Laurel attempts to submit petitions

On December 27, the Illinois State Board of Elections refused to accept nominating petitions for Laurel Lambert Schmidt for Congress for the 3rd district. This is an outrageous denial of democracy. Illinois accepts that political parties can become “established parties” in individual election districts by receiving at least 5% of the vote in the last general election. Laurel ran as a Green Party candidate in that district in 2010 and received over 6% of the vote. Green Party volunteers circulated petitions for Laurel to get her on the 2012 primary ballot and tried to turn them in Dec. 27. However, the ISBE refused to accept these petitions on the grounds that all Congressional Districts have been redrawn and supposedly this wipes out whatever we achieved in 2010. In fact most of what was in the 3rd district is still in the 3rd district.

The ISBE is adopting the least democratic view of the law, denying voters a choice, and benefiting the two corporate parties. The Illinois Green Party and Laurel are suing to get this decision reversed. This issue is now before the Illinois Supreme Court. A big difficulty we are facing in getting an objective ruling on the law is that fact that all judges in Illinois run for office as Democrats or Republicans. They owe their positions to these parties and do not often make decisions favoring democracy over the narrow interests of their corporate party sponsors.

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Chicago Reader regular contributor Kari Lydersen has written a feature article on the Green Party’s showings in the 2010 elections, and our take on what those results mean. She interviewed numerous ILGP candidates and leaders to put the article together, and many of us are quoted in the article.

Speaking as a candidate, I have a couple of points to make about this article. First, this is basically a very fair article. We definitely suffered some setbacks in this last election in spite of the fact that some of our campaigns were better organized and funded than ever before. We shall continue on in our struggle for social justice, ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy, and nonviolence.

Second, I do have a problem with the comment made about the MWRD race. The article says that our candidate who received the most votes (that is, Diana Horton) only received 4% of the vote. It is true that if you compare Diana’s vote total to the total votes cast for all the MWRD candidates, she received 4.8% of those votes. However, voters are entitled to three votes for MWRD. This makes calculating meaningful percentages more complicated. I believe the most meaningful calculation is to compare the total votes cast for the three of us Green Party candidates for MWRD to the total votes cast for all MWRD candidates. By that method, I calculate that 9.2% of the total votes cast for MWRD candidates were cast for Green Party candidates. This is the highest percentage for any county wide Green Party candidates in this election. Clearly a substantial number of voters in Cook County are prepared to vote for the Green Party candidates for the MWRD even though we probably haven’t been able to reach them with any of our literature or speak to them in person.

Third, I do not agree that Alberto Bocanegra is outside the mainstream of Green Party political stands. Alberto has been struggling for social justice for several years in his young life. This is what brought him to the Green Party and what has motivated him to persist in working to build the Green Party. This is also what has motivated him to go all out in the current campaign for alderman of the 12th ward. Electing someone with solid green values to the City Council will be a big step forward for social justice and all green values in Chicago. I urge all who are motivated by these same values to support Alberto’s campaign.

by Rich Whitney, 2010 Green Party Candidate for Governor

To the hundreds of people who supported me in my campaign for Governor, and to the roughly 100,000 or so who saw fit to vote for me, despite the politics of fear that swept Illinois this election season, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

We acknowledge our disappointment but are not consumed by it. We will assess the causes of our disappointing results but will not be obsessed by them. We live to fight another day, and fight on we shall.

When I first helped organize the Shawnee Green Party 14 years ago, and the Illinois Green Party 11 years ago, I knew that success would be a long-term project. After all, we are trying to do something that hasn’t been done since the Republican Party became a new major party just before the Civil War – break up the two-party stranglehold on our political system. There’s no road map for this, no political science text to fall back on. On the contrary, we are trying to rewrite the textbooks and demonstrate that we are not prisoners of our history.

Yesterday, we met with a setback but there are still grounds for encouragement. Despite my own loss, some of our other Green Party candidates did remarkably well, beginning with State Representative Jeremy Karpen, winning 35 percent of the vote against a much-better funded Machine Democrat candidate in the 39th District.

The people who worked on my campaign and other Green Party campaigns learned a lot, and future Green Party campaigns will be the stronger for it.

The central messages of this campaign:

? fiscal responsibility;

? creating a healthy education system and public sector through fair and progressive taxation and making the speculators pay their fair share back to society;

? creation of a state bank;

? tuition-free higher education,

? a real commitment to renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable transportation as essential to our economic and environmental future;

? creating worker-owned and community-owned enterprises as a sustainable job-providing alternative to the corporate-model, and other good, positive public policy ideas, have not been lost on the people who heard them. They have at least entered the political discourse in Illinois, and we in the Green Party will continue to fight for their implementation.

You can still help us in the Green Party make future progress.

In the short term, we still have some unfinished business related to this campaign. The debate sponsors who unfairly and unjustly excluded me from some of the debates are going to face the consequences of their actions. One ally of my campaign, on his own initiative, has already filed complaints with the IRS over these non-profit organizations that engaged in partisan political activity. Last Friday, LeAlan Jones, the Illinois Green Party and I filed suit in federal court against WTTW, the Public Broadcasting Service and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for using taxpayer dollars and the public airwaves, to promote the campaigns of the Democratic and Republican candidates, by holding debates that excluded the Green Party candidates. We want them to pay – literally and figuratively – for what they did.

We also have some unfinished business with the Chicago Board of Elections. In addition to the “Whitey” incident, we have received an additional credible report of an electronic voting machine literally flipping votes from me to Pat Quinn. We had reports of an election judge training session in which the instructor disparaged the Green Party. We are continuing to investigate and we are calling on the authorities to investigate. We aren’t taking this lying down. The Party of Green will continue to take on the Chicago Machine until we win.

This campaign ended with a slight deficit. Considering this, as well as our ongoing post-election battles, additional donations (http://tinyurl.com/27waurs) would still be helpful.

Finally, I urge you to Join the Green Party (http://www.ilgp.org/join/) if you have not already done so. It always drives me crazy when people make statements like, “Well, I would support the Green Party but it’s too small,” or “it’s too ineffective.” How do you think it gets bigger and how do you think it becomes more effective without more people joining it? The Green Party is only as strong as the people who participate in it. Get involved! Don’t sit on the sidelines – be part of the solution! As Edmund Burke warned, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing.”

The policy solutions that I have fought for in this campaign I will continue to fight for as a Green Party activist, and as a supporter of our next wave of candidates, and it is appropriate for me to close on that note. One of our Ten Key Values is Future Focus. We are already gearing up for new challenges in the municipal elections. Although these are technically non-partisan races, we can still identify and support our own. In my home town of Carbondale, we expect to be running our first true Green Party candidates for City Council and Mayor. In Chicago, we have some very good potential candidates, including one very promising candidate for Alderman, Alberto Bocanegra (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alberto-Bocanegra-for-12th-Ward-Alderman/339900748897) , who is already campaigning hard.

This election is over but we continue to pave the way for future successes. Stay strong, stay focused and above all, stay Green!

You Control the Outcome of this Race, So Vote Your Hopes and Not Your Fears
by Rich Whitney, Green Party Candidate for Governor

Dear Friends,
There are many influential people who are trying to dampen enthusiasm for this campaign. They are lecturing voters to forget about Rich Whitney because he “can’t win,” so now is the time to get “serious” and vote for either Pat Quinn or Bill Brady.

Never mind that neither Quinn nor Brady has a plan for solving the structural budget deficit in our state, so that we can have a government that can function and provide essential funding for our schools, colleges, and social services.

Never mind that Quinn’s “maybe” 1 percent income tax hike would still leave us with a structural deficit of at least $8.8 billion and Brady’s “cut a dime off every dollar” spending cuts would leave us with a structural deficit of over $9.1 billion.

Never mind that under either Quinn or Brady, our state government would  either continue to not pay its bills on time to service providers, clinics, colleges and hundreds of small businesses, deepening the recession — or it would borrow even more money, increasing the debt service and making it even harder to dig out of the budget hole in the future.

Never mind that neither candidate has anything resembling a comprehensive plan for job creation, just the usual vague rhetoric about being a “jobs governor” or “pro-business,” without any specifics.

Despite all of that, you, the voters, are being told that you have to somehow choose the “lesser evil” between two equally dismal choices – who themselves make it more difficult by trashing each other. The main argument Pat Quinn makes for voting for him is that he’s not Bill Brady and the best argument Bill Brady makes for voting for him is that he’s not Pat Quinn.  Together, they are telling voters that the “choice” is between the ineffective pawn of Madigan who let the criminals out of prison too early or the guy who wanted to euthanize puppies with carbon monoxide and voted three times for bills that benefited his personal business.

Is this what you really want, Illinois? Are some of you going to fall for that “lesser evil” argument again? Don’t you think we can do better than this?

This is madness. Our state is in a 9-1-1 emergency. Our state government can barely function. Thousands of teachers have lost their jobs, our schools are failing, and class sizes are going up. College tuitions are going up and the quality of education going down. Services needed by the sick, the disabled, the elderly and children are being cut; vendors, community services and clinics aren’t being paid and are having to close their doors. Environmental protection, natural resources and renewable energy programs have all been compromised.  Unemployment is in double digits and our communities are desperate for job opportunities.

If  you vote for either  of the parties responsible for creating the madness, then you will be contributing to the perpetuation of the madness.

How low do we have to sink before you finally decide that both the Democratic and the Republican parties are responsible for this state of affairs, and get behind the party and the candidates who are actually standing up for you? Can we please stop the sinking this Tuesday?

I have demonstrated in this campaign that I am the one candidate in the race who actually has a budget plan that makes sense, one that will restore and improve our schools and public sector; a plan based on principles of fair taxation, taxing the speculators who actually harm our economy, and creating a state bank so that we get more bang out of our bucks.
 
I have demonstrated in this campaign that I am the one candidate in the race who actually has a plan for job creation that makes sense, one based on investing in education and health, featuring tuition-free higher education and single-payer quality health care for all; a Green Capital Bill to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses to save energy costs; improve public transportation and reduce its costs; promote renewable energy with manufacturing based in Illinois, and empower Illinois communities by fostering community-owned and worker-owned enterprises.

I am the one candidate who actually explains what my plans are, and how and why they will work, with detailed position statements on my website. When I am asked questions about where I stand, I am able to always answer the question.
Yet I keep hearing this: “Well, Rich Whitney is the best candidate; he won the SIU debate; he’s the only one who makes any sense, but he ‘can’t win’; therefore, we have to support Quinn,” or “we have to support Brady.”

I have heard this from media commentators, reporters, political analysts and political scientists, economists, labor leaders, environmental group leaders, educators, state employees and all stripes of reformers. I have heard it from well-meaning progressives, liberals and conservatives.

In other words, I have heard, “he’s the best candidate but he can’t win” from constituent leaders and groups who represent the majority of the voters. It’s not just ironic; it’s absurd. If I am the best candidate, and the majority of voters support my positions, then why shouldn’t I win? I can’t win simply because certain opinion leaders declare that I can’t win? Don’t you, the voters, have something to say about this?

The fact is, the biggest single barrier to my winning is the false belief that I can’t win. Conversely, if the majority simply believes that I can win, I will win.

What is really happening is that certain media voices, institutional leaders and other influential people keep telling voters that I “can’t” win, because they don’t want me to win — because I am standing up against certain entrenched and powerful corporate and financial interests. They figure that if they keep repeating the idea that I “can’t” win, more and more voters will accept it as true, and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The same opinion leaders then tell voters that they don’t want to “waste their vote” on “someone who can’t win,” and that they must therefore support someone who “can” win — which, of course, just happens to be limited to the usual unappealing Democratic or Republican “choices.”  

These opinion leaders often point to public opinion polls in support of their conclusion that “Rich Whitney can’t win.” Don’t be fooled by this. It is part of the process of manipulating you, discouraging you and telling you what to think. Public opinion polls today are partisan political weapons. Most of these polling organizations have an institutional bias against any candidate who isn’t with their favored party. They reveal nothing about their polling methods, what voter pools are used, whether only voters with home phones are contacted (which skews the results), how the questions are framed, etc. 

Besides, basing your vote on the basis of polls is a herd mentality. Do you want to vote for someone because you think he’s likely to win or do you want to vote for the best candidate? Elections are often described as a “horse race,” but that is not meant to be taken literally. The point is not to “pick the winner.” The purpose is to decide who is going to lead the executive branch of your state government.

A variation on the “Whitney can’t win” theme is: “Well, you have to vote for Pat Quinn because we can’t let an extremist like Bill Brady win.” But this also assumes that Quinn is the only one who can beat Brady, when, if the same voters vote for me, I could defeat Brady and Quinn.

Second, why is Bill Brady an “extremist”? Because he wants to systematically dismantle and destroy the public sector and our schools? That’s what Pat Quinn has actually been doing as governor. His FY 2011 budget proposed the deepest single-year cuts to education in Illinois history. He himself repeatedly brags about how he cut $3 billion from the budget. But that’s not $3 billion in waste. That’s $3 billion in jobs, education, services.

The Democratic Party has had complete control of our legislature and governorship for seven straight years. What do you have to show for it? How has anything gotten better? Why worry about the Republicans when the Democrats are carrying out their policies?

And even if you still believe that Bill Brady is somehow a worse evil than Pat Quinn, what do you think would be a stronger check on Bill Brady’s agenda? Having a large vote for the meek half-measures of Pat Quinn, which actually go along with Brady’s aims, or having a large vote for the strong progressive  platform of Rich Whitney, which challenges and counters the direction of Bill Brady’s aims?

The powerful interests that want to maintain control over your government can tell you that “Rich Whitney can’t win” all they want, but there is one simple antidote, one very simple way to prove them wrong:  
Vote for me.
You still hold the real power on Election Day. I can win if enough of you vote for me. It’s that simple. You are no one’s prisoner. You don’t have to go along with what your so-called “leaders” tell you to do. It’s your vote, not theirs.
If you keep voting for the “lesser evil,” election after election, then the system continues to get more evil. It will never stop becoming more evil unless and until we the people take a stand and vote for the candidates who will really fight for the greater good.

In Election 2010, stand up for yourselves and stop letting others manipulate you. How often have you said it yourself: “I just want to vote for the best candidate”? Then do it! Prove the “experts” wrong.

It’s your vote, your government, your future at stake. So vote for a better future, not a “less bad” one. Vote your hopes, not your fears. Together we can win control of our own government and start building that better future.

While the real ghouls are inside, join us outside WTTW in a massive show of support for Rich Whitney. Come on up to Albany Park for a massive pre-Halloween rally!

Date: Thursday, October 28
Time: Rally at 6:00; Debate at 7:00, but the rally will continue!
Where: Outside WTTW studios on the campus of Northeastern Illinois University
Address: 5400 N. St. Louis Ave., Chicago

PRE-RALLY before 6:00 – Come to NEIU via the Brown Line or the 82, 92,or 93 bus. Make sure the other riders know where you’re going – even ask them to come along!

POST-RALLY after the debate has concluded – location TBA!

This election has been no fun, with the millions of dollars spent on endless attack ads by two guys with no real answers for how they’re going to help Illinois out of its huge deficit. So for one night at least, let’s prove that politics doesn’t need to wear us down. Come join one of the most exciting political rallies you’ll ever see, and support Rich Whitney!

Costumes are optional – but encouraged! We want people to come out and have fun!

Here are some politically-themed costume ideas, if you need them:

ZOMBIES, mindlessly voting for the same lousy candidates over and over again! Washing, slot, sewing, gumball… any kind of MACHINE you can think of! A bunch of PAWNS, always doing Michael Madigan’s bidding!

This is going to be our last big rally of the election year, so we want EVERYBODY to come out. The bigger the turnout, the more attention we can grab, and the more momentum we can build headed in to the last five days of the election!

The Mikva Challenge is a non-profit program created by former White House Counsel, Judge and U.S. Congressman Abner Mikva and his wife Zoe, a lifelong education activist. Its mission is to help low-income Chicago youth become meaningful actors in politics, honoring the Mikvas’ decades of inspiring young adults to embark on careers in public service and politics. A few weeks ago it held a candidates’ forum in which all the candidates for governor were invited to participate and address high-school students from throughout the greater Chicago area. After the forum, students were given an opportunity to sign up with and volunteer for the campaign of their choice. Green Party candidate Rich Whitney won that contest, recruiting far more students than any other candidate.

Chicago Public Television station WTTW is sponsoring a debate for the governor’s race on October 28, to be televised on its popular program, Chicago Tonight. So far, this taxpayer supported public television station has failed to invite Rich Whitney to participate, and has only invited the Democratic and Republican candidates, even though the Green Party is a legally established party in Illinois and Whitney is on the ballot. The Whitney for Governor campaign is involved in a public pressure campaign to get WTTW to do the right thing and invite Whitney. The Mikva volunteers staged a protest outside the WTTW studios on Friday, October 22nd. In light of the budget crisis in Illinois, which is saddling future generations with growing debt, cutbacks to education and mass unemployment, it is these kids’ future that is most at stake in this race. Voters, and WTTW need to listen to what our young people have to say!