Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket

[tblue37]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07candidates.html?_r=1

<snip>

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

<snip>

The Democratic Party is fuming over Mr. May’s tactics and those of at least two other Republicans who helped recruit candidates to the Green Party, which does not have the resources to put candidates on ballots around the state and thus creates the opportunity for write-in contenders like the Mill Rats to easily win primaries and get their names on the ballot for November. Complaints about spurious candidates have cropped up often before, though never involving an entire roster of candidates drawn from a group of street people.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s not right. It’s deceitful,” said Jackie Thrasher, a former Democratic legislator in northwest Phoenix who lost re-election in 2008 after a Green Party candidate with possible links to the Republicans joined the race. “If these candidates were interested in the democratic process, they should connect with the party they are interested in. What’s happening here just doesn’t wash. It doesn’t pass the smell test.”

<snip>

Besides the Mill Rat candidates, the Democrats smell a rat in other races, including one in which a roommate of a Republican legislator’s daughter ran as a Green Party candidate in a competitive contest for the State Senate. They cite a variety of state and federal election laws that the Republicans may have violated in putting forward “sham” candidates for the Green Party.

I think this is almost certainly the sort of shenanigans that led to Alvin Green's coming up with the filing fee to get on the Democratic primary ticket in SC. Once he was on the ticket, it was easy enough for the Rethug dirty tricksters to mess around with hackable electronic votes.

[still_one]

1. Is this even legal? Either way the Democrats should exploit this and start calling out the repukes

for what they are. A party which does NOT believe in the Constitution

[Chulanowa]

2. Not the first time the Republicans have put money on the Greens

But let's all vote for 'em anyway to show that bastard Obama that we mean business!

:sarcasm:

[PBS Poll-435]

3. Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket

Republican Runs Street People on Green Ticket

The New York Times
By MARC LACEY
Published: September 6, 2010


TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

To make his point, Mr. May went by Starbucks, the gathering spot of the Mill Rats, as the frequenters of Mill Avenue are known.

more at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/us/politics/07candidates.html?_r=1&hp

[NYC_SKP]

4. Jan Brewer had better not debate any of these candidates.

Any one of 'em would take her down...

:hi:

[PBS Poll-435]

5. Especially the tarot card reader chillin' outside the Starbucks

:P



:hi:

[tblue37]

6. Republicans will do anything to steal power. They are not even ashamed of it.

But the Democratic Party tiptoes around this reality, as if they are embarrassed by it.

The Dems need to go after these electoral shenanigans. Without fair elections we don't stand a chance, but for some reason our party doesn't even want to know about such things.

[NobodyHere]

7. Sounds like we should...

start recruiting "Tea Party" candidates for the fall races. I nominate Basil Marceaux Jr. for the Tea Party ticket in Tennessee!


On another note, don't these candidates need permission from the Green Party to run under the Green Party name?

[SoCalDem]

8. They have also recruited people with the same last name

of dems running..

I remember (I think it was on '02), we discussed it here.. They did this in more than a couple of places.

[tk2kewl]

9. sorry to say they probably give more of shit than any of the "real" candidates

[tblue37]

10. I posted this and went to bed around 2:00 a.m.

without realizing that it ended up on the greatest page. I am just now seeing that!