Green Party Candidates McCourt and Duncan Tour State, Debate Exclusion Fires Resolve to Reach VotersGreen Party of New York State October 03, 2006 Contacts: NEW YORK, NY -- Malachy McCourt, Green Party candidate for Governor, has begun a tour of the state with his show, "You Don't Have to Be Irish to Vote for Me," an hour and a half of "rambunctious prose, songs without singing but sung and obiter dictums on everything and guaranteed to offend politicians and blowhards alike." The show opened to a packed house at Symphony Space in NYC on Sept. 20 and Glen Falls on Sept. 23. Upcoming show venues include New Paltz, Ithaca, Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo. Alison Duncan, Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor, will sing at the shows. Both candidates will make TV, radio and public appearances in conjunction with the tour. "Alison and I are quite capable of either making people think or putting them to sleep," said McCourt. "We will keep them awake and informed by entertaining them. Alison's a singer and I'm not - I prove it every time I get up to sing. Walt Whitman said "I hear America singing" and so do we. We are asking people to join us as we add music and poetry to the air with a new administration in November." "Langston Hughes's poem "Poet to Bigot" about a disparity of resources has been on my mind throughout the campaign," said Duncan. "We do not have Spitzer's 16 million dollars, his giant political machine or his surfeit of press attention. We do have our talents. We will meet his money with our music." Green Party "Peace Slate" candidates, who qualified for the ballot by collecting 30,000 signatures, have not been invited to the debates sponsored by the League of Woman Voters and the senatorial debate sponsored by NY1. Debate organizers have set barriers that exclude third parties, such as polling and contribution requirements. The League of Women Voters lists 10% of support in a public opinion poll as one of several ways to qualify, even though Green Party candidates are frequently excluded from polling surveys. NY1 required candidates to have raised at least $500,000 to qualify for their senatorial primary debate. Green Party candidates do not accept corporate or PAC contributions so are not likely to meet high contribution thresholds. "When debate organizers exclude third-party candidates, they actively influence the course of the election in favor of Democratic and Republican candidates," said Duncan. "Polls indicate that one third of voters do not consider themselves Democrats or Republicans, and the majority want to see all ballot-qualified candidates invited to debates. Malachy and I and the other Green Party candidates bring fresh new ideas and innovative solutions to the political landscape and we look forward to sharing them with voters as we tour the state." -------- PEACE SLATE CANDIDATE WEBSITES
|