[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Green Party in New Mexico Goes From Gadfly to Player

[Al Kagan]

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>Delivered-To: SF-TALK at listproc.prairienet.org
>Delivered-To: SF-TALK at prairienet.org
>From: "Jeff Boy" <jboy at nycap.rr.com>
>To: "SF Talk" <SF-TALK at prairienet.org>, <ORFG at yahoogroups.com>,
>	"Schdy Greens" <Schdy_Grn at yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: Green Party in New Mexico Goes From Gadfly to Player
>Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 19:05:30 -0400
>X-Priority: 3
>Sender: owner-sf-talk at prairienet.org
>Status:  
>
>It could happen here
>Jeff
>
>Published on Sunday, July 21, 2002 in the 
><http://www.nytimes.com/>New York Times
>Green Party in New Mexico Goes From Gadfly to Player
>by Michael Janofsky
>
>
>ALBUQUERQUE, July 19 — A third political party seldom rises to a 
>level much beyond annoyance to Republicans and Democrats.
>
>That is clearly not the case in New Mexico, where the Green Party 
>has achieved so much power that its leaders say both major parties 
>this year have tried to exploit it for their electoral advantage.
>
>One offer, they said, came from Republicans this month, a promise of 
>at least $100,000 if the Greens fielded candidates in two House 
>races as a way to hurt Democratic chances. The other, they said, 
>came from Democrats in January, a suggestion of helping the Greens 
>maintain major-party status if the Greens did not field a candidate 
>for governor.
>
>Green leaders here say neither offer came to anything but political 
>theater that has since devolved into a fight between Republicans and 
>Democrats, with Greens trying to stay above it all, citing the 
>incidents as affirmation of their growing importance.
>
>"We're players in New Mexico politics," said Eric Wilson, the Green 
>state co-chairman, a bread maker by trade who said he was surprised 
>that Republicans and Democrats have acted so boldly. "We now have 
>leverage, and that becomes dangerous ground for us, considering all 
>the dust that has been stirred up."
>
>National Green leaders say they have never seen anything quite like 
>it, the offers in New Mexico going well beyond pleas of Democratic 
>leaders in 2000 for Ralph Nader, the Green presidential candidate, 
>to withdraw or to support Al Gore in swing states. Mr. Nader hung 
>in, and had one of his best showings in New Mexico, winning 4 
>percent of the vote.
>
>"To a certain degree, it's an insult," said Dean Myerson, political 
>coordinator for the national Green Party, who could recall only one 
>other case involving money: a Washington State Republican offering 
>to pay the $100 application fee for a Green Party candidate in a 
>state election two years ago as a way to dilute the strength of a 
>Democrat.
>
>"But bottom line," Mr. Myerson added, "people now see us as a threat 
>and power broker."
>
>The latest episode in New Mexico, the Republican proffer, has roiled 
>state politics for weeks — all because the Greens found no viable 
>candidates for races in the First and Second Congressional 
>districts, which both major parties consider highly competitive and 
>crucial for winning a House majority.
>
>Fearful that Democrats might be strong enough to win the seats, now 
>held by Republicans, the Republican state party chairman, John 
>Dendahl, approached the Green leadership early this month, offering, 
>Mr. Dendahl said, "at least $100,000" from an unnamed source in 
>Washington to run Greens in the two races. The Greens say the offer 
>was $250,000.
>
>Representative Heather A. Wilson of Albuquerque is seeking a third 
>term in the First District after winning in 1998 with 48 percent of 
>the vote and in 2000 with 50 percent. In 1998, the Democratic and 
>Green candidates combined for 52 percent of the vote; in 2000, for 
>49 percent.
>
>In the Second District, Representative Joe Skeen of Roswell is 
>retiring after serving 11 terms.
>
>Mr. Dendahl's offer was based on the simple premise that Greens, who 
>tend to be liberals, siphon off many more Democratic votes than 
>Republican, and as he said in an interview, the benefactor "was not 
>interested in New Mexico politics, only helping Republicans keep 
>control of the House." He declined to say where the money came from, 
>other than to say the source had no direct ties to the national 
>Republican Party.
>
>Mr. Wilson, who is not related to the congresswoman, said Mr. 
>Dendahl led the Greens to believe that the offer stood even if the 
>Greens found a candidate for just one of the seats.
>
>While the New Mexico Greens refused Mr. Dendahl's offer, it set off 
>a firestorm of protest, primarily by leading state Democrats but 
>also by Republicans. Mr. Dendahl said John Sanchez, the Republican 
>candidate for governor, told him he was "disappointed" that he made 
>an offer. Senator Pete V. Domenici told him "it was a bad idea."
>
>But they were tame responses compared with those by Democrats. Jamie 
>Koch, the state party chairman, among other Democrats, has called on 
>Mr. Dendahl to resign. Mr. Koch has also called on leading 
>Republicans, including Mr. Domenici, to insist that Mr. Dendahl 
>resign. So far, none have.
>
>In addition, Mr. Koch suggested on Wednesday that Mr. Dendahl might 
>have violated state election laws by making such an offer. Just to 
>make sure it does not happen again, leading Democratic state 
>lawmakers have promised to draft legislation that would make 
>financial offers from one party to another illegal, Mr. Koch said.
>
>"I'm not going to let this one go," said Mr. Koch, who described 
>himself as a lifelong friend of Mr. Dendahl.
>
>"Yeah, he's an old friend who's now out to destroy me," said Mr. 
>Dendahl, who denied he did anything wrong and vowed not to resign.
>
>Nonetheless, on Monday, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, the secretary of state, 
>asked Patricia Madrid, the state attorney general, to determine 
>whether the offer by Mr. Dendahl was illegal. Mr. Dendahl attacked 
>the request as politically motivated in that both Ms. Vigil-Giron 
>and Ms. Madrid are Democrats.
>
>Mr. Dendahl said the offer would never have been made "if Democrats 
>had not changed the rules" of elective engagement. He cited two 
>examples.
>
>One, he said, was Gov. Gray Davis of California, a Democrat running 
>this year for re-election who mounted an advertising campaign during 
>the Republican primary against Richard Riordan, the former Los 
>Angeles mayor who was seeking to become the Republican nominee. Mr. 
>Riordan was upset in the primary by Bill Simon, a conservative 
>viewed by many California Democrats as an easier opponent for Mr. 
>Davis.
>
>The other incident, Mr. Dendahl said, was a series of attack ads 
>against Mr. Sanchez before the Republican primary for governor in 
>June, paid for by a New Mexico labor union that is supporting the 
>Democratic nominee, Bill Richardson, the former energy secretary.
>
>"Two years ago," Mr. Dendahl said of his offer to the Greens, "I 
>wouldn't have had those conversations."
>
>To Green leaders, state Democrats would have had cleaner hands were 
>it not for what Mr. Wilson said was an offer by Democratic Party 
>leaders and Mr. Richardson early in the year to help the Greens 
>attain permanent major party status in the state if Mr. Richardson 
>won in November — in exchange for a promise that no Green would run 
>in the governor's race.
>
>Just how that would work was uncertain, Mr. Wilson said. "But there 
>was absolutely never any doubt in my mind that they were going to 
>help us if we got out of the governor's race," he said.
>
>Mr. Koch, who attended the January meeting with the Greens, as well 
>as Mr. Richardson, denied that any such offer was made, saying the 
>request for help came from the Greens and that the party offered not 
>to run a candidate. In any case, David Bacon, the Green candidate 
>for governor, has remained in the race.
>
>"It's a preposterous misrepresentation of the facts," said Billy 
>Sparks, a campaign spokesman for Mr. Richardson. "There was never 
>any quid pro quo. I can't in a thousand years put the two in the 
>same category."
>
>Lest anyone think the Greens are beyond reproach, said Mr. Dendahl, 
>now weary of the whole ordeal, it took their leaders almost a month 
>to inform him they would not take the offer, an assertion Mr. Wilson 
>confirmed.
>
>"They were thinking about it," Mr. Dendahl said with a chuckle. 
>"They were giving it serious consideration."
>
>Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20020721/3727f74a/attachment.html