Via Ballot Access News:

On August 18, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court again upheld the unique Pennsylvania practice of charging candidates for the costs of removing them from the ballot. The Court issued a one-sentence order in the 2006 Green Party case, affirming that the Court’s prior opinion stands, and that the Green Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in 2006 and his attorney must pay approximately $80,000 to the people who challenged their petition.

If petition challenges work in Pennsylvania like they do here in Illinois, the extremely political. Sometimes, state workers are dispatched to make sure those nasty greens and libertarians are kept out of the process.

The Green Party of the United States calls for an immediate end to Israel’s bombing attacks on Gaza, which in the past four days has already caused at least 364 deaths, including Palestinian women and children, with hundreds more wounded. “It’s clear that President Bush gave a green light for Israel’s massive and disproportionate display of force.  The Green Party demands that the US seek a bilateral ceasefire, with immediate pressure on Israel to stop the bombardment and end the occupation,” said Rosa Clemente, the Green Party’s 2008 candidate for Vice President of the United States.

No word from the Green Party on their position on the rockets that Hamas was lobbing into Israel.

We in the Illinois Green Party are deeply troubled by the arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief-of-staff John Harris. The Governor is charged with attempting to personally profit from his power to appoint a person to the U.S. Senate. While we recognize that the accused are innocent until proven guilty, we must also admit that we are not surprised by these allegations. We have seen a long pattern of pay-to-play from Blagojevich, and indeed, a long pattern of pay-to-play throughout Illinois politics for years. The long sordid history of corruption in Illinois must finally come to an end.

The Green Party has always stood for accountability, transparency, and clean government through clean elections. We reject all corporate campaign contributions, advocate for public financing, and have long pushed for at least caps on individual contributions, so that our elections will no longer be pay-to-play.

We call on the Illinois General Assembly to hold an emergency session to:

1) Develop legislation to give the people of Illinois the ability to recall their public officials;

2) Consider the impeachment of Governor Blagojevich;

3) Amend Illinois statute to provide for an open process for filling this and future U.S. Senate seats, preferably through a special election, as the process for filling the current vacancy has been irrevocably tainted;

4) Reform the campaign finance system, banning all corporate campaign contributions, and installing caps on individual contributions;

5) Further reform the campaign finance system to eliminate pay-for-play, by barring or severely limiting contributions from political appointees, and mandating that political committees return donations made from individuals subsequently appointed to public office, boards, or commissions.

These are the first steps which need to be taken to help instill integrity, transparency, and accountability to our state government.

Phil Huckelberry
Chair, Illinois Green Party

My two cents: The only one of these suggestions that disturbs me is the proposal to further limit personal contributions. I smacks of a limit on the personal freedoms of millions of people because of concerns that some of them will be giving cash for bad reasons. As long as there’s full disclosure and transparency, I see no problems with people donating money to support the candidates of their choice.

The Republican is a Vietnamese American who almost never mentions his party affiliation when campaigning inside New Orleans. The Democrat is disgraced nine-term incumbent William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, under indictment for bribery after the FBI discovered $90,000 stashed in the plastic containers of his home freezer. The Green Party candidate is longtime community organizer Malik Rahim, a co-founder of Common Ground Relief Network, a grassroots organization brought together in the wake of Katrina to open medical clinics, distribute flood relief supplies and repair and rebuild homes damaged by the flood. With a projected low turnout, it’s shaping up as a three way race that could go in a surprising direction. “We are shooting for 30,000 votes here,” a Rahim campaign spokesperson told BAR, “and we think we can win.”

I dunno. You can never underestimate the ability of people to rationalize away a candidates obviously criminal behavior because they think they need someone to bring home the bacon. After all, they’ve been told by the media, the schools and their churches for years that they cannot possibly service without assistance from the nanny state. The only reason for wanting the ability to vote is to be able to get stuff from the government.

And right now, you just bet that Bill Jefferson is pumping out that message. At least Malik Rahim has been rolling up his hands and working for the people. Jefferson has literally be rolling away the cash.

According to the Boston Globe, Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, a Green-Rainbow Party member and City Councilor since 2000, was arrested Nov. 21 and charged with accepting a bribe. The affidavit alleges that Turner accepted a $1,000 cash bribe on Aug. 3, 2007, in exchange for pushing for a liquor license for a local business.

I suppose this is a sign of progress for the Green Party. It’s one thing to have a member of your party actually holding public office somewhere, anywhere. But it’s quite another when that party member has enough clout and power that someone needing government permission to conduct business would invest some of their money with that candidate.

I mean, why should the Democrats and Republicans have a corner on the bribe acceptance market?

Kudos, Greens! Maybe one day, we’ll have third party members taking bribes and fixing things at Peoria City Hall.

Elizabeth McCoy, running for Chicot County Assessor in Arkansas versus a Democrat, narrowly lost her bid. In a final manual recount, Democrat Barbara Esters won 2,300 to 2,270, a difference of 30 votes. Machine recounts in the close race weren’t helping the recount, so the Arkansas Green Party paid just under $1,000 for a manual recount.