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MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release:
Wednesday, September 4, 2002
AG
Candidate Responds to Common Cause Survey of Elected Officials
Houghton supports
initiatives for free air time, campaign finance reform, establishment of a
non-partisan redistricting commission, enforcement of the Freedom of
Information Act, and House/Senate rule reform at press conference
Contact:
Wilmington: At a press
conference held today, J. Roy Cannon, representing Vivian Houghton, Green
Party candidate for Delaware Attorney General, presented the
candidate's response to the recently completed survey conducted by Common
Cause of Delaware. The following are remarks made on her behalf:
"Of course the Houghton
campaign is for campaign finance reforms."
"When big money is
allowed to buy political influence as it does now through campaign
contributions, it in effect buys the political system, robbing our
citizens' of their voice, and uses the system for its own ends. Those
ends are to control our leaders so that they serve corporate interests
rather than the peoples' interests."
"Look at MBNA. MBNA's
financial contributions have squashed any opposition from Senators Bidden
and Carper or Congressman Castle as MBNA pushes for bankruptcy law changes
that will help the rich and hurt the poor."
"Or look at the
situation of African-Americans and Hispanics. The fact that, as a group,
they are politically under-represented and earn about _ the per capita
income of whites means that they have less political influence than do
predominantly white corporate contributors. This means that in
Delaware, where 9.4 blacks are imprisoned for every white, little effort
is made to change the criminal justice system's racial biases. Those
who have the money pay the piper and minorities suffer."
"Another example is
companies that pollute. Here in Delaware such companies - - Rodel,
Motiva, Metachem and so on - - get off with relatively mild fines when
they break our environmental regulations contributing to our state's
health problems. Yet if the average person were to commit a felony
by poisoning people, that person would be sent to jail. Big
companies, which make big financial contributions to our current leaders,
can get away with murder because, in effect, they've paid for protection."
"The Houghton campaign
does not accept contributions from corporations. We support
initiatives like Senate Bill #148 to remove the heavy hand of corporate
donations from our democracy."
"Yes, we believe in
financial reform. It's insane not to. This is suppose to be a
democracy for the people, not against the people."
The chairperson for the Green
Party of Delaware Coordinating Council, Vince Sottilie (sottilevj@worldnet.att.net
) was present along with representatives from the Delaware Chapter of
NAACP, delawarehispanic.com, members of Common Cause, and other interested
citizens. John Flaherty (JDF0000@aol.com
) of Common Cause presented the results of the survey sent to all Delaware
legislators.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Committee to Elect Vivian
Houghton Attorney General
800 West Street
Wilmington, Delaware 19801
(302)239-2572
agcandidate@vivianhoughtonl.com
http://vivianhoughton.com/vivian
Green Party of Delaware
P. O. Box 6044
Wilmington, Delaware 19804
greenpartyde@yahoo.com
http://www.gpde.org
Green Party of the United
States
1314 18th Street, Lower Level
Washington, D.C. 20036
info@greenpartyus.org
866-41GREEN (toll free)
http://greenpartyus.org
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