GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS RELEASE
LONG BEACH (August 23, 2007) - Green Party congressional candidate Daniel Abraham Brezenoff - who polled an astounding nine times the percentage of registered Greens in Tuesday's 37th District Special Election - said in a statement issued today he will "keep a close eye" on winner Laura Richardson in between now and the 2008 elections to see if she keeps her promises to voters. The complete statement is at www.danielforcongress.com.
Brezenoff finished third in the race, garnering 5.41 percent (1,138 votes) of the vote. Only .61 percent of the voters in the District are registered Green, even fewer than the Libertarian Party. Brezenoff's final tally, though, put him into third, far ahead of the Libertarian candidate, Herb Peters, who had just 2.3 percent of the vote.
"I am disappointed with the low turnout, and I am disappointed I will not be represented by a more progressive leader," said Brezenoff, a clinical social worker, of Richardson, the Democratic Party candidate. "She has pledged to oppose any and all new war funding, and we in the Green Party and the peace movement will hold her to that. I will help (by keeping) a close eye on her," he added.
Brezenoff also criticized Richardson for not being a "strong" critic of the Bush Administration.
"We...will push her to continue speaking out against failed Republican policies. We will also push her to speak against failed Democratic policies, and we certainly hope she will not lose her ability to speak truth to power if and when a Democrat enters the White House. We will pressure the Congresswoman to take up impeachment articles against the President and Vice President, do more to protect our environment and to call for repealing the Patriot Act. We do not expect (her) to follow the party line, but instead...remember that she must answer to her constituents at the polls in just 14 months," said Brezenoff.
While Brezenoff said that the 8.4 percent district voter turnout reflected "apathy," he noted that voters "do not feel they have good choices...even those who support third parties stay home because they believe candidates like me have little chance of winning in our current system." He called upon Richardson to make her "first goal" increased participation of her district in "American political life," and support instant run-off voting to help accomplish that.
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Contacts:
Crescenzo Vellucci, State Press Office,
916.996.9170,
Sara Amir (Los Angeles),
310.270.7106,
Dr. Bob Vizzard (Sacramento),
916.206.8953,
Daniel Brezenoff (Southern California),
310.422.2211,
Susan King (San Francisco),
415.823.5524,
The Green Party of California
PO Box 2828
Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
Web: http://www.cagreens.org
EMail: