The Green Party of NY State has officially nominated Ian Murphy as its candidate for May 24 special Congressional election in the 26th District. The Green Party said it wanted to provide an alternative to the anti-worker, pro-war, pro-corporate, anti-environmental agenda of the Democrats and Republicans.
“Ian Murphy has been portrayed by the media as the nation’s most famous prank caller, but his call to Gov. Walker was done to point out how entwined the Democrats and Republicans are with the corporate elite,” said state party co-chair Peter LaVenia. Murphy is the editor of the Beast, a satirical website based in Buffalo.
Murphy, the Buffalo Beast journalist, made national headlines by posing as right-wing billionaire David Koch and prank-calling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during the middle of the recent effort to eliminate collective bargaining rights of public workers. Posing as Koch, Murphy discussed tactics with Walker about how to trick Democrats in returning to the state. Walker, a leader in the bipartisan nationwide assault on public workers, is one of many politicians such as Governor Cuomo who is financed by Koch, a major funder of the Tea Party movement. (Video follows.)
http://www.web.gpnys.com/It occurs to me that we aren't supposed to support other parties here, but I thought people'd like to know about this.
Edit to add:
Democrats Select Kathleen Hochul to Run for Congress
The Republican Party candidate is Jane Corwin, a NYS Assemblywoman. She has also received the nod from the Conservative Party and the Independence Party. The Independents are the remnants of the third party run for President by Ross Perot in 1992 and Paychex owner Tom Golisano's third party run for governor in 2002.
The Democratic county chairs from the district selected Erie County Clerk Kathleen Hochul as their candidate over this past weekend. Hochul has strong Washington ties, as a former staffer for Senator Patrick Moynihan and Congressman John LaFalce. She also practiced law in the District.
Adding to the mix are two potential independent candidates, Jack Davis and David Bellavia. Davis is a millionaire industrialist who has self-funded several election campaigns as both a Democrat and Republican. Bellavia is a decorated Iraqi war vet running to the right of Corwin, If they can each gather enough signatures, they will be on the ballot on May 24.
The 26th Congressional District has twice as many Republicans as Democrats. It gave Republican Chris Lee over 70 percent of the vote in the 2010 election.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110321/tr_ac/8110334_democrats_select_kathleen_hochul_to_run_for_congress_1Kathleen Hochul's campaign web site:
http://www.kathyhochul.com/BTW - here's a map of the district-
Note that it is designed to combine Republican suburbs north of Buffalo with Republican suburbs west of Rochester.
Here's the 28th:
Can you say "
gerrymander"?