Green Candidates Shut Out of Local Campaign Events

Tuesday September 25, 2007

Green Candidates Shut Out of Local Campaign Events
Local organizations given misinformation by Voter Registration, County Clerk’s Offices

Four Green Party candidates for local offices have yet to receive invitations to participate in this Thursday’s “Meet the Candidates” event co-sponsored by the local League of Women Voters and Real Estate Investors Association.

The Green candidates first heard of the event through advertisements that include the statement that “All candidates for mayor and at-large city and district council seats from both South Bend and Mishawaka have been invited to attend.” Unfortunately, this is not the case. As of Monday September 24, none of the Green candidates have received invitations to attend.

This is perhaps most disturbing for Green candidate Kathleen Petitjean whose name will appear on the ballot in a two person race for the 1st District Common Council.

“We were told by Nikki Hutchinson, president of the League of Women Voters that when she asked for a list of candidates from the county clerk’s office, the Greens, including myself, were not included,” Petitjean said. “We got a similar story from IUSB professor Elizabeth Bennion, only this time it was the Voter Registration office that didn’t include the Greens.”

Bennion was the moderator for a Mayoral Forum held this past spring at IUSB that included incumbent Mayor Steve Luecke, then Republican candidate Terry Miller, and eventual Republican nominee Juan Manigault. She is also working to put on a similar forum later on this fall.

Petitjean added that both Hutchinson and Bennion expressed regret at the omission and Hutchinson said she this past Thursday that she was mailing the Greens their invitations. However, due to the lack of notice two of the Greens’ candidates, South Bend Mayoral Candidate Tom Brown and Dave Vollrath, a candidate for At-Large Mishawaka Common Council, were not able to avoid previous scheduling commitments and will not be able to attend this Thursday’s event.

“I don’t think it’s fair to hold these organizations responsible for acting on what they thought was complete information, ” said Petitjean. “At the same time, the clerks at Voter Registration and the County Clerk’s office can’t have much experience with independent and third party participation in elections.”

Petitjean stated she believes these are institutional problems that run deeper and wider than just St. Joseph County and are related to a general lack of alternatives to the two-party system across Indiana and around the country. She pointed out that there are no independents and only a single Libertarian candidate in addition to the four Greens- running in all of St. Joseph County’s municipal races.

“We’re not suggesting there’s any sort of conspiracy here,” said Petitjean. “But the fact remains that misinformation has been given out that is hurtful to our campaigns.”

Tom Brown, the Green mayoral candidate for South Bend, will be included in the Young Professionals Network sponsored mayoral debate to be held October 3. This is the first time Brown has been included in any of this election season’s mayoral forums.

“The voters should have the chance to have all of the candidates made available to them,” said Brown. “We all deserve the opportunity to become as informed as possible to make our decisions on Election Day.”

“We anticipated an uphill battle to convince the voters that we’re a legitimate alternative to the two major parties,” Petitjean said. “But we never expected to have to overcome sponsoring organizations being told that we aren’t candidates.”