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Few Small-Party Candidates Are In Race To Win
Pubdate: Tue, 15 Oct 2002
Source: Press & Sun Bulletin (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Press & Sun Bulletin
Contact: http://www.pressconnects.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/878
Author: Heather Hare
FEW SMALL-PARTY CANDIDATES ARE IN RACE TO WIN
Most Hope To Guarantee Future Line On Ballot
One candidate put up his house to raise money for his campaign. Another
spent so much time campaigning, he's looking forward to losing so he can
spend time with his family.
Few minor-party candidates for governor entertain illusions about getting
elected.
Their goals tend to be smaller -- and often more achievable. They're trying
to persuade voters to pull the lever on candidates farther down the ballot
to show Albany that voters care about a living wage, medicinal marijuana,
reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws or saving the state's ecosystems.
But that doesn't stop many from sinking money, time and effort into their
campaigns.
Thomas Leighton of New York City, the gubernatorial candidate for the
Marijuana Reform Party, said his main goal is to get at least 50,000 votes.
That would get his party's line on the ballot in all statewide races for
the next four years, a goal of most of the minor parties. His campaign has
focused on three main issues: legalizing medicinal marijuana, repealing the
Rockefeller Drug Laws and legalizing the growing of hemp for industrial
purposes.
More than anything, smaller parties want this message to get out to voters
before Nov. 5: A vote on their line is not a vote wasted.
"A vote for anyone else is wasted," Leighton said.
Reasons To Run
There are three main reasons why minor-party candidates run for major
offices, said Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse
University's Center for Policy Research.
Two are political: to bring particular issues, such as medicinal marijuana,
to public debate, and to gain more votes and influence over the political
process. The third reason is more psychological.
"Some candidates are driven by a strong sense of civic duty," Reeher said.
Those candidates might feel that the two major parties are corrupt or
aren't properly representing their constituents. Reeher said candidates
such as Independence Party candidate B. Thomas Golisano hope to shift
public debate to specific issues.
"Certainly, ego is part of it," Reeher said. "Certainly, having the money
to do it is part of it."
In the case of the Marijuana Reform Party, Leighton doesn't have much money
to spend, and he has gone into personal debt to finance his campaign.
That's why he said he is being realistic. He would like to push the issue
of legalizing marijuana, but he isn't working to make that happen -- yet.
"We realize the political reality," Leighton said. "That's not going to
happen overnight."
Leighton believes Gov. George E. Pataki will win re-election; still, he
said a vote for the Marijuana Reform Party is a vote for changing the
state's basis for refusing medical marijuana from political science to
medical science.
"Bringing relief to the sick and suffering should be the No. 1 concern for
politicians," Leighton said.
After the race, Scott Jeffrey, running for governor on the Libertarian
Party line, realizes chances are slim that he'll win. Like Leighton, he
said his main goal is to get the 50,000 votes needed to get a line on the
ballot for the next four years. Once his party is on the ballot, the New
York City resident said, he believes he can get more young people involved
in the party, and from there, new leaders can be groomed for the next
gubernatorial election.
The Libertarian Party focuses on issues of freedom, including restrictive
gun laws and marijuana prohibition. Jeffrey would also like to repeal state
cigarette taxes, grant gay and lesbian partners equal rights and give
students choices in education with magnet schools.
"I'm not expecting to get elected," he said. "It would be a major victory
if we could get 50,000 votes."
But not every minor-party candidate shoots for the stars.
Michael Vercolen of Binghamton was the Green Party candidate for mayor in
the last Binghamton election. Unlike many minor-party candidates in larger
races, he wasn't running just to bring a message to the people. He was
running to win; incumbent Richard A. Bucci beat him.
Vercolen, a state Green Party committee member who teaches history at
Broome Community College, still preaches the message of the party.
"We see America in serious trouble," he said.
Vercolen said the environment is in jeopardy, as is the democracy. He sees
the poor getting poorer and the gap between the haves and have-nots getting
wider. The federal minimum wage, he said, is too low.
The Green Party -- with gubernatorial candidate Stanley Aronowitz, a union
activist and professor of sociology and urban studies at City University of
New York Graduate School -- hopes to bump out some Democrats in this year's
elections to send a message to the Democratic Party.
Vercolen said the Democratic Party isn't listening to the people it represents.
"We want to move the Democratic Party to where it ought to be, where it was
30 years ago," he said.
Gaining Influence
Candidates in New York are allowed to run on more than one party line at
once. Pataki is running on the Conservative and Republican lines.
For candidates running on multiple lines, votes are added together.
That, Reeher said, enables minor parties to endorse major party candidates
strategically. If they can find a successful candidate who believes in most
of their issues, they will have a friend in power.
"These parties can then gain leverage in the system," he said, "as little
as that is."
Yet minor parties can sometimes affect the outcome of a race. In 1994,
incumbent Gov. Mario M. Cuomo received more votes on the Democratic line
than Pataki did on the Republican line, but Pataki's votes on the
Conservative line put him over the edge.
Mary Clark of the Working Families Party said that's why she believes the
party has a better chance of gaining influence with mainstream candidates.
Clark is the regional director for Citizen Action, the organization from
which the Working Families Party was born.
The Working Families Party's main issue is making minimum wage a living
wage. The party endorsed H. Carl McCall, who is also running on the
Democratic line, for governor.
Votes for a candidate on a minor-party line, she said, are political
capital smaller parties can use to influence politicians when they don't
have money to spend on lobbying.
Losing The Race
But the minor-party system didn't work as well for Louis Wein, who had
hoped to run for governor on the Constitution Party line. His media
representative, Ginger Munninger-Berlin, said the campaign was a complete
failure.
"Basically, our campaign for all practical purposes is dead,"
Munninger-Berlin said.
The Constitution Party's official stance is to restore the state and U.S.
constitutions and "acknowledge the blessing of the Lord God as Creator,
Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of this Nation," the party's Web
site says. But the party did not obtain the 15,000 signatures required to
gain a line on this year's ballot.
Munninger-Berlin blames the electoral system.
"People did not accept Louis as a real candidate because, honestly, he
doesn't have a lot of money," Munninger-Berlin said.
Wein was unavailable to comment last week because he was moving out of his
Staten Island home, which he had mortgaged to finance his campaign,
Munninger-Berlin said. She said she believes Wein could have beaten Pataki
if the small party could have gotten the signatures.
"He wanted to be in the Republican Party," Munninger-Berlin said. "It's
being hijacked by a liberal."
Media Troubles
Adam Flint of Vestal is an associate professor of sociology at Hartwick
College in Oneonta. He said minor parties are important because they inject
new ideas into the system. They also bring people who feel alienated or
underrepresented into the process.
"One gets tired of voting for candidates who don't really stand for what
you believe in," Flint said.
But signatures and votes aren't the only thing minor parties need to
survive. Flint said they must catch the attention of mainstream media. He
said the role of the media should be to bring to light the issues and
candidates of the minor parties.
He said that is the only way, aside from grass-roots campaigning, that
minor-party candidates can have a voice in the political process. But he
said the media have unequivocally failed to give those candidates a venue
to debate.
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