Contact:
David Bedell for State Senate
12 Ardsley Rd
Stamford, CT 06906
977-8106
Green36th @ hotpop.com
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David Bedell for State Senate, 36th District
2006
(includes Greenwich and parts of
Stamford and
New Canaan)
Too many of our elected offices go unchallenged each year. Since his election in
1990 (in a race against Ned Lamont), William Nickerson
has never had to face a Democratic opponent until this year. In 2004, the Green Party
offered voters a choice by running a candidate
John Amarilios, and this year the Democrats have fielded a candidate
Frank Farricker.
In other words, the Democrats sat out seven election cycles, from 1992 through 2004. As
a major party under the laws of Connecticut they can do this, re-entering the elections
any year they choose. The Green Party does not have this luxury. As a minor party, we
lose ballot access for an office unless we run a candidate and win at least 1% of the
vote each time. If we lose ballot access, then we have to go through the
time-consuming process of petitioning to get back on the ballot.
The CT campaign finance reform law,
passed in 2005, has a similar discriminatory clause for minor parties, requiring them to
meet an additional, even higher petitioning threshold before they can qualify for the
Citizens' Election Fund. No petitioning is required for major party candidates to qualify.
These are the kinds of obstacles that prevent the USA from becoming a multiparty
democracy like most of the Western world.
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