Green Party Watch

Ursula Rozum, who is running for the 24th Congressional District in New York, became the recipient of thousands of dollars in donations from Republican boosters in Florida who are also donating cash to her Republican opponent. Rozum decided to donate the money to local charities rather than return it, to send a message. From Syracuse.com:

Syracuse, NY – Ursula Rozum, Green Party candidate for the 24th Congressional District, thought it was strange when big unsolicited campaign donations started flowing in over PayPal from Florida.

The Grace family, residents of a wealthy ocean-front community in Hobe Sound, had taken a sudden interest in her campaign to tax the rich and other 99 percent sympathies.

Carolyn Grace, a homemaker, gave $2,500. When she hit the maximum, her three children Nicholas, Frederick and Alicia together gave another $1,750.

Some quick research showed the Graces are donors to Rozum’s Republican opponent, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle.

They have a history of giving mostly to conservative candidates and political action committees, including Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and the Club for Growth.

Rozum thought the Graces were likely to have only one interest in helping a Green Party candidate in a close Republican-Democrat matchup 1,300 miles away: Helping Buerkle.

Even though the Graces’ contributions would more than triple the amount of money she has to spend in the last week of the campaign, Rozum decided not to keep them.

She held a press conference Thursday to announce that she would give the money to charity. Rozum sat at a table in the Green Party headquarters on South Salina Street and happily gave the Grace’s money away to a list of community groups and voter advocacy groups. A few supporters and her dog looked on as she wrote checks.

“It’s rare that I have thousands of dollars to give to organizations that I like,” she said.

She gave $750 each to the Dunbar Association, the Workers Center of Central New York and the Friends of the Ida Benderson Center, a group hoping to reopen a senior center in downtown Syracuse. She gave $500 each to the voter advocacy groups FairVote, Move to Amend, the Election Defense Alliance and No More Stolen Elections.

Here is Ursula Rozum’s campaign ad running this weekend:

YNN reports on Ursula Rozum’s candidacy for House of Representatives in New York’s 24th Congressional District in Syracuse: (Video included at this link)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — She is not your typical candidate for Congress. Arriving for her announcement on a bicycle, preparing to board a train to Albany to file her nominating petitions. Ursula Rozum says it all ties in to a key plank in her campaign platform.

“We need really good mass transit that’s more convenient and more affordable than taking a private car,” Rozum said.

Rozum enters a field that offers a rematch between republican incumbent Ann Marie Buerkle and the democrat she ousted from office two years ago, Dan Maffei.

The Green Party contender claims Buerkle refuses to consider the positions favored by constituents on a host of issues ranging from defense spending to climate control.

Four years ago, she was a Dan Maffei supporter. That has changed.

Rosum said, “I worked on a get out the vote effort in 2008 that helped Dan Maffei get elected. And I found him, as a congressperson, to be uninspiring. And as a candidate this time, to be uninspiring.”

The Green Party is already bracing for the expected criticism about offering up candidates in races like the 24th Congressional District. Criticism that it’s serving as a spoiler.

The theory being that, in a close race, Rozum could pull needed votes from Maffei in his challenge to Buerkle.

“The whole system is spoiled, for the people, when you have two corporate parties and you’ve got a choice between bad and even worse. We’re providing a progressive alternative,” Green Party member Howie Hawkins said.
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