Chlorophyll

Panic and retaliation among progressive Democrats over
Green challenges are behind HR 4694, say Greens,
citing the bill's prohibitive petition requirements,
ban on private contributions; Greens call the bill
patently unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders called on
Congress to reject a House bill that combines public
funding of congressional campaigns with a scheme to
ban third party and independents from such races.

HR 4694 ("Let the People Decide Clean Campaign Act")
would grant nominees of parties (i.e., Democrats and
Republicans) that had averaged 25% of the vote for
House races in a given district in the last two
elections would get full public funding.

All others (i.e., third party and independent
candidates) would be required to submit petitions
signed by 10% of the last vote cast for partial
funding, and 20% petitions for full funding.

Furthermore, candidates who don't qualify for funding
would be barred from spending any privately raised
money on their campaigns.

"10% and 20% in many districts represent prohibitively
large numbers of required signatures," said Phil
Huckelberry, co-chair of the Illinois Green Party and
co-chair of the national Green Party's Ballot Access
Committee. "The goal behind HR 4694 is to use public
financing of campaigns -- itself a sorely needed
reform -- to eliminate third party challenges in
congressional races."

"In Missouri’s 2nd congressional district, a candidate
with a party that won less than 25% of the vote in the
last two elections would need nearly 70,000 signatures
to qualify for the public funding that her/his
Democratic and Republican opponents would get
automatically, and only signatures from the 2nd
District would count. Nearly 35,000 signatures would
be required in order to allow the candidate to spend
anything at all on the campaign." (St. Louis Oracle,
February 05, 2006
)

The Green Party of the United States supports public
financing of campaigns as one of several measures to
remove the corrupting influence of corporations on
U.S. politics
.
But Greens warned that HR 4694 uses public financing
of campaigns as a cover to destroy democracy by
reducing the field to two parties.

Greens called the bill patently unconstitutional and,
if passed, unlikely to survive a court challenge. But
Greens said that the bill is significant because of
the line-up of Congress members supporting it.

The bill's eight sponsors include liberal Democrats:
David Obey (Wis.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Barney Frank
and James McGovern (Mass.), Henry Waxman and Bob
Filner (Calif.), Steve Israel (N.Y.), and Tim Ryan
(Ohio). Mr. Obey, Ms. DeLauro, and Mr. Israel faced
Green competition (Mike Miles, Ralph Ferrucci, and
John Keenan, respectively) in recent elections,
suggesting that their sponsorship is retaliatory. Mr.
Miles is seeking the House seat again in 2006
(Wisconsin, District 7); Mr. Ferrucci is running for
the U.S. Senate (Connecticut).

"The Democrats behind this bill have as little regard
for democracy and open elections as Republicans who
have use altered district lines and other methods to
fix elections," said D.C. Statehood Green Party
activist T.E. Smith. "Hiding this strategem in a bill
for public financing of campaigns makes it doubly
shameful."

"An obvious motivation behind HR 4694 is panic over a
Green insurgency. Voters have realized that the
Democratic Party has given President Bush and the GOP
a pass on various abuses of power and radical actions,
such as the invasion of Iraq and the confirmation of
Judge Samuel Alito, which most Democrats declined to
filibuster. The time is ripe for a noncorporate
independent third party, and many Democrats are
worried," added Mr. Smith.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Text of HR 4694
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4694:

Mike Miles for the U.S. House of Representatives
(Wisconsin, District 7)
http://www.milesforcongress.com

Ralph A Ferrucci for U.S. Senate (Connecticut)
http://ferrucciforsenate.org

Coalition For Free and Open Elections
http://www.cofoe.org

Green Party rebuttal to President Bush's 2006 State of
the Union Address (Video News Release)
http://www.gp.org/video/2006stateofunion/