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New Mexico Legislature Considers Assault on Third Parties. |
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THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES Contacts: Greens and supporters of democracy across the U.S. express alarm and outrage at a bill that would raise the bar for official party status to 10%. WASHINGTON, DC -- Greens in New Mexico are joining with other third parties and democracy advocates in condemnation of a bill before the New Mexico legislature that would drastically raise the bar for political parties to achieve major party status. House Bill 628, introduced by Speaker of the House Ben Lujan, Democrat, would prohibit a party earning major party status through the 5% of votes cast in current law and increase the number of registered voters needed to qualify as a major party by 3000%. Currently a party must register one-third of 1%; the proposed bill would increase that by thirty times to 10% of all registered voters or 95,172 registered voters. "This is a slap in the face of tens of thousands of New Mexicans who demonstrate their interest in having more political choices by signing petitions to get candidates from small, growing parties on the ballot and then voting for these candidates on Election Day," said Lisa Houston, Co-Chair of the Green Party of New Mexico. "We expected an attack on grassroots democracy in New Mexico," said Joe Lacayo, Co-Chair of the Green Party of New Mexico. "But this is even worse than we had anticipated. The Democrat Party has half of the registered voters in New Mexico and access to millions of dollars every election and despite this they attack the Green Party and every gain we make." Richard Winger, Editor of the non-partisan Ballot Access News, has written to Rep. Lujan, "Your H.B. 628 is far too harsh. If your bill were the law in Utah, even the Democratic Party would not be a qualified major party in Utah. Similarly, the Republican Party would not be qualified in the District of Columbia. No party, other than the Democratic or Republican Parties, has held as much as 5% of the registration of any state since 1916. Your bill is a prescription for a complete Democratic-Republican monopoly, which the US Supreme Court condemned in Williams v. Rhodes, 393 US 23 (1968)." Politicians in New Mexico have a history of extreme attempts to suppress third parties. During the 1970s and 1980s, Democratic Party officials planted drugs, conducted illegal searches, fired employees illegally, and violated the First Amendment rights of New Mexicans involved in organizing La Raza Unida, a new party. "Fortunately, many of the Democrats who attacked us were caught and convicted," said Carol Miller, a New Mexico Green who served as party secretary for La Raza Unida before it disbanded in the early 1980s to work with Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. "Our State Senator was convicted of perjury in the drug planting case and had to resign from the Senate. But the state Supreme Court pardoned him so he could run and serve as Senator again." "This new bill suggests that the Democrats are in revenge mode again, and will try anything to destroy the Greens," added Miller. "But we are united as a party to overcome any barrier, to continue to give the people of New Mexico the chance to vote for peace, nonviolence, social and economic justice." MORE INFORMATION search: prty, cpr, elws |