Green Party Of Connecticut
News Release
June 29, 2009 - for immediate release
CONTACT:
Tim McKee
Spokesperson and National Committee member, cell (860) 860-778-1304, (860) 505-8454
Mike DeRosa
Secretary of State candidate (860) 919-4042
Green Party of Connecticut officials and candidates today blasted the Secretary of State's Susan Bysiewicz and her office for the promotion of "Major" party candidates as important while diminishing or ignoring " minor" parties and their its candidates . In recent news releases, Bysiewicz's continues to lauded Democrat and Republican candidates and backhandedly implies that "minor" party candidate races are not competitive, Green Party officials explained . The Green Party also took exception with her partisan support for the disputed "Clean Election Fund" as reason that more races are more contested this year.
Mike DeRosa, Green Party candidate for Secretary of State and a litigant in a successful Federal Court court case that ruled the "Clean Election Fund" law as unconstitutional with draconian requirements for third parties, said "The next Secretary of State should treat all candidates and parties equally and I will make that a major issue in the race this fall and ask the other candidates to address these kinds of election reforms. It is not the Secretary's job to decide or label which parties are competitive and which are non-competitive.""
DeRosa added "The Green Party believes that all political parties in CT should be equal and that some political parties are NOT more equal than others. It's time for an equal playing field for all candidates and parties to play on!"
Tim McKee, National Committee person and a spokesperson for The Greens explained "The Secretary's press releases lists figures for "Major" party races and she implies that she thinks they are the only ones who really count! Showing numbers for 12 years of ONLY Democrats and Republicans races does not treat all candidates equally. If all election officials treated all candidates equally, and the Citizen Election Fund gave all candidates money fairly, The Greens Party believes that more races would be competitive."
DeRosa noted that Bysiewicz refused to debate him and the Republican candidate four years ago and he has already been shutout of a public forum for Secretary of the State candidates held at Hartford Public Library this year.
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