[Peace-discuss] AP: Ariz. Green Party sues to block 'sham candidates'

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBEo0fBW76jtgIopcT2N32cnT5jwD9I3F7I80

Ariz. Green Party sues to block 'sham candidates'

By JONATHAN J. COOPER (AP) – 1 day ago

TEMPE, Ariz. — The Arizona Green Party is asking a judge to kick more
than half of the group's nominees off the November ballot.

The unusual request, filed in federal court Monday, follows the
nomination of 11 candidates allegedly recruited by Republican
operatives to siphon votes from Democratic candidates.

Unless the judge intervenes, Arizona voters will be able to vote for a
tarot card reader to be state treasurer or a street performer to
regulate utilities.

It's all thanks to a little-known provision in state law that allows
Green Party candidates to get the party's nomination with just one
write-in vote. They don't even have to collect petition signatures.

The candidates say they're serious about changing government and
energized to make their voices heard. Democrats claim they're being
used as a dirty trick.

In legal filings that sought a swift hearing, the Green Party has
labeled the group "sham candidates" and are asking a federal judge to
oust them from the November ballot and strike down the obscure law
that put them there with so little effort. Democrats have called for a
criminal investigation.

"We in the Arizona Green Party want our team to play by the same rules
as other teams, and not have somebody in the stands deciding to be a
player on our team," party co-chair Claudia Ellquist said in a
statement Tuesday.

Democrats and Greens say the 11 disputed candidates don't represent
the Green Party and are being used as pawns.
"They're playing games with the voters," said Jennifer Johnson, an
Arizona Democratic Party spokeswoman.

Democrats say Green Party candidates attract left-leaning voters,
making it tougher for Democrats to get elected.

Steve May, a former Republican state lawmaker running for the Arizona
House, acknowledges he helped some of the disputed candidates get on
the ballot. He insists he's just trying to help them get their voices
heard.

May, 38, lives and frequently hangs out near downtown Tempe's Mill
Avenue — a commercial corridor near Arizona State University with an
odd mix of chain restaurants, local bars and bohemian culture. His
recruits are drifters who also like to hang out on Mill.

The shunned nominees don't like being labeled sham candidates. They
insist they're real people with tangible concerns and a legitimate
desire to help shape public policy.

"I don't care who I take votes from," said Anthony Goshorn, a
53-year-old state Senate candidate who pilots a pedicab and drives a
taxi for a living. "I didn't do this to hurt a particular political
party. I did this to help people."

Goshorn, a white-bearded veteran of Mill Avenue, is known as "Grandpa"
to the younger drifters he mentors. He said he's frustrated that
reporters always want to talk about the political party dispute or the
fact that he's homeless.

He just wants to talk about the struggling economy and his desire for
lower taxes.

State treasurer candidate Thomas Meadows, a 27-year-old who reads
tarot cards on Mill Avenue and investigates sightings of ghosts and
UFOs, said he isn't sure why his own party is so upset about his
decision to run.

"I'm not sure why they're so dead set against me," he said. "Probably
because they didn't think of it."

Admitting he has "a snowball's chance in Phoenix" of winning, Meadows
said he hopes his candidacy inspires other political upstarts to run
for office and helps the Greens become a stronger alternative to the
Republicans and Democrats.

The dispute was first reported by The Arizona Republic.

___


-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

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