Green Party hopeful is out; win for Casey

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06277/727247-177.stm

The prospect of a three-way U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania appeared all but over yesterday as the state Supreme Court rebuffed Green Party Senate candidate Carl Romanelli's bid to get on the November ballot.

The ruling, in a one-sentence order, was good news for the Bob Casey campaign, which had feared that Mr. Romanelli's presence on the ballot would siphon votes from the Democrat. For the same reason, it was a blow to Sen. Rick Santorum and to the Republican donors who had funded the petition drive that sought to establish the Green hopeful's access to the November ballot.

State election law dictates that independent candidates for statewide office submit nominating petitions with a total number of signatures from registered voters equivalent to 2 percent of the votes cast for the top vote-getter in the most recent statewide election. The justices upheld a Commonwealth Court ruling that set a 67,000-vote threshold based on 2 percent of the votes cast for Mr. Casey in his 2004 race for state treasurer.

Mr. Romanelli's attorney, Lawrence Otter, argued that state elections officials should have used a 2005 judicial retention election for Justice Sandra Newman, a move that would have resulted in a signature requirement of approximately 15,000. The Green candidate had originally submitted nominating petitions, which he said, contained early 100,000 signatures.

Fucking Greens.

OK, so I'm not a friend of the Green Party. But, then again, I'm not the enemy of the Green Party, either.

That said, I feel the need to point out that the United States is NOT a two-party system. Anyone who can meet the requirements to run for office should be allowed to do so.

Someone else said that it's the fault of the Green Party that we're in this mess in the first place. That is not true. Who is at fault?

The Democratic party. Why? Simply this: They could not find a candidate that would appeal to a larger number of people. Yes, I voted for Kerry but only because he wasn't Bush. He wasn't a Clinton. He didn't have the magnetism or the stage presence. I voted for Gore. Again, mostly because he wasn't Bush, but also because I agreed with him on the need to protect the environment. But, again, he didn't have the dazzle of a Clinton who could command any stage that he was on.

Note that I'm not saying that either person was a bad candidate. What I am saying is that neither person was good enough to siphon votes away from Bush and his Election Machine. And even with all the spin the Republicans were putting on it he still couldn't win more than half the votes (at least not fairly).

So I'm sorry, but Democrats got themselves into the mess they're in. Yes, the Green Party candidate got votes, but you have to ask yourself, WHY did they get so many votes? Perhaps because people are looking for an alternative to current Washington politics?

Attitudes like the couple in this message do the exact same thing that we complain about for others. It disenfranchises voters by not allowing them the choices that they should be legally allowed to make. (And again, please note that I'm not saying a Green Candidate should be allowed to be on a ballot if he/she does not meet the requirements of office.)

So grab your torches and let the flaming commence.

I take it that you don't vote in Democratic primaries, then.

I vote every time.

Like I said, I may not agree with them but it is their right.

From the article:



Paying for the campaign of another candidate is so unethical. Romanelli wasn't a proper candidate - he was a spoiler, bought and paid for by the Republicans.

Maybe the fault lies in people wanting dazzling presidential candidates. Maybe we should start spreading the news that presidents do real work, that requires real thinking, and real knowledge, and real intelligence, and should be selected on substance, not dazzle.

Granted, there was a full-bore campaign by the media to paint Al Gore as "dull" and "wonky" that helped people start to think this way, but I'll bet a few million are looking back now and regretting that decision they made in 2000. They're seeing that the presidency is a serious job, and it matters who you put in there.

Let's work to change the attitude that every president must have animal magnetism in order to be a good president. That would start, I think, with demanding that the media stop covering the horse race aspect of election campaigns and start focusing on the policies each candidate has.

Rocks!

A perfect answer. Now if we can just get everyone else to see it.

to support obfuscation....they obviously have toooo much money if they can throw it around like this.

is one less penny he has for TV and radio ads.

they got us in this mess in the first place

GREEN = Getting Republicans Elected Every November.

Case closed.