Wisconsin Green Party
www.wisconsingreenparty.org
Contact:
Bussiere for State Senate
Jill Bussiere 920 388-0529, cell 920 255-2175 jdt@itol.com
www.votejill.org (website
will be available in a few days)
May 14, 2006
The well-being of the community depends upon election reform
Last week Jill Bussiere, former Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, filed
papers to register her campaign for the Wisconsin Senate District 1 seat.
"One of the reasons that I was drawn to live in Wisconsin was its focus on
the public good - the good of the community," said Bussiere, who first moved
to Wisconsin 19 years ago. "That has been replaced by a focus on monied
interests at the expense of the public good."
"Democracy is all about choices - and yet we know that the election system
nationally and in Wisconsin is stacked against choices," said Bussiere.
"The current system favors incumbents, monied interests, and the established
two-party system."
The Republican incumbent has represented District 1 for more than 30 years.
The most recent bill to reform one of the inadequacies of the election
system, SB1, was authored by Senator Mike Ellis (R). The bill would have
combined the partisan Elections Board with the current ineffective Ethics
board, creating a nonpartisan body, the Government Accountability Board,
whose purpose would be to insure that Wisconsin's election and campaign
laws are followed, and would have made it less likely for future election
scandals such as Wisconsin has suffered to occur.
The Wisconsin Senate passed SB1, 28 to 5. However, Senator Lasee voted
against it.
Assembly Republican leaders recently refused to allow the bill to come up
for a vote, in spite of popular pressure.
"The need to clean up our Wisconsin election system is a large motivation
behind my candidacy, and is a top priority for the Green Party," said
Bussiere. "No matter what issue you are concerned about, it will not be
adequately addressed until ou Wisconsin government is cleaned up."
"Health care, the issue that people are most concerned about, is barely
being addressed by our current legislators. We have some real environmental
and economic challenges ahead of us in Wisconsin, and there are opportunities that open up
as we address these challenges. Yet the incumbent's persistent focus has been to bring the death penalty to
Wisconsin."
"My focus is, and will continue to be, to work towards the well-being of the
entire Wisconsin community."
For more information, visit www.votejill.org
(website will be up in a few days)
