Via RSS
Via Twitter
Vigil-Giron served three four-year terms as Secretary of State. She was elected in 1986, 1998, and 2002. She is a Democrat. She made some rulings that were hostile to minor parties. During her second term, in 1999, the Libertarian Party was conducting a registration drive. Her office disallowed all new Libertarian registrants in any particular county, if even one person in that county complained that he or she had been tricked into registering into the party. However, a state court judge disallowed that ruling and restored the registrations.
During her third term, when the Green Party was entitled to a primary in 2004 (because it had polled over 5% for Governor in 2002), she ruled all Green candidates who were running for public office off the Green Party primary ballot, so that the Green Party was left with no nominees except for president and vice-president in 2004. Also, starting with the 2006 election, she removed the straight-ticket device from the general election ballot for all parties except the Democratic and Republican Parties, even though nothing in the law authorizes such discriminatory treatment. Also, while she was Secretary of State, the Secretary of State’s webpage was set up to show voter registration data by political party, but omitted any mention of the qualified minor parties, thus giving the impression that they didn’t exist.
Conspiracy is Politics as Usual: Who Needs a Theory When There's a History?
Continuing with the theme of duopolist bias against advocates of third party and independent politics, consider the case of former New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, who has been indicted by a grand jury for "money laundering, fraud, soliciting or receiving kickbacks and tax evasion." She and the bevy of contractors and lobbyists among her alleged co-conspirators stand accused of "bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars between 2004 and 2006 by falsifying invoices to the secretary of state’s office," according to the New Mexico Independent. At Ballot Access News, Richard Winger details Vigil-Giron's history of abusing the powers of her office to discriminate against third parties:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Arkansas Us Senate 2010 Analysis
-DC Monthly Political View -August 20, 2009 – Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele’s instructions today to the State GOP about strategies to deal with Independent US Senate office seeker Trevor Drown have many local republicans unhappy. Steele, was in Little Rock today, meeting with Doyle Webb and other members of party leadership. First item on the agenda: securing the US Senate seat that is held by democrat Blanche Lincoln. Polls show Lincoln, who is running for her third term has little to no support across all categories. Normally this would appear to provide the GOP the ability to pick up a senate seat but for few problems. There is a major negative view across the state for the republicans. The current 5 to 8 possible candidates include everyone from a ultra-conservative riding Huckabee’s coattails to a clueless retired Army Colonel. In between a tea party boat builder, a FEDex driver/real estate investor and a few other odds and ends. Add to their problems continuous racist comments and plantation owner language and you have a image problem. Couple this with the concern the state party is in the red, and may be in financial trouble with a net loss of $108,000 in the last 12 months
Another factor will be the nominal entry of a Green Party member. In the past three Federal elections The Greens have done something Republican’s have yet to do. Provide a candidate to run against the incumbent. This continues to be a problem statewide as republicans fail to recruit anyone at various state level and higher offices to run including taking in the very popular Governor Beebe. This poor leadership attitude may result in no republicans being allowed on the 2012 ballot without gathering from 2,000 to 10,000 signatures themselves.
Speaking of signatures, according to inside sources present at the meeting earlier today, Michael Steele named former Green Beret, the number one threat to the Republican Party in Arkansas. He has the looks, brains, leadership style and the support of the people in Arkansas. A grassroots movement, already underway has worried many GOP leaders since it is expected he will easily get the required 10,000 signatures by May 2010. When it was discovered members of party leadership had tried to recruit Drown and he turned him down, heads were shaking and many at the meeting heard Steele mumble that was “bad, very bad.” Things got a little heated when it was further discovered once he had turned them done, certain members of the party who also hold statewide office combined their efforts with a local blogger to discredit Drown.
One staffer from the GOP D.C. office said, this is what is wrong with you people. You still think this is the 19th century. You need to ignore, him, never mention his name never acknowledge him. If you recognize his existance you elevate him to our level. The time to take him out will be only if he gets the signatures next May.
There were a few moderate republicans not happy with how the state party has handled the Drown affair. Targeting a veteran of the Global War on terror did not sit well with them. Internally, within the party support is already waning and infighting increases daily due to the GOP’s silent nod of approval being given to Curtis Coleman.
This next election could be the start of a rising force in this country, the Independent. Arkansas appears to be one of the battleground states. When you look at the numbers and realize only 55,000 registered voters are democrats, 45,000 republicans and the remaining 1.6 million are registered as optional or independents, political strategists know it is time to worry. Consequently, we are predicting that Trevor Drown looks like the strongest contender at this point.
Anonymous, thanks for the info and comment. You've also given me an idea. Over the course of the last few months, I've gotten some good comments that were, however, more or less unrelated to the content of the post in question, as in this case. This weekend I'm going to add a general tips and comments page, the comments of which will be headlined in and accessible from a specific widget in the sidebar. So even if everything on the front page is unrelated, one could add the comment or update there, creating a headline feed of sorts that would be visible on every page of the blog.
That my friend is an excellent idea. Nice to know, a simple mistake on my part of posting something in the wrong place, may have resulted in an innovated out of the box thinker like yourself coming up with a novel concept. I am honored thanks for not slamming me for being inexperienced and posting in the wrong place. Looking forward to it
Post a Comment