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State News Release - March 23, 2002 |
Home | Press | State Press |
| Texas Green Party Green Party Candidates for Congress, State House, County Judge Vow Campaigns Without Corporate Cash. |
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CONTACT: David Cobb, secretary, Green Party of
Texas: 713-880-3219 Steve Agan, co-chair, Green Party of Texas:
713-392-2159 www.txgreens.org In district conventions in the Houston area, Green Party members selected physicist George Reiter and engineer Joel West as congressional candidates in districts 25 and 22. Michael J. Bolzenius, a 22-year-old activist, won approval as the party's nominee for the Texas House in District 132. Deborah Shafto, an early-childhood teacher, was chosen to run for Harris County judge at the Green Party's county convention a week earlier. All candidates pledged to refuse corporate campaign contributions. The Green Party supports publicly funded campaigns to limit the corrupting political influence of corporate and private wealth. The party's candidates share a platform (see www.gp.org) based on the principles of social justice, ecology, grass-roots democracy and nonviolence, calling for universal health care, a living wage, trade agreements that protect workers' rights and the environment, criminal-justice reform, reproductive rights and an end to discrimination based on gender, race or sexual orientation. More than 100 Greens hold elective office around the country. The Green Party of Texas will nominate candidates for U.S. Senate, governor and other statewide offices at its June 8-9 convention in San Marcos. Around the state, 44 Greens are expected to seek public office in November. (For a list of candidates, see www.hcgp.org.) Candidates nominated in the Houston area: George Reiter, 61, a resident of District 25 for 21 years and a grandfather of five, is an internationally known scientist and former president of the UH Faculty Senate. An opponent of militarism since the 1960s, he favors an "end to control of our foreign and domestic policy by the Enrons of the world," an end to the drug war and discrimination in the criminal-justice system, and creation of an efficient public health-care system in which all are covered. "I have come to the conclusion that our present society has reached the limits of what can be accomplished by privileging greed, encouraging competition and engendering fear, and I am working to create a society based on the desire to be of service, the encouragement of cooperation and the expression of love," Reiter said. "I see my candidacy as an opportunity to enter into a dialogue with the people of District 25 about how to achieve that sort of society." Contact: 713-641-2815 Joel West, 43, active in the Green Party since 1994 and a District 22 resident most of his life, is an instrument/electrical engineer working on industrial plant design. His aim, West said, is to replace Republican incumbent Tom DeLay with a representative who is sensitive to environmental issues, does not rubberstamp legislation submitted by corporate campaign contributors and firmly believes in the separation of church and state. West supports closing the military's infamous School of the Americas, protecting civil liberties, labeling foods containing genetically modified organisms, observing self-imposed three-term limits, and ending the embargo against Cuba. He opposes vouchers for parochial schools, funding for "Star Wars" missile defense and drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Contact: 281-624-7878 or Michael J. Bolzenius, who has attended the University of Houston and Houston Community College since his 1997 graduation from Langham Creek High School, cited among his top priorities equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and an end to the death penalty, which he characterized as racist and "anti-poor." Restoring a functioning democracy is the cornerstone of meaningful change, Bolzenius said. "When candidates and government officials sell off citizens' votes to campaign contributors, then we're no longer living in a democracy," he said. "In the name of democracy and in the name of freedom, it is my intention to end corporate control of government in Texas." Contact: 832-969-4938 or bolzenius@hotmail.com Deborah Shafto, 63, an early-childhood teacher at
Davila Elementary School in Houston and a grandmother of five, has been
a political activist for many years, most recently on behalf of Pacifica
radio station KPFT (90.1 FM). She serves as chair of the
listener-sponsored station's local advisory board. "I am running
for county judge because I would like to see the office used with
integrity to actually serve the people of the county," Shafto said.
"I would like to dissolve the system of patronage and personal gain
that we have reluctantly come to expect from those we have honored with
our votes." Contact: 713-641-2815 |
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State News Release - March 23, 2002 |
Home | Press | State Press |
