[Iowa-dx] From Illinois - Fwd: Editorial: Green Party votes may open process to positive ideas

[hhart@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu]

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/opinion/editorials/130115,1EDT1-09.articl=
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Green Party votes may open process to positive ideas
Editorial: Daily Southtown
November 9, 2006

THE ISSUE: Some politicians and pundits derided as a "waste" the notion
of voting for Green Party candidates in Tuesday's election.

WE SAY: By winning more than 10 percent of the gubernatorial vote, the
Green Party has won a role in the state's political process that could
bring new and worthwhile ideas into future elections.

In the final analysis, few surprises emerged in this year's Illinois
elections. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, with his more than $20 million campaign
war chest, was re-elected. Todd Stroger, anointed by Democratic Party
leaders to succeed his father, will be Cook County board president.
Incumbent congressmen were re-elected, almost all of them by wide margins.

In what was expected to be a Democratic year, the biggest surprise may
have been the margin by which the statewide Democratic slate won its
races. Lisa Madigan unofficially got more than 70 percent of the vote,
Jesse White and Dan Hynes more than 60 percent, and Alexi Giannoulias
won 53 percent to 42 percent over Christine Radogno.

Only Blagojevich was held under 50 percent, according to totals that
were incomplete and unofficial Wednesday afternoon. Blagojevich's totals
apparently were held down by the unexpectedly strong showing of the
Green Party, the third-party effort headed by gubernatorial candidate
Rich Whitney, who had 10.6 percent of the vote, according to the same
incomplete totals.

Republicans and their supporters staged a last-minute campaign to
dismiss votes for Whitney as "wasted." But those votes were in our view
among the most productive cast this year. By garnering more than 5
percent of the vote, the Green Party qualified as an "established party"
under Illinois law. That means the Greens get out from under the onerous
"new party" regulations that make it extremely difficult for candidates
outside the Democratic and Republican parties to seek office in Illinois.

Under state laws designed to protect the established parties, Whitney
supporters this year had to gather 25,000 signatures on petitions to get
their candidate on the ballot. Supporters of Blagojevich and Judy Baar
Topinka needed only 5,000.

The Green Party's strong showing this year means the Greens will be
considered an established party through the next governor's election.
That also means the party will have a statewide primary election in 2008
and 2010, which will bring the kind of "free" news coverage the GOP and
Democrats benefit from. And it means the incumbents in the General
Assembly, who so often run without any real opposition under our
so-called "two-party" system, may face real live opponents in the next
two elections.

Most of these Green candidates will be also-rans, of course, but some of
them may be good candidates with a chance to win. Some will raise
important issues and advance ideas that wouldn't get heard otherwise.

For example, Whitney this year called for education funding reform that
would have reduced property taxes by raising the state income tax, the
formula that independent commissions -- and this newspaper -- have
called for for more than a decade. Blagojevich and Topinka wouldn't
touch the idea and instead advanced proposals such as "selling the
lottery" or putting a casino in downtown Chicago as their proposals to
fix the school funding system.

Whitney also called for bans on corporate campaign contributions and on
donations to political campaigns by state contractors -- two proposals
that Blagojevich and Topinka would have nothing to do with. He also
wanted to create independent hiring agencies to fill state jobs in order
to take politics and favoritism out of the process. You won't hear
Republicans or Democrats proposing that idea either.

We say those Green Party voters did themselves and the state a favor by
creating a means for constructive new ideas to be raised in Illinois
elections. So, no, they didn't waste their votes. The voted in their own
best interests, and we applaud them for it.