This spike points to an increasing number of Americans feeling disenfranchised by our political system.

The civil rights crises facing third parties and Independents is gaining ground in the public consciousness.

For certain, it was exciting to see several terrific new works in 2009 tackling our issues from all sides of the political spectrum, and there’s more to come this year.

We’ve told you about Theresa Amato’s masterpiece Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny, which walks through her first-hand accounts of America’s hegemonic two-party-rigged system as Ralph Nader’s campaign manager in 2000 and 2004.

James Bennett’s Not Invited to the Party: How the Demopublicans Have Rigged the System and Left Independents Out in the Cold offers us another comprehensive look at how the two major parties managed to hijack our elections and our government.

Free & Equal hosted a forum on third-party ballot access at the Cato Institute last October that featured both of these fine authors. Check the video out here.

In late 2009, Theresa Amato and James Bennett were joined by conservative author Nelson Hultberg with the release of The Conservative Revolution: Why We Must Form a Third Political Party to Win It.

Ballot Access News has this summary of Hultberg’s new work:

He advocates the creation of a new party, to be called the Conservative American Party, which would stand for: (1) the federal reserve could not increase the money supply more than 4% per year; (2) a 10% personal income tax for all brackets; (3) a “mind-your-own-business” foreign policy; (4) more aggressive enforcement of laws against illegal immigration.

A nice full-length review of the book can be found on the Americans for a Free Republic Web site, a group founded by Hultberg. The review says Hultberg solves “two fundamental errors” that tend to doom a third party’s chances of truly being competitive inside the electoral arena with the two establishment parties.

This point in the review stands out: “Those who preach that we must, at all costs, eschew third-party efforts and ‘remain within the GOP’ are captives of a myth that is contributing greatly to the stultification of America.”

I have met many disgruntled conservatives over the years who would agree with Hultberg. This is because they, like so many Americans, are captive to a system that has been so thoroughly rigged by the duopoly that all hope of change is squelched.

A book set to come out in a few days, according to Ballot Access News, explores the merits of trying to govern fairly and effectively with a two-party system.

Does the U.S. Two-Party System Still Work? is slated for release January 15 by Greenhaven Press. According again to BAN, it will be an 80-page collection of essays, which should poke more well-deserved holes in the arguments used to marginalize alternative viewpoints in our political system.

I can’t wait.

yours in liberty,

Christina Tobin
Founder, CEO
The Free & Equal Elections Foundation
www.freeandequal.org

But arguably the most head-scratching, contradictory ballot-access laws in the nation can be found in Oklahoma.

Third party candidates must gather signatures equal to 5 percent of the voter turnout in the previous election for governor or president. Independent candidates for president, meanwhile, must get 3 percent. These are the highest per capita signature thresholds in the country.

Ballot Access News publisher Richard Winger was quoted in 2009 as saying, “Oklahoma is the only state in the nation in which a party can’t place its nominees for all statewide offices on the General Election ballot with the party label unless it does a 5-percent petition. All the other states have procedures at or below 2 percent, except that Alabama is 3 percent of the last gubernatorial vote. Oklahoma is all alone in being above 3 percent.”

In her book Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two Party Tyranny, Theresa Amato says, “Oklahoma has the worst per capita requirement in the country. It requires 3 percent of the votes cast in the last presidential election, or in 2004, 37,027 signatures. Imagine trying to collect 37,000 valid signatures (or double that number for protection) in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has 2 million more cows than people.”

There’s a funny twist here though. Independent candidates for all offices in the Sooner State except for president get on the ballot just by paying a modest filing fee. Thus, Oklahoma’s small parties realized long ago that they could skip out on long hours of petitioning simply by agreeing to shed their party label at the ballot box.

So who’s really hurt by Oklahoma’s draconian ballot-access requirements? The answer is anyone running for president for a third party or as an Independent. Historically, Oklahoma has kept more big-name third party and Independent presidential candidates off the ballot than any other state — names such as Teddy Roosevelt, Strom Thurmond, Henry Wallace, and more recently, Ralph Nader.

But there’s more irony: Oklahoma is arguably the safest of the “safe states,” a historical slam dunk for the Republicans. In fact, Oklahoma was the only state in both the 2004 and 2008 elections where every county went red for the GOP.

Still, Oklahoma’s legislature has turned up its nose to several bills which would have eased these requirements. How does this make sense considering that presidential candidates don’t compete with anyone in the state legislature? Third parties, as we already indicated, enjoy a free path to the ballot with an Independent label, and few even take advantage of this fact. Half of the state’s legislative candidates were unopposed in 2006. So it’s not like Oklahoma’s ballots suddenly will be overcrowded with fringe candidates should the state’s ballot-access threshold finally line up with the rest of the country, which is closer to a 1-percent signature requirement, according to Winger.

But there is a ray of hope even for irony headquarters in America’s heartland. House Bill 1072, which would ease ballot access, passed both houses of the legislature last year with flying colors before stalling in a conference committee. The bill was tabled, meaning it can still be revisited when lawmakers reconvene Feb. 1.

Of course, both Democrat and Republican leaders have made it clear through their actions, or inaction, that they don’t really want ballot-access reform. Oklahoma’s third parties, under the umbrella name Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform, have been asking lawmakers to return the requirement to a flat 5,000 signatures, as it was from 1924 to 1974. Yet in its current form, HB 1072 offers so little change that Oklahoma will still have the nation’s highest per capita requirement even if the bill becomes law.

That’s why we must send a message to Oklahoma that its time for the duopoly to stop playing their petty, political games and give voters the power to make their own choices on Election Day. HB 1072 must offer real reform. Shortcuts so that the establishment can include ballot-access reform in their campaign rhetoric won’t be tolerated.

Getting HB 1072 this far wasn’t cheap. Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform spent more than $10,000 last year on its lobbyist, and it’s going to take at least that much this year to continue the lobbying push in the Sooner State.

We simply cannot let this bill fail to offer meaningful reform, whereby letting the duopoly get off easy. Democracy needs your help.

For democracy,

Micah Gamino
Media Director
The Free & Equal Elections Foundation
www.freeandequal.org

Source: CATO Institute

This past Tuesday, Free & Equal Founder and Chair Christina Tobin attended a forum at the CATO Institute in Washington, DC featuring two recently published books on ballot access:

Not Invited to the Party: How the Demopublicans Have Rigged the System and Left Independents Out in the Cold By James Bennett

Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny By Theresa Amato

The forum was the first event the CATO Institute has ever held on ballot access restrictions. C-SPAN taped the event for a later broadcast.

John Samples of the CATO institute mentions Christina around minute 28:45 – 29:15.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THESE BOOKS TODAY!

Not Invited to the Party demonstrates how the dominant political parties–the Democrats and Republicans–have co-opted the system to their advantage.

James Bennett examines the history and array of laws, regulations, subsidies and programs that benefit the two major parties and discourage even the possibility of a serious challenge to the Democrat-Republican duopoly.

Theresa Amato, the campaign manager for Ralph Nader’s 2000 & 2004 Presidential runs, presents a scathing indictment of the current state of ballot access in America in her new book.

Grand Illusion recounts the story of the Democratic Party’s attempt to boot Nader out of the 2004 Presidential election, and offers insight into other recent independent and third party campaigns. Amato also lays out specific reform steps that can be taken to improve the state of ballot access in this country.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THESE BOOKS TODAY!

Also included in the forum is Theresa Amato, author of Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two Party Tyranny.

Free & Equal Founder and Chair Christina Tobin will be attending the event.

The Event will be streamed live at CATO’s Website

Click Here To Watch

Not Invited to the Party demonstrates how the dominant political parties–the Democrats and Republicans–have co-opted the system to their advantage.

James Bennett examines the history and array of laws, regulations, subsidies and programs that benefit the two major parties and discourage even the possibility of a serious challenge to the Democrat-Republican duopoly.

Theresa Amato, the campaign manager for Ralph Nader’s 2000 & 2004 Presidential runs, presents a scathing indictment of the current state of ballot access in America in her new book.

Grand Illusion recounts the story of the Democratic Party’s attempt to boot Nader out of the 2004 Presidential election, and offers insight into other recent independent and third party campaigns.  Amato also lays out specific reform steps that can be taken to improve the state of ballot access in this country.

Click HERE to Purchase These Books from Free & Equal

Restrictive ballot access laws across the nation prevent voters from having a real choice in who they vote for.

And the Democratic and Republican machines intend to keep it that way.

Former Nader campaign manager Theresa Amato’s new book Grand Illusion presents a scathing indictment of the current state of ballot access in America.

Grand Illusion recounts the story of the Democratic Party’s attempt to boot Nader out of the 2004 Presidential election, and offers insight into other recent independent and third party campaigns. Amato also lays out specific reform steps that can be taken to improve the state of ballot access in this country.

In this video, Ralph Nader lays the failures of our government at the feet of the Two-Party Tyranny. He encourages Americans to read the Grand Illusion and to get motivated to take our nation back from the two corporate controlled parties.

Click Here to Watch Ralph Nader on the Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny

In a statement released last week, Congressman Ron Paul commended the work of Free & Equal Elections, and also endorsed Amato’s new book.

“Our laws are stacked against any real third alternative in the two-party monopoly. By and large, candidates must conform to the system or have difficulty even getting on ballots. Americans deserve better, and across the country, people are waking up and working hard to remove unfair barriers. We deserve a system where third parties can compete, and Democrats and Republicans are held to their platforms and rhetoric. I am impressed by the work of the Free & Equal Elections Foundation, and commend them for their leadership on this issue.

Theresa Amato has experienced the unfairness of our system like few others. Her new book “Grand Illusion” is an important contribution that anyone serious about ballot access reform should read. I thank Theresa for sharing her experiences with us and know her book will make a difference.”

Click Here to Read Congressman Paul’s Full Statement

In her soon-to-be-released book, Grand Illusion, The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (The New Press 2009), lawyer Theresa Amato charges that on June 23, 2004, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe promised unspecified “resources” to Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign, if Nader would agree not to run in 19 so-called “battleground” states.  Chairman McAuliffe also said that the DNC supported litigation to remove Nader from the ballot in those states, including a lawsuit filed in Arizona that same day.

Read on for the text of the letter.

The following is a letter sent this morning to McAuliffe from Ralph Nader:

June 2, 2009

Terry McAuliffe
c/o Friends of Terry McAuliffe
PO Box 778
McLean, VA 22101

Dear Mr. McAuliffe:

When the Watergate scandal cost Richard M. Nixon his White House tenure in 1974, it was observed that it was not the crime (burglary by his supporters of the DNC Watergate suite) that cost Nixon but the subsequent cover-up.

I was reminded of that comment on watching the ABC 7 News segment last Friday which reported your unnamed senior campaign strategist denying the fact that in 2004 you offered to help our campaign with resources in 31 states if we stayed out of the 19 other closer states between Bush and Kerry. Your words were “if you stay out of my 19 states I will help with resources in 31 states.” You also said that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) which you chaired at the time was supporting litigation to remove Nader/Camejo from the ballot in state after state.

When reporters called you last week for a response you did not respond directly on the first day-which one reporter said was very uncharacteristic of your habit of returning calls. On the second day-the time of the ABC 7 report-you had your campaign strategist say what was not true-generally denying the contents of your telephone conversation. You put your campaign associate in the position of speaking for you and engaging in a fabrication. Falsely denying what you said is a deficiency that does not comport with what is a public trust as Governor which is the office you are seeking. You owe your associate and the public an apology.

To further ground the veracity of your proposal in 2004, I am enclosing the relevant pages in Theresa Amato’s book–Grand Illusion–that contains the specifics of your conversation down to the named states you selected, among numerous other details.

We look forward to your correcting the record.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Enclosures-4 pages

PO Box 19312
Washington, D.C. 20036

“Stay out of my 19 states.”

In Grand Illusion, Amato, the national manager of Nader’s lightning-rod 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, recounts how, after Nader rebuffed Chairman McAuliffe’s offer, the DNC and its state party affiliates embarked on an effort, unprecedented in U.S. history, to force Nader out of the 2004 presidential election. Amato says McAuliffe repeated over and over during a conversation:  “Stay out of 19 states.”

McAuliffe’s 2004 attempt to confine Nader to 31 states, revealed an exclusionary and censorious Terry McAuliffe that is hard to reconcile with gubernatorial candidate McAuliffe’s professed support for ballot access and democratic participation as a candidate in Virginia’s 2009 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Earlier this year, candidate McAuliffe told WTOP radio’s Mark Plotkin that “anyone is entitled to run for office,” and “the more people who run for office, the better it is.” McAuliffe’s campaign blog also claims that he stands for “getting people engaged in the democratic process.”

“Terry McAuliffe the candidate is not the Terry McAuliffe I knew as Chairman of the DNC in 2004″ says Amato.

“Candidate McAuliffe claims to fight for voter rights and against disenfranchisement,” Amato notes, “but McAuliffe’s DNC attempted to deny millions of voters their free choice of voting for Ralph Nader and Peter Miguel Camejo during the 2004 presidential election.”

“Such a contrast invites explanation at the very least,” says Christina Tobin, chairman of Free and Equal Elections.  “Perhaps candidate McAuliffe would now make amends by pledging to support free and equal elections and one reasonable federal standard for ballot access for federal office for all parties.”

Pennsylvania was among the hotly-contested 2004 states where the Democrats and their allies successfully strong-armed Nader off the ballot.  In 2008, as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation, the Pennsylvania Attorney General has charged 12 members or employees of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus with using taxpayer money and resources for improper political purposes–including keeping 2004 Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader off the state’s ballot.  Criminal charges against the Pennsylvania state workers are still pending.

Part personal memoir, part political history, part exposé and part impassioned call for electoral reform, Grand Illusion provides a blow-by-blow account of some of the 24 harassing complaints that the Democrats and their allies filed within 12 weeks to remove Nader from the ballot in 18 states.  At least 95 lawyers from 53 law firms nationwide joined the effort to stifle Nader’s insurgent campaign.

Nader prevailed in most states, but Grand Illusion will make citizens wonder:  How democratic is an electoral process that forces millions of American voters to choose between just two parties, while freezing out competing candidacies and new ideas?

To prevent such abuse and manipulation of the electoral process in the future, in Grand Illusion Amato proposes a number of practical and easy-to-implement reforms, to replace 50 different, and in some cases discriminatory state ballot access laws.  Amato also recounts details of behind-the-scenes conversations with presidential candidate John Kerry, and with Howard Dean, who followed McAuliffe as DNC chairman.

Nader filed a federal lawsuit in 2007 and an FEC complaint in 2008 against McAuliffe, the DNC and others who helped finance and coordinate the attempt to suppress Nader’s 2004 presidential candidacy.  Both actions are still pending.

]]> http://www.freeandequal.org/2009/06/557/feed/ 0 http://www.freeandequal.org/2009/05/free-equal-asks-will-the-real-terry-mcauliffe-please-stand-up/ http://www.freeandequal.org/2009/05/free-equal-asks-will-the-real-terry-mcauliffe-please-stand-up/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 15:54:56 +0000 c.thrasher http://www.freeandequal.org/?p=485 Terry McAuliffe’s Record as Former DNC Chairman Contradicts Candidate McAuliffe’s Rhetoric in Virginia’s 2009 Democratic Gubernatorial Primary

In her soon-to-be-released book, Grand Illusion, The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (The New Press 2009), lawyer Theresa Amato charges that on June 23, 2004, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe promised unspecified “resources” to Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign, if Nader would agree not to run in 19 so-called “battleground” states. Chairman McAuliffe also said that the DNC supported litigation to remove Nader from the ballot in those states, including a lawsuit filed in Arizona that same day.

“Stay out of my 19 states.”

In Grand Illusion, Amato, the national manager of Nader’s lightning-rod 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, recounts how, after Nader rebuffed Chairman McAuliffe’s offer, the DNC and its state party affiliates embarked on an effort, unprecedented in U.S. history, to force Nader out of the 2004 presidential election. Amato says McAuliffe repeated over and over during a conversation: “Stay out of 19 states.”

McAuliffe’s 2004 attempt to confine Nader to 31 states, revealed an exclusionary and censorious Terry McAuliffe that is hard to reconcile with gubernatorial candidate McAuliffe’s professed support for ballot access and democratic participation as a candidate in Virginia’s 2009 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Earlier this year, candidate McAuliffe told WTOP radio’s Mark Plotkin that “anyone is entitled to run for office,” and “the more people who run for office, the better it is.” McAuliffe’s campaign blog also claims that he stands for “getting people engaged in the democratic process.”

“Terry McAuliffe the candidate is not the Terry McAuliffe I knew as Chairman of the DNC in 2004″ says Amato.

“Candidate McAuliffe claims to fight for voter rights and against disenfranchisement,” Amato notes, “but McAuliffe’s DNC attempted to deny millions of voters their free choice of voting for Ralph Nader and Peter Miguel Camejo during the 2004 presidential election.”

“Such a contrast invites explanation at the very least,” says Christina Tobin, chairman of Free and Equal Elections. “Perhaps candidate McAuliffe would now make amends by pledging to support free and equal elections and one reasonable federal standard for ballot access for federal office for all parties.”

Pennsylvania was among the hotly-contested 2004 states where the Democrats and their allies successfully strong-armed Nader off the ballot. In 2008, as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation, the Pennsylvania Attorney General has charged 12 members or employees of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus with using taxpayer money and resources for improper political purposes–including keeping 2004 Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader off the state’s ballot. Criminal charges against the Pennsylvania state workers are still pending.

Part personal memoir, part political history, part exposé and part impassioned call for electoral reform, Grand Illusion provides a blow-by-blow account of some of the 24 harassing complaints that the Democrats and their allies filed within 12 weeks to remove Nader from the ballot in 18 states. At least 95 lawyers from 53 law firms nationwide joined the effort to stifle Nader’s insurgent campaign.
Nader prevailed in most states, but Grand Illusion will make citizens wonder: How democratic is an electoral process that forces millions of American voters to choose between just two parties, while freezing out competing candidacies and new ideas?

To prevent such abuse and manipulation of the electoral process in the future, in Grand Illusion Amato proposes a number of practical and easy-to-implement reforms, to replace 50 different, and in some cases discriminatory state ballot access laws. Amato also recounts details of behind-the-scenes conversations with presidential candidate John Kerry, and with Howard Dean, who followed McAuliffe as DNC chairman.

Nader filed a federal lawsuit in 2007 and an FEC complaint in 2008 against McAuliffe, the DNC and others who helped finance and coordinate the attempt to suppress Nader’s 2004 presidential candidacy. Both actions are still pending

Free & Equal Elections is a non partisan organization dedicated to eliminating restrictive ballot access laws that target Independent and Third-Party Candidates.

Free & Equal will challenge these laws, through lobbying of state legislators, court challenges, and initiatives.

Free & Equal to Sponsor Book Launch in Chicago

Free & Equal Elections is sponsoring the Chicago launch of Theresa Amato’s new book Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny, out now on New Press books. The premier will be held at the Union League Club on Thursday, June 4. Amato will also be participating in a forum on Printer’s Row this Sunday.  

Theresa Amato, who was the campaign manager for Ralph Nader’s 2000 & 2004 Presidential runs, presents a scathing indictment of the current state of ballot access in America in her new book.

Grand Illusion recounts the story of the Democratic Party’s attempt to boot Nader out of the 2004 Presidential election, and offers insight into other recent independent and third party campaigns. Amato also lays out specific reform steps that can be taken to improve the state of ballot access in this country.

“Theresa Amato takes the biggest swing–not a jab, but a roundhouse punch–at America’s corrupt electoral system.”
–Phil Donahue

“Until you have run, as I did, outside the two major parties, it is impossible to imagine the injustices of the two-party-tilted electoral process. Theresa Amato masterfully exposes the horrors faced by third-party and Independent candidates seeking the chance to compete and provide political choices for the American voter.”
–John Anderson, former Independent presidential candidate and chair of the Center for Voting and Democracy

As the national campaign manager for Ralph Nader’s historic runs for President in 2000 and 2004, Theresa Amato had a rare ringside role in two of the most hotly contested presidential elections this country has seen. In Grand Illusion, she gives us a witty, thoughtful critique of the American electoral system, as well as a powerful argument for opening up the contest to competition.

Busting the national myth that “anyone can grow up and be President of the United States,” Amato shows how independent and third-party candidates face egregious structural barriers that prevent them from fully participating in the race or even getting their names on the ballot. In addition to waging effective voter campaigns, these candidates must simultaneously fend off preposterous numbers of legal challenges from the two major parties–during twelve weeks of Nader’s ’04 run, as many as twenty-five lawsuits were filed in an effort to squash his campaign.

Amato makes a powerful case for specific federal reforms in the United States’ arcane system of ballot access laws, complex regulations, and partisan control of elections. Along the way, she also offers a spirited history of how third-party and Independent candidates have kept important issues on the table in elections past and contribute to our political life as a society.

Despite the dramatic run-up to the historic 2008 election and the efforts of both Obama and McCain to set themselves apart, the national political debate occurs in a very narrow range that’s defined by two major parties, which are both influenced by the same corporations, special interest groups, and lobbyists. And on election day, there just aren’t the kinds of genuine options that a healthy, multi-party democracy should offer. Looking beyond the Nader story to campaigns waged by challengers John Anderson, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and others, Amato shows how limiting ourselves to two candidates deprives our country of a robust political life, strips would-be contenders of their First Amendment rights, and cheats voters out of meaningful political choice.

Click Here To Purchase a copy of Theresa Amato’s new book, Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny