Green Party Watch

Hat tip to Ballot Access News for this story:

On February 6, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania jury convicted State Representative H. William DeWeese of using state resources to work on partisan political activity during the period 2000-2006. DeWeese was in the Democratic leadership in the House during those years. He directed staff to use government employees and government computers to help challenge the 2004 petition of Ralph Nader, and the 2006 statewide Green Party petition. See this story. DeWeese is currently in the legislature, and has been a state legislator since he was elected in a special election in May, 1976.

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders welcomed the news of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of December, calling the presidential order more than eight years overdue. Greens urged President Obama to let the troops come home to be with their families for the holiday, rather than stationed or redeployed elsewhere.

“We’re glad that President Obama is calling all US military personnel home from Iraq and has ignored Republican demands to prolong the occupation. The President is honoring a binding Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq that President Bush signed. The US must make every effort now to help US troops return to their civilian lives, especially those who’ve been wounded or have suffered psychological trauma because of the war. We owe the troops a great debt and an apology for sending them to fight in a war based on deception and cooked intelligence,” said Carl Romanelli, Pennsylvania Green and member of the party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

Greens noted that the withdrawal is the result of the Iraqi government’s insistence and that the Obama Administration was initially reluctant to comply with the agreement (http://www.nationaljournal.com/u-s-troop-withdrawal-motivated-by-iraqi-insistence-not-u-s-choice-20111021).

The Green Party opposed the invasion of Iraq since its inception in March 2003 and demanded withdrawal afterwards. Greens blamed both Democrats and Republicans for transferring congressional war powers to the White House in Oct. 2002 despite uncertainty about WMD allegations (later revealed to have been the product of manipulated intelligence), forged evidence of nuclear weaponry, and implausible claims of cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

Greens participated in protests throughout the US against the Iraq War, and — unlike many Democrats who claimed to oppose the war — continued to protest after President Obama’s election.
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Oliver Hall reports at the Philadelphia Enquirer:

Pennsylvanians may notice something unusual when they go to the polls in November: Their choices for governor, lieutenant governor, and U.S. Senate will be limited exclusively to Republican and Democratic candidates. Only four other states’ 2010 general-election ballots are so restrictive.

What makes Pennsylvania unique, however – and suggests that something has gone seriously wrong here in the birthplace of America – is that the shortage of choices has been effectively imposed by the courts. The state’s courts have shut out minor-party candidates by allowing Republicans and Democrats to collect large money judgments from anyone who attempts to challenge the major parties.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20101018_Some_political_parties_remain_outlaws_in_Pa_.html#ixzz12j4GhgER
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Carl Romanelli, the Pennsylvania Green Party’s 2006 candidate for US Senate whose ballot access petition was successfully challenged, has filed suit against numerous members of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for illegal activities in connection with the challenge. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

Carl Romanelli, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2006, has filed suit against state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, former state Rep. Mike Veon, the House Democratic caucus, and dozens of named and unnamed state employees.

The civil suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Scranton alleges that the defendants engaged in an illegal “Herculean effort” to have Mr. Romanelli thrown off the U.S. Senate ballot in 2006.

Read the full article at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In a two part series of articles by Ruth Ann Dailey at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the saga of Ralph Nader and Carl Romanelli and the PA Democratic Party’s fight to keep them off the ballot is covered in some detail. Both Nader and Romanelli faced challenges to their ballot access petitions in 2004, and Pennsylvania’s courts ruled that both Nader and Romanelli were responsible to pay the costs for those who took their ballot access petitions to task.

This is the first time that candidates have been charged for reviewing petitions which were found to be insufficient to secure a spot on the ballot. In essence, Nader and Romanelli were charged over $80,000 each for daring to run for office.

H/T to Ballot Access News. read more »

Carl Romanelli, 2006 Green Party candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, has written a piece at Citizen Voice entitled “What’s good for Iran is good for Pennsylvania; freedom of assembly, speech, due process”. Green Party watch has covered Carl Romanelli’s struggle with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s illegal campaign of harassment to deprive him of his right to run for office.

Last week Senator Robert Casey passed a resolution through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which recognizes and demands that Iranian citizens be afforded freedom of assembly, speech and due process. To be clear, the U.S. Greens are in complete agreement with Pennsylvania’s junior senator on this issue. In fact, we recognize that such individual democratic freedoms are an essential component of any person’s basic human rights. The difference between Greens and Mr. Casey is that Greens expect the rights of free speech and due process everywhere in the world, including here in Pennsylvania.

At first glance the above statement might seem over-the-top, but not so to those following the developments in the scandal known as Bonusgate. read more »

“A real Tea Party movement would look like the Green Party”: Greens urge Americans to reject corporate royalists and faux populists like Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin, citing Jefferson’s warning about “the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations”

Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on health care reform, democracy, corporate power, and related issues: http://www.gp.org/speakers

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders and candidates said that many Tea Party activists might be in the wrong party and urged them to consider going Green. read more »

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders and candidates are calling President Obama’s resurrection of nuclear power with a multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-funded subsidy for a Georgia plant his “worst idea yet” and warned about serious public health threats posed by mining, waste transportation, and waste storage. The Green Party disputes the myths that nuclear power is ‘green energy’ or a solution to the advance of climate change.

“The twin nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia, would be financed with $5.4 billion in loans from the Federal Financing Bank with money of the US Treasury. According to the GAO, this investment has a 50/50 percent or worse chance of failing. President Obama wants taxpayers to assume 80% of the financial risk to turn the southeast Atlantic states into a big open-pit radioactive barbeque. This investment is a terrible idea — President Obama’s worst yet,” said Lisa Green, Green candidate for California Assembly Candidate, 53rd Assembly District (http://www.votelisagreen.net). read more »

Back in 2006 Carl Romanelli sought to run as a Green Party candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania. His ballot access petitions were challenged. He was tossed off the ballot. Later he was charged the costs of the challenger’s expenses. Pennsylvania is the only state to do this. It’s important to understand that that Romanelli was not fined, as he did nothing illegal.

Later it was revealed that some of the challenges were undertaken by state employees working on the taxpayer dollar on behalf of the Democratic nominee. Yesterday seven people pleaded guilty in this case. The story was reported at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The article includes this

Observers in the courtroom included Carl Romanelli, who ran in 2006 as a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. Some of the charges in the Bonusgate case revolve around allegations that Democratic staffers worked on state time to challenge signatures on his election petitions in an attempt to knock him off the ballot and secure more votes for Democrat Bob Casey.

Yesterday’s guilty pleas were good news for third-party candidates who have a hard enough time running against majority parties when everyone plays by the rules, Mr. Romanelli said.

Members of the Green Party work daily recruiting candidates, educating voters, lobbying their local and state governments, serving on local boards and city councils, and lately, challenging obstructive and unequal election and campaigning laws in court.  Below is a round-up of some the latest legal moves and victories won by state Green Parties across the country.  Your support of the Green Party on all levels is vital if we are going to continue to work for better election laws and candidate recruitment.

Read on for news from Arkansas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Connecticut about how Greens are working for better election laws. read more »

Carl Romanelli was charged over $80,000 for daring to run for US Senate in Pennsylvania. That cost was a result of Democrat Bob Casey Jr.’s successful effort to keep Romanelli off the ballot. By scrutinizing every ballot access signature, Casey was able to throw Romanelli off the ballot, and he then turned around and charged Romanelli for the lawyers and party hacks he had do the scrutinizing.

Now Romanelli has called on Casey to play him for the money in a game of B-ball.

A piece at Citizens Voice says that Romanelli gives Casey good odds to beat him in the game of hoops.

“As in politics, Casey should have the advantage on the basketball court,” Romanelli said. “He stands at about 6 feet 4 inches, I am 5 feet 5 inches. He has access to the best gyms in the country, I still play in schoolyards, and he is a few years younger than I am.”

Romanelli also suggested that President Obama might invite him and Casey to the Whitehouse for a beer to work out their differences.

On a more serious note, Romanelli’s court case to set aside these fees goes back before the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court next week.

Carl Romanelli, 2006 Green Party candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, is still fighting a PA court decision ordering him to pay over $80,000 to reimburse the Democratic Party employees who challenged his petitions in 2006 and successfully threw him off the ballot. Despite the fact that since the original ruling, a number of the Democratic employees involved in the challenge have been arrested for using public funds to target political opponents, including Romanelli and Ralph Nader, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has issued a two-sentence ruling confirming the decision and rejecting oral argument on the matter.

In a guest blog at Gort42, Romanelli suggested a Skip Gates/Cambridge police-style “peace beer” with Obama, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), and himself as one of his few remaining options:

“One would think that the commission of crimes against a working class candidate would be enough to get the attention of the Courts, but such is not the case in Pennsylvania. All along I have said that there was nothing wrong with the signatures the Greens submitted in 2006, and there wasn’t. So the Democrats had to rely on their friends who wear robes to finish the job,” Romanelli asserts. “The entire judicial system is corrupted here in Pennsylvania, and I should know because I come from Luzerne County where the disgraced, kids for cash judges come from,” he added. “So, since the judges are too crooked for a citizen to use the legal system, we need another way to resolve this shameful persecution and I thought Beer Summit II would be a novel approach…”

In a message posted at Greens for Greens, former Green Party senatorial candidate Carl Romanelli reports that thirteen Democratic Party apparatchiks have been indicted

on charges of theft, conflict of interest, and conspiracy. Some of these charges were related to a crushing petition challenge of the Carl Romanelli U.S. Senate campaign…

At a reported cost of four million dollars to the Pennsylvania taxpayer, the thirteen people were charged with crimes that, if convicted on all charges and given the harshest sentences, would land them behind bars for a reported 1,873 years.

The state Attorney General is reported to have said that there are more indictments coming, and that Democrats are not the only people facing jail time.

Green Party in the Media:

AP: “Pennsylvania Scandal keeps focus on ballot access” (11 Aug 2008)

In announcing the first arrests from an ongoing corruption probe, state Attorney General Tom Corbett described a conspiracy in which leaders of the House Democratic caucus allegedly enlisted large numbers of publicly paid subordinates to participate in petition inspections that blocked independent and third-party candidates considered threats to major Democratic candidates in 2004 and 2006.
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Press release issued July 23, 2008:

Greens urge quick action on Ohio, Pennsylvania election crimes, seek assurance of 2008 ballot access fairness and election integrity

• Pennsylvania: 12 indicted after Statehouse Democrats staffers were given taxpayer-funded bonuses to keep 2004 presidential candidate Ralph Nader (Ind.) and 2006 US Senate candidate Carl Romanelli (Green) off the state ballot

• Ohio: Evidence of massive fraud by GOP operatives in the 2004 election, with possible Karl Rove involvement; Greens were the first to probe the 2004 vote theft

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders urged swift and aggressive court action to ensure fair elections and enforcement of legal campaign practices in the wake of election scandals in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
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