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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Tue Apr 27, 2010 at 17:40:09 PM EDT
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| This exciting array of candidates means the GRP will be taking it to the next level this year. 2010 is the year of the Green-Rainbow Party!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 27, 2010
CONTACT: Daryl Sprague, 617-459-0784
GREEN-RAINBOW CANDIDATES TO CHALLENGE INCUMBENTS IN 2010: FIELD REPORTS SAY VOTERS ARE READY FOR CHANGE
Voters are in the mood for change, according to the Green-Rainbow Party candidates nominated at the weekend meeting of the Party's State Committee in Northampton. Nominated were: health and environmental advocate Jill Stein for Governor, Holyoke veterans' activist Rick Purcell for Lieutenant Governor, Nat Fortune, a physicist at Smith College, for State Auditor. Scott Laugenour was nominated as a candidate for state representative in the 4th Berkshire District. The Party also endorsed independent candidate Peter White who is running for Congress in the 10th Congressional District (being vacated by Rep. William Delahunt). |
| eli_beckerman :: GRP Nominates Slate of Candidates; Challenge to Incumbents is On |
| Mark Miller, a former journalist and newspaper co-owner in Pittsfield, told committee members he has just launched a campaign for the House seat in the Third Berkshire District, and expects to apply for the GRP nomination in July.
Purcell told the gathering that recently he has spent a lot of time on the streets in Holyoke collecting signatures and has received a clear message from voters: "They've had enough of Deval Patrick. They don't trust any of the guys from Beacon Hill. They ask me if I'm a Democrat or Republican, and when I tell them 'neither' they're delighted to sign my petition."
Fortune told the group that the job of the auditor is "to make sure the taxpayer's money is being spent effectively." He asserted that over the past few years a lot of politically-motivated spending has resulted in programs that aren't giving the promised return on the investment - such as economic stimulus giveaways to corporations that fail to create jobs in return.
"It makes sense to elect an auditor who isn't part of either of the big parties which created these programs," Fortune said. "An independent auditor will be able to take a critical look and separate the expenditures that are working from those that are just wasting our money."
Laugenour stated that "I'm honored to receive the Green-Rainbow Party's nomination and have already hit the streets running, connecting with a wide spectrum of voters in each of the 18 towns and cities in the 4th Berkshire District who are glad that they don't have to wait for an open seat to vote for real change."
Jill Stein announced that her gubernatorial campaign has just opened a campaign office on Dorchester Avenue in Boston, which will be a center for the growing Green-Rainbow organizing efforts in the Boston area.
Stein noted that the media has given lots of attention to media stunts of the Tea Party movement, which she characterized as sincere but largely misinformed citizens being manipulated by the Republicans.
"In the end," she said, "the real movement for change is going to be a Green Tea Party. And it is going to be independent of both Republicans and Democrats. This year the Green-Rainbow Party is helping people break through the resistance to change on Beacon Hill - and that's getting people excited." |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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