility on the streets was huge," Richardson said, relating his
organization's experience collecting signatures. He said that one female
petitioner was physically assaulted in Harvard Square. 

"The anybody-but-Bush virus has taken a particularly hostile strain here
in Massachusetts," Richardson said. 

Richardson also expressed frustration with the Massachusetts ballot
access laws and said that he finds most other states far more efficient.
He complained that Galvin's office had not responded to his request for
forms that would allow him to add Nader's late pick for a
vice-presidential running mate, Peter Camejo, to the petitions. 

"I have been querying the secretary's office and finally the attorney
last week said they would make a form up, but I haven't gotten
anything," Richardson said. 

Galvin, saying his office "bends over backwards" to get candidates on
the ballot, said the charge is "a red herring." He noted that
Massachusetts has one of the lowest thresholds for gaining ballot access
for a presidential candidate. As for the forms, Galvin said there is no
official form that his office can provide the Nader campaign to place
Camejo's name on the ballot. 

"We would find some way, if Nader were to be certified, to substitute
Camejo's name," he said. "The substitution is not their problem. It's
whether Nader will be on the ballot."  
CCopyright 2004 The New York Times Company