Green Party of Pennsylvania nominates candidates for US Senate, US House, State Rep
Green Party Nominates Packer for U.S. Senate, Bortz for US House, D’Agostino, Giordano, Farrington and Sweeney for State Rep.
Monroeville, PA – On Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010, the Green Party of Pennsylvania
approved nominations for six candidates to compete in the November general
election. Long-time peace activist Mel Packer will be at the top of the
ticket as the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate.
Packer works as a Physician Assistant in an emergency room in Pittsburgh.
Prior to becoming a PA, he was a Teamster and helped organize Teamsters for
a Democratic Union, a rank-and-file union democracy movement. Packer was
recently on the board of the Thomas Merton Center, a nationally-known peace
and social justice center.
In a speech to convention-goers Saturday night, Packer referred to the
country’s economic condition by saying, “As a nation, we must rise to new
personal and collective heights; understand that this battle is not just an
economic battle, but a moral battle to save the soul of this nation. We must
take on the Goliaths that stalk our land, plunder our economic wealth,
pillage our communities and soil, and recognize that they only have power
because we give them power.”
The Green Party also approved the nomination of Ed Bortz of Pittsburgh to
run against Rep. Mike Doyle in the race for U.S. House of Representatives,
14th District. The Green Party has challenged Doyle twice before with Titus
North, who received one of the highest percentages for a third party
candidate in Pennsylvania history.
Bortz distinguished Green Party candidates from the rest of the field by
saying, “”The Green Party offers a non-corporate clean break from the dirty
money-dominated ‘politics as usual.’ Greens propose funding for education
not Wall Street bailouts. Greens propose sanity in foreign policy, bringing
all of our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and redirecting the
bloated war budget toward universal healthcare, human and environmental
needs. Green Party legislators will send the health insurance and corporate
lobbyists packing…and open up the process to the stakeholders that have
been locked out…the voters.”
Four candidates have declared for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Dr.
Rex D’Agostino will run in the 183rd District, which covers parts of Lehigh
and Northampton Counties. Roy Farrington of Clinton County will vie for the
76th District while Jay Sweeney, a longtime activist, former Green Party
officer and expert on the Marcellus Shale, will run in the 111th District in
the far northeast of the state. Also seeking a PA House seat is Hugh
Giordano of Philadelphia, in the 194th District largely contained within
that city. He will be running for the open seat recently left vacant by
Kathy Manderino’s retirement.
“We’re very excited about the upcoming campaign season,” said new GPPA Chair
I.K. Samways of Pittsburgh. “Our slate of candidates is very impressive and
all are passionate about challenging the two-party orthodoxy with which
voters are increasingly expressing their displeasure. Their geographic
diversity speaks volumes about how far and wide our message is already
propagating throughout the Commonwealth.”
The Green Party of Pennsylvania is an independent political party that
stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. The Green Party of
Pennsylvania stands for grassroots democracy, sustainable economics,
nonviolence, and ecology.
