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News :: Civil & Human Rights : Elections & Legislation : Political-Economy |
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Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
Current rating: 0 |
by Ken Urban
Email: kenurban (nospam) kenurban.com (verified) |
02 Jul 2004
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON JUNE 28, 2004
Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies
Contact:
Ken Urban, kurban (at) parkland.edu, 217-356-7987, candidate for County Board District 7
Dave Sacks, dsacks (at) uiuc.edu, 847-843-6390, candidate for County Board District 7
Susan Rodgers, srrodger (at) uiuc.edu, 619-985-3553, candidate for County Board District 8
Zach Miller, zach (at) chambana.net, 217-621-6768, candidate for County Board District 9
Jen Walling, jwalling (at) uiuc.edu, 217-493-9455, Prairie Greens Media Contact
Urbana, IL
Three Champaign County Democrats - Jane Williams who resides with county board member Tom Betz; Alan Kurtz who resides with Democratic precinct committee person Linda Kurtz; and Susan McGrath, Democratic precinct committee person - filed objections on Monday June 28, 2004 to the filings of Ken Urban, Dave Sacks, Susan Rodgers, and Zach Miller, all Green Party candidates for Champaign County Board. The County Officer’s Electoral Board will hold a preliminary hearing on the issue on Tuesday, July 6, 2004 at 9AM in room K on the second floor of the Champaign County Courthouse, 101 E. Main, Urbana, IL.
Green Party Candidates filed for Districts 7, 8, and 9 on Monday June 21. Each was required by law to solicit over 300 signatures, roughly ten times the number that would be required of a Democrat or Republican candidate running for the same office in the same district.
Zach Miller, running for County Board District 9, filed 445 signatures, of which at least 318 must be valid. Miller was challenged as to a lavk of valid signatures. Miller believes that his petitions will survive the challenge. Miller stated, "It seems like we will be able to make a strong showing that the challenged petition signers definitely were eligible to sign and intended to sign."
Objections to both Susan Rodgers, running for District 8 and Dave Sacks, running for District 7, were based on allegations that Rodgers and Sacks, both students at the University of Illinois, are not eligible for office because they 'do not reside at' their respective addresses.
Sacks is an apartment resident, registered to vote at his current address with a lease running through mid-August. David Sacks stated, "The Democrats of Champaign County want students who go home for the summer to register to vote in Champaign County and vote Democratic, but when it comes to those same students running for office, they suddenly have a problem."
The validity of campus voter registration for students who return home for the summer was upheld in court over thirty years ago. A person's residence for purposes of voter registration is also his or her residence for purposes of political candidacy.
Susan Rodgers adds, "As a registered voter, I have a right to run for office in Champaign County. As a candidate, I will represent the thousands of registered student voters who, like me, leave the county for the summer." Rodgers, a dorm resident registered at that address, returned home for the summer, fully intending to move back into the district in the fall.
Ken Urban, candidate for County Board District 7 and a professor at Parkland College, questions the further implications of the objection. "This is an incredibly shortsighted objection, one that will disenfranchise the student population if upheld, at a time in their lives when they should be encouraged to engage in civic esponsibilities."
Ken Urban and Dave Sacks will face two Republicans and two Democrats in the fall, while Miller and Rodgers will each face one Democrat and one Republican in the fall in their respective districts. Jen Walling, media contact for the Prairie Green Party of East Central Illinois, stated, "It’s disappointing that the local democrats would choose to focus their efforts on restricting the choices available to voters in the fall. These Green candidates have an excellent chance of winning and will make great county board members once elected."
The Prairie Green Party of East Central Illinois, a chapter of the Illinois Green Party, endorses these candidates for office.
For more information on the Prairie Greens, visit www.prairiegreens.org
For more info on Ken Urban visit, www.kenurban.com,
For more information on Zach Miller visit, www.votezach.org
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See also:
http://www.prairiegreens.org
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This work is in the public domain |
Comments
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
02 Jul 2004
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>"The Democrats of Champaign County want students who go home for the summer to register to vote in Champaign County and vote Democratic, but when it comes to those same students running for office, they suddenly have a problem."
Wow, that's really amazing! |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by FDR
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Jul 2004
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"Divide and conquer" is a tactic that's been used successfully since ancient times. It's the reason conservative Republicans take so much joy in seeing Green Party candidates on the ballot.
What's disappointing is local Greens working so hard to divide the progressive vote in Champaign County. The Greens chose to run candidates only in county board districts represented by Democrats -- they gave every single Republican incumbent a pass. The incumbent Democrats they're trying to unseat -- Jennifer Putman and Jan Anderson -- are both effective, committed progressives with long histories of service. For Greens to specifically target these two is insulting to everyone who cares about advancing progressive values in local government.
And let's not fool ourselves into thinking the choice here is between electing Democrats or electing Greens. In districts like these, which enjoy slim progressive majorities, a split in the progressive vote will almost surely hand victory to the conservative Republican candidates.
The Greens have a right to try to torpedo fellow progressives and help elect Republicans. But Democrats have a right to try and prevent that.
Too bad we couldn't all be working together to further the causes we all believe in, instead. |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by TruGreen
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
03 Jul 2004
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You are now seeing the truly fascist fact of the Democrat Party in Central Illinois. The Greens have demonstrated their ability to convince a substantial number of voters and the democrats try to squash our message.
Lets debate our solutions to societies problems and implement them. While you democrats are out there compromising with the fascist right, we will be finding solutions.
We Greens are all for a two party system as long as we are one of the alternatives.
Long Live the Greens,
Tru |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Jul 2004
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I agree with Trugreen. FDR, what you offer up is nothing but the same old worn out "us against them". Unless I misunderstand the Green Party, it is NOT meant to be a "partner in crime" with the now fairly corrupt Democratic Party, but is instead meant as an alternative for those whose views and ideals do not align with the agenda of either of the two dominate Parties in this Country. Until people stop worrying about the Dems and the Repubs, and concentrate on furthering their Party of choice, they can never actually say that they are free of the ties that bind them to conservatism or liberalism. You have merely demonstrated in your post that you are NOT, at heart, a Green Party supporter, but are instead a liberal Democrat. |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by TruGreen
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Jul 2004
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FDR,
We find it interesting that all of you fought so hard in the 2000 election for every vote to count and every voice to be heard. Yet when presented with alternative views the democratic party employs the same tatics against truly progressive forces in Central Illinois.
The hypocrisy of the Democratic Party is there for all to see. This is why you and your ilk are destined to be swept aside from history. We anticipated your dirty tricks and have more than enough signatures to overcome any challenges to petitions.
The Green Party Candidates shall lead us to victory in November and the truly principled will be with us. Will you have the courage to vote your convictions or will you continue to dilute them in the form of compromise with your support for the Democrat monopoly? |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by thorn
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jul 2004
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Go Greens!
Go Ken! Go Zach! Go Dave! Go Susan! Go Jen!
Go Get'em! Never give up. The Dem's are just the other side of the same, corrupt, plutocratic coin. It's time to change the channel. |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by FDR
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Jul 2004
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You are correct, NRA, that I'm not a Green Party supporter. I thought my previous post made that pretty clear.
Why am I not a Green? Well, we currently have what political scientists call a "first-past-the-post, winner-take-all" system of elections. Basically, it means the candidate with the most votes wins the whole election. You may not like that system. You may prefer a multi-party parliamentary system, where you win the same proportion of seats in a legislative body as votes you received in the election. But that's not the system we have in place now.
In the system we have today, a third party only helps elect the major party that it is least similar to. I know Greens would rather die than admit it, but that's exactly what Democrats predicted would happen in 2000, and it's exactly what did happen in 2000. If you like the Bush administration, then by all means, vote Green again in 2004.
By the way, the local Greens may not be a real political party, but they are learning how to spin the truth as well as the most accomplished political hacks. Their press release never mentions that the 5 countywide candidates on the Green slate had well over 1,500 fewer signatures than the law requires. (And that's assuming all their signatures are valid -- if they look anything like the county board petitions, about a third of those signatures are from people who aren't registered to vote here.) Sorry, but that's not even close to being in the ballpark, and the County election board removed all 5 Greens from the ballot today.
Also, they failed to mention that one of the "students" who was challenged actually is a graduate who moved out of Champaign in May, and has signed a lease out-of-state, where he intends to go to grad school in August. That candidate (Sacks) admitted all of this under oath today, along with the fact that he fully intends to drop out of the race before election day. The Greens may defend this sham candidacy, but it seems pretty dishonest to me.
The biggest Green dishonesty is the whole "two sides of the same coin" line. I don't know about the national parties, but locally, that is simply a lie. As just one example, before 2000, Republicans on the County Board appointed people to the County Mental Health Board who believed gays and lesbians were mentally ill and could be "cured". They cut off funding to groups that provide services to the gay and lesbian community, based on their ignorant ideology. Since Democrats have won the County Board majority, there's been a complete turn-around and mental health services are no longer denied to anyone based on their sexual orientation. The Prairie Greens might not care about such advances. They might not care if we return control of our local government to rightwing Republicans.
But many of us do care about these things, and we believe they're worth fighting for. You can call us names if you like, but it would be much better if you'd put your progressive values ahead of your partisan ambitions and join the Democrats and former Greens who are working together to build a progressive majority in our community. |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by ted04
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Jul 2004
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"David Sacks stated, 'The Democrats of Champaign County want students who go home for the summer to register to vote in Champaign County and vote Democratic, but when it comes to those same students running for office, they suddenly have a problem.'
--that's quite a quote from a guy who's not just going "home for the summer," but is actually moving out of state! i guess it's okay to stretch the truth, if it helps the green party, huh? |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by Dave
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Jul 2004
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It is too bad the Green and Democrats can’t work together.
In 2000 the Greens had a member that wanted to run for County Board. The Greens decided to cooperate with the Democrats and not to run this candidate for fear of splitting the progressive vote and ruining the chance of the Democrats winning a majority on the county board.
In 2002 no Democrat ran in the primary to determine who would run against Tim Johnson. Apparently no Democrat wanted to run because they would have run in the primary for the publicity. The Greens decided to run Carl Estabrook.
How did the Democrats return the favor of not running for county board in 2000? After the primary, once they learned of Carl’s campaign, they appointed Josh Heartkey to run taking votes from the Greens. After all the Green were running first.
Yes it is too bad Democrats and the Greens can’t work together.
Why do Green run in progressive districts? That’s where the people who want to run as Greens live. Why don’t the Greens run in conservative districts? No one who wants to run lives there. No targeting, it’s just where they live…Ask Milton Otto ;)
The winner take all voting system is the problem. However, I just learned that last year the state has authorized multi-candidate counties like ours to change the voting system to Instant Run-off Voting. (I’m vague on the details of this so if someone knows more please post) Instant Run-off Voting allows voters to rank their choices so that a person can vote Green ranked first and Democrat ranked second. If no candidate get 50% and the Green came in third, the vote this person cast will move to the second choice, the Democrat, and presto! We no longer have to worry about splitting the vote. I believe that most of the county Democrats are unaware of this change of the law. So someone should tell them, and I expect that they will push for this immediately.
As far as the 5 Green county-wide candidates. By state law the Green have to run a full slate of candidates so that they could achieve official party status, assuming they would get enough signatures and votes. So they had to run some candidates on this slate who were not serious. The irony is that the state law is supposed to keep candidates out who are not serious; however, in this case it required the Greens to slate a couple of candidates who were not serious.
Progressive Democrats and Greens do believe in many the same things. But there are differences. Let’s debate these differences and let the people decide.
If the Democrats are worried about splitting the vote, then change the way we vote to Instant Run-off Voting. It can be done at the county level, and if not, the Democrats control the Governorship, the House, and the Senate. The Democrats can do it! Why aren’t they doing it? |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Jul 2004
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FDR,
So you are basically saying that it'd be better for the Greens to attempt to change the Democratic Party, through infiltration or otherwise, into a Party that embraces their causes rather than being a seperate entity. The problem with that will be that it will always end up being ultimately the "DNC's" way, or the highway ultimately, on any basic agenda. And the already powerful Democrat will have the real power. That would in effect simply turn the Green Party into a twin of basically what the majority of Black people in this Country really are now...as long as they deliver the vast majority of the Black vote, the Democratic Party tolerates them having some very limited power within the party, but never really is ever going to allow them to have any real controlling authority within the structure of it. And isn't the choosing of the multimillionare trial lawyer Edwards actually a real slap in the face to Black folks everywhere. Perhaps they just don't recognize it since people like Jesse jackson are too afraid of losing what limited Democratic power they have been given by complaining about it. That's what would happen to the green Party also...the Democrats would never choose a Green candidate for something like V.P. either... |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by NRA4Freedom
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Jul 2004
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>"...and if not, the Democrats control the Governorship, the House, and the Senate. The Democrats can do it! Why aren’t they doing it?"
That's obvious Dave, because it isn't about getting Greens elected, it's about getting Democrats that the DNC can control elected. They will take all the Green votes they can get, and give lip service in order to get it, but that's just the Greens falling for doing what the Democrats really want...voting for them. What you are talking about is a WHOLE other ball game.
Here is question, do you think if the Greens were totally seperate from the Democrats, even if they did draw off some of the Democrat vote and cause some elections to be lost in the short term, since it would still would be a valid 3rd party, might it just instigate a similar break off from the Republican party into another 4th or 5th party and so on and so on, since there certainly are factions within the Republican party that do not necessarily agree totally on its platform either? |
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Re: Champaign County Democrats Object to Green Party Candidacies |
by TruGreen
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
09 Jul 2004
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Dear Friends,
What you saw here during the last week was pure unadulterated facism from a party that claims to want us in their tent. The Green voices have been silenced in Champaign/Urbana by the party of tolerance. Please do not make us laugh. I know who I am going to write in on my ballot this November, do you? |
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