The League of Women Voters is holding its state convention May 1-2, at Bowdoin College, Brunswick. The speaker for May 2, at 1 p.m. through 2:30 p.m., is Theresa Amato, Ralph Nader’s campaign manager in 2000 and 2004. Because Amato is about to publish a book about Nader’s 2004 campaign, focusing on the historically unprecedented attempts by the Democratic Party to prevent voters from voting for Nader, it is virtually certain that Amato’s talk will focus on ballot access. The book, to be published soon by The New Press, is titled, “Grand Illusion: the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny.”
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Wow. The Democratic Party acting anti-democratic back in 2004? This shows that the party doesn’t have a definition.
You might say we have a one-party state with Republican and Democratic factions.
That too.
In 2004, Michael Madigan and the Illinois Democrats (including Barack Obama who voted for the bill) bent over backwards to allow President Bush and the RNC on the ballot after they ignored Illinois election law on deadlines, while at the same time bending over backwards in a successful effort to kick Ralph Nader off the ballot. Actions speak louder than words. Who was the bigger “enemy” according to Barack Obama and his Illinois Democrat’s actions, Bush or Nader?
I will buy this book. Twice or more if its good. Too bad the courts and Democrat/Republican Election Commission can’t connect the obvious dots.
ILLinois,
Do you know of any online articles or other resources on the subject of Nader’s 2004 ballot access fight in your state? Theresa Amato’s book is likely to mention some, but I’d like to look them up now, particulary re: Obama’s position.
It’s not that Obama was hostile to Nader. Obama and virtually all other Illinois legislators voted for a 2003 bill to ease the deadline for qualified parties to notify the state of who their presidential and vice-presidential candidates are. The Republican national convention was so late in 2004, that if the bill hadn’t passed, the Republican Party would have missed the deadline.
This long-embargoed book is must reading those those who believe in independent voices in political campaigns. Single payer health care is a great example.
Theresa Amato rocks!
Can ANY third party / independent candidates (or even their genius staffers and lawyers) detect that —
SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954 — regardless of ALL of the MORON lawyers and their MORON losing ballot access cases since 1968 ???
—
P.R. legislative
Approval Voting [A.V.]- executive / judicial
I saw an advance copy of this book. I don’t think anyone (except maybe the editor of this newsletter) can appreciate the unconstitutional burdens on ballot access that so many states impose, nor the multifarious ways in which partisan officials and courts apply discriminatory ballot access laws to exclude qualified candidates, until you live through it like Theresa Amato did in 2004. What is being done to reduce voter choice in this country is unbelievable. Buy this book.
It won’t be available until June 2009.