Hundreds of people protested outside the debate at Hofstra University on Monday to demand the presidential debates be opened up to third-party candidates. At least 24 people were arrested. Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein was escorted off campus by Hofstra security and Nassau County police, despite the fact that she was invited on site by MSNBC, ABC, Fox and CBS for interviews. Democracy Now! was there at Hofstra and brings you this exclusive report.
Category Archives: News
National ballot access update: Americans in 48 states can vote for Jill Stein
From jill2016.com:
The Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka campaign has been working nationally with state Green Parties and teams of volunteers to give all voters the chance to vote for our campaign and the Green Party in 2016.
September 10 update: Petitioning in all states has ended. Americans in 48 states (including the District of Columbia) are able to cast a vote for Stein/Baraka.
We’re on the ballot in 45 states (including DC) and are qualified for write-in status in another 3 states, for a total of 48 states in which a vote for our campaign will count.
Check out the national ballot access map.
Jill Stein in Omaha: ‘We are Bernie on steroids’
From the Omaha World-Herald:
Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein sought to embrace Bernie Sanders supporters at a Nebraska campaign stop Wednesday, urging them to side with her over “lesser-evil Democrats” in November.
“We are Bernie Sanders on steroids,” she told a conference room crowd of about 250 people at Metro Community College’s Fort Omaha Campus.
In an 80-minute appearance, the second-time presidential candidate also courted environmentalists and political newcomers who opposed the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline before it was rejected last year.
“This is where you did so much to stop the Keystone pipeline,” Stein told the crowd.
Update: Jill Stein will be on Nebraska’s ballot
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A New Choice for Nebraskans: Jill Stein to appear on the state’s November ballot
August 19, 2016
Today leaders of the Nebraska Green Party received official notification from the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office: Jill Stein, the U.S. Green Party’s presidential candidate, will appear on the state’s general election ballot this November.
“Choice is good,” said Steve Larrick, the Nebraska Green Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008 and for the District 1 U.S. House seat in 2004. “With the Green presidential ticket on the ballot, Nebraskans can now vote for the greater good, not just for the lesser of two evils.”
Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, were officially nominated for the Green Party’s ticket at the national convention earlier this month in Houston, Texas. Here in Nebraska, they will be listed as nonpartisan, or “by petition,” a type of ballot access that requires 2,500 signatures from registered voters. Nebraska Greens submitted 7,656 signatures Aug. 1 requesting a ballot line for the candidates.
With the perennial hurdle of ballot access cleared, Greens in Nebraska and elsewhere are now working to reach more voters with their policy ideas, especially in the upcoming presidential debates. Access to the debates is controlled largely by the national Democratic and Republican parties, and third-party candidates are typically barred from participating.
“By being on the presidential ballot in most states,” Larrick said, “the Stein-Baraka team should rightfully be included in all presidential debates. It’s a simple matter of respect for American justice and democracy.”
Dr. Jill Stein is a practicing physician, a community organizer, mother, and environmental-health advocate. She also ran as the Green candidate in 2012, earning more votes than any previous woman candidate for president.
Ajamu Baraka is a human rights activist, organizer, and geopolitical analyst. He was the founding executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network until 2011. He has served on the boards of various national and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International (USA) and the National Center for Human Rights Education.
Voters can learn more about Dr. Stein and her running mate at www.jill2016.com.
The Nebraska Green Party organizes citizens in support of progressive causes and fights for broader access to the ballot. The party has fielded candidates in several elections since 2000, including the following partisan races:
- In 2002 Doug Paterson for U.S. House District 2
- In 2004 Steve Larrick for U.S. House District 1
- In 2004 Dante Salvatierra for U.S. House District 2
- In 2004 Roy Guisinger for U.S. House District 3
- In 2006 Doug Paterson for Secretary of State
- In 2008 Steve Larrick for U.S. Senate
Dr. Jill Stein, the U.S. Green Party, and the Nebraska Green Party are committed to 10 Key Values, centered on grassroots democracy, local decision-making, equality, environmental wisdom, and social justice. Voters can read more about the Nebraska Green Party and its values at www.nebraskagreens.org.
Nebraska Green Party Contact Information:
- Mark Zimmermann, Treasurer, markalanzimmermann at gmail.com
- Steve Larrick, former candidate for U.S. Senate and House, slarrick1 at msn.com
Read the press release from the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office.
Open Up the Debates
From Democracy Now!:
While polls show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are among the least popular major-party candidates to ever run for the White House, it appears no third-party candidates will be invited to take part in the first presidential debate next month. The debates are organized by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. Under the commission’s rules, candidates will only be invited if they are polling at 15 percent in five national surveys. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein have both witnessed recent surges in support, but neither have crossed the 15 percent threshold. More than 12,000 people have signed a petition organized by RootsAction calling for a four-way presidential debate. We speak to Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein. Four years ago she was arrested outside a presidential debate protesting her exclusion from the event.
Retain Campaign: Death penalty costs Nebraskans millions
From the Lincoln Journal Star:
Nebraskans would save $14.6 million a year by replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment, according to an economic study prepared for opponents of a referendum to restore capital punishment in the state.
The study written by Creighton University economist Ernie Goss was released Monday at a news conference in Lincoln.
The results, Goss said, surprised him and have caused him to reconsider his own personal position on the issue, prompting him to “lean toward voting to retain” the pending law to repeal the death penalty.
A referendum vote on the issue is scheduled for the November general election.
The results of the study by Goss and Associates Economic Solutions will be the focus of a new TV ad campaign to be launched later this month by Retain a Just Nebraska, the organization formed to oppose the referendum to restore the death penalty in the state.
The Legislature abolished the death penalty in 2015, overriding a veto by Gov. Pete Ricketts, but implementation of the new law was halted by a successful petition drive to submit the issue to the voters.
Ballot access update: 7,600+ signatures submitted
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thousands of signatures submitted for placing Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein on Nebraska’s ballot
Lincoln, Nebraska – August 3, 2016
As the U.S. Green Party gathers in Houston, Texas, for its presidential nominating convention, the Nebraska Green Party took a major step toward placing presumptive nominee Dr. Jill Stein on Nebraska’s ballot this November.
On Aug. 1, Nebraska Greens submitted 7,656 signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office seeking ballot access for Dr. Stein. The petition seeks to place her on the Nebraska ballot as a nonpartisan candidate, a measure requiring 2,500 signatures.
“We are excited that Nebraska voters may soon have another choice – a progressive choice – for president this November,” said Mark Zimmermann, Treasurer of the Nebraska Green Party. “We encourage people who had hoped to vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders to consider Dr. Jill Stein. Her proposals and Bernie’s have a lot in common.”
The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office will now review the signatures to verify that signers are registered to vote in Nebraska and that they signed forms for their county of residence. The process is expected to take until Aug. 10. While it’s common for a significant number of signatures to be invalidated, Green Party organizers are confident that they have collected far more than necessary to qualify Stein for the fall ballot. Aug. 1 was the filing deadline for the petition.
Dr. Jill Stein is a practicing physician, a community organizer, mother, and environmental-health advocate. She is currently the U.S. Green Party’s presumptive nominee; her official nomination is anticipated at the party’s national convention, which begins this Thursday, Aug. 4, in Houston, Texas. Dr. Stein also ran as the Green candidate in 2012, earning more votes than any previous woman candidate for president.
Voters can learn more about Dr. Stein and her presidential campaign at www.jill2016.com.
The Nebraska Green Party organizes citizens in support of progressive causes and fights for broader access to the ballot. The party has fielded candidates in several elections, including in 2004 Steve Larrick (U.S. House District 1), Dante Salvatierra (District 2), and Roy Guisinger (District 3), in 2006 Doug Paterson for Secretary of State, and in 2008 Larrick for U.S. Senate.
Dr. Jill Stein, the U.S. Green Party, and the Nebraska Green Party are committed to 10 Key Values, centered on grassroots democracy, local decision-making, equality, environmental wisdom, and social justice. Voters can read more about the Nebraska Green Party and its values at www.nebraskagreens.org.
Nebraska Green Party Contact Information:
- Mark Zimmermann, markalanzimmermann at gmail.com
- Steve Larrick slarrick1 at msn.com
A Better Choice for President
From longtime Nebraska Greens member Mj Berry, writing in the Lincoln Journal Star:
Thank you Andrew Whitney, for the July 20 letter, “American ‘Sophie’s Choice'” pointing out that, like Sophie, “America has been given a terrible choice” in the 2016 presidential election. The corporate political parties have offered up “a lying deceptive manipulator” and “a potential tyrant.” He says “We need a better choice.”
Dr. Jill Stein is that better choice. From the Jill2016.com website, “It’s time to build a people’s movement to end unemployment and poverty; avert climate catastrophe; build a sustainable, just economy; and recognize the dignity and human rights of every person. The power to create this new world is not in our hopes; it’s not in our dreams — it’s in our hands.” Dr. Stein’s Green New Deal addresses how to create this better world.
The old politics of fear has dominated our broken system long enough. The new way forward is the politics of courage. It puts “people, planet and peace over profit.” The Green Party takes no corporate money. Dr. Stein’s campaign is people-powered. The Green Party is no longer the alternative, it is now the imperative.
Nebraska Green Party is gathering signatures on petitions for a Jill Stein ballot line, which will offer a choice of voting for the next president instead of against either of two “terrible” choices. The deadline for submitting petitions is August 1. As professor Cornel West said in a July 18 Democracy Now! interview, “The next step is a Green step.” The interview concluded with Professor West saying, “love is at the center of how we proceed.”
Death penalty incompatible with faith, humanity
From the Lincoln Journal Star:
The death penalty has survived not in spite of Christians, but because of them, according to Shane Claiborne, social activist, author and pioneer in the New Monasticism Movement.
For a long time, Claiborne believed that scripture supported the death penalty: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… But his gut told him something else. He believed it was not as simple as good versus evil, right versus wrong and life versus death.
“I went back to study Scripture, and I saw how complex it is,” Claiborne said during a recent visit from Philadelphia to Lincoln and Omaha, as part of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Retain a Just Nebraska — both efforts to retain a state law abolishing the death penalty.
More than 200 people attended Claiborne’s June 7 presentations, which coincided with the release of his newest book, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us. The book examines the death penalty from all angles: religious, moral, just and practical. Many Nebraska stories are included in the 300-page book.
Claiborne’s appearance was the first in a series of guests invited to Nebraska over the coming months to help convince voters to uphold LB268 which calls for abolishing capital punishment in the state, said Dan Parsons, spokesman for Retain a Just Nebraska.
Read the full story from the Lincoln Journal Star.
Retain a Just Nebraska has two upcoming open-house events for faith leaders to discuss the death penalty:
- In Lincoln June 14 from 6 to 8 p.m.: FUSE Co-Working Space, 151 N. Eighth St. (fifth floor).
- In Omaha June 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Retain a Just Nebraska headquarters, 440 Regency Parkway Suite 234.
Learn more at Retain a Just Nebraska and Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Jill Stein: The Two-Party System Is Broken
Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein explains how the United States political system is broken, and a third party is the solution: