[Texgreen] Newsartitcle on Arkansas Greens Running In Statewide Races

[David Pollard]

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  Green Party aims to add a new voice  BY MICHAEL R. WICKLINE
  Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006
   

    
  R. David Lewis ran as a Republican for Arkansas Supreme Court 20 years ago. He lost. Now he’s running for state land commissioner on the Green Party ticket. 
  “I am a good friend of Jim Lendall’s and I am doing this to help him,” said Lewis, 62, of Little Rock. 
   
  Lendall is the former Democratic state representative from Mabelvale running for governor as a Green. He was among those who successfully sued the state in federal court to get the Green Party certified as a party in Arkansas. That meant the Green Party could nominate candidates for state and county offices. 
  Lewis was one of five, in addition to Lendall, who volunteered to run as Greens for statewide office. Each offered different reasons to run. Some want to help establish the Green Party; others are doing it for principles. 
  Lewis said having more Green Party candidates on the ballot will help the party grow and increase the likelihood that any of them, including Lendall, will receive more than 3 percent of the vote. 
  Under Arkansas law, if a third party’s gubernatorial candidate wins at least 3 percent of the votes cast for governor in the general election Nov. 7 of this year, that party won’t have to gather signatures again to get on the ballot next election. Instead, the Green Party would be automatically certified to put its candidates on the ballot in 2008. Here are sketches of the other Green candidates. 
  LAND COMMISSIONER Lewis said he joined the Green Party in June because “they stand for the right things” such as “environmentalism” and “constitutional rights.” 
  What does that have to do with the land commissioner’s office, which is charged with collecting delinquent property taxes ? 
  Lewis cited a U. S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that said the Arkansas land commissioner’s office should have done more to try to notify a homeowner that his house would be sold because he didn’t pay the property tax that was overdue. 
  Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox, 46, a Democrat, is seeking his second four-year term. He’s a former property tax collector for Faulkner County. 
  Lewis said people are entitled to notice before their land is taken and due process requires the best notice under the circumstances. People should be served with notice or notice should be posted on their property before their land is taken, he said. 
  Wilcox said notification is the most important function of his office. He said his office “has stepped up that process of notifying people, but sometimes people can’t be notified” because they moved elsewhere and didn’t leave an address or notify others where they could be reached. 
  SECRETARY OF STATE Green Party candidate Ralph “Marty” Scully of Mountain Home has two opponents: Democratic incumbent Charlie Daniels of Bryant and Republican candidate Jim Lagrone of Bryant. Scully is a 59-year-old retired truck line worker who moved from the Chicago area to Arkansas five years ago to retire. He said he left the Democratic Party recently to join the Green Party because “it has really gotten to the point where there isn’t a lot of difference between” the Democratic and Republican parties. 
  He pointed to the Green Party’s stance for gay marriage and for national health insurance, its willingness to look overseas to find ways to improve the education system, and its opposition to the war in Iraq. 
  This is his first race for public office. 
  “I just want to make sure elections are nonpartisan and fair and review contracts to make sure the [secretary of state’s ] office is run as efficiently and smoothly as possible,” Scully said. 
  He said he doesn’t have any specific changes that he wants to make in the office. Daniels, 66, is seeking his second four-year term as the secretary of state. He was the state’s land commissioner from 1985-2003. Lagrone, 49, is a former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. 
  ATTORNEY GENERAL Green party attorney general candidate Rebekah Kennedy, 27, a lawyer in Fort Smith, said the state spends too much time and money fighting court battles over the constitutionality of state laws. She complained that the state contested the Green Party lawsuit despite the fact that in 1996 a federal court decision at Little Rock in another case ruled unconstitutional the requirement that third parties receive signatures of a number of registered voters equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election. The state stood by that law despite the local federal court ruling. The 3 percent requirement for signatures meant the Green Party needed to gather about 24, 000. 
  Last month, the same federal judge ruled that bar was too high and ordered the Green Party certified after it turned in 18, 000 signatures. 
  Kennedy said the attorney general should be more involved on the front end of the legislative process, and do more vetting of bills before they’re passed. 
  There is nothing requiring legislators to listen to any advice the attorney general may give about bills. Attorney general opinions are advisory and do not have the authority, for example, of a judge’s ruling in a court case. 
  Kennedy joined the Green Party in the summer of 2001 after becoming frustrated with the Democratic Party’s choice of candidates. 
  “You can see more and more that they’re not nominating the candidate that holds the values that most Democrats want to vote for,” she said. “They nominate candidates they claim are electable, and they’re not even getting elected.” 
  Kennedy said she was talking about Democrats in general on the national level, not in Arkansas where Democrats hold the overwhelming majority of state and county offices. 
  She said that in their efforts to court conservative voters, Democratic and Republican politicians fail to represent the segment of the electorate that favors “progressive” measures, such as allowing marijuana sales for medical use. The Democratic candidate is state Rep. Dustin McDaniel, DJonesboro, and the GOP nominee is former state Sen. Gunner DeLay, R-Fort Smith. 
  AUDITOR Green Party candidate Michael Bolzenius of Little Rock is challenging state Auditor Jim Wood, a Democrat from North Little Rock. Bolzenius is a 27-year-old classified advertising salesman at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “We want to win, but we want at least 3 percent of the vote to get on the 2008 ballot with candidates,” said Bolzenius, who attends the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. 
  Four years ago, he ran as a Green Party candidate in a losing bid for a Texas legislative seat in which he received 3 percent of the votes cast, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office. 
  He said he’s running for auditor to “bring a good work ethic [to the job ] and do a honest day’s work” in the position. He said he’s not suggesting that Wood doesn’t do that now. 
  The state auditor writes checks to pay bills for the state. 
  Wood, who has been the state’s auditor since 2003, is seeking a second four-year term. The 58-year-old served in the Arkansas Senate from 1979 to 1988 and Arkansas House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. 
  TREASURER Brock Carpenter, Green Party candidate for treasurer, is 21 and a senior at Hendrix College in Conway. He said he’s running for treasurer because the Greens needed candidates, not necessarily because he thought he would make the best treasurer. “Nobody that goes into that office can make a lot of changes. They can only do what Congress authorizes them to do,” he said, acknowledging that he meant the Arkansas Legislature, not the U. S. Congress. 
  He’s running against former state Rep. Martha Shoffner, DNewport, and Republican Chris Morris, a staff member for Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee. 
  Carpenter said he’s been disappointed in the two-party system, and in Democrats in particular, since the party fought in 2004 to remove Ralph Nader’s name from the Arkansas ballot as a presidential candidate. 
  “I’ve been pretty passionate about... third parties in general,” Carpenter said. 
  If he doesn’t win, he’s thinking of joining the Peace Corps after graduation next year. Information for this article was contributed by Daniel Nasaw, Laura Kellams and Seth Blomeley of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.


 		
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<DIV id=storyheader>  <H2>Green Party aims to add a new voice</H2>  <div class=byline>BY MICHAEL R. WICKLINE</div>  <div class=pubdate>Posted on Monday, September 18, 2006</div>  <div class=pubdate>&nbsp;</div></DIV>  <DIV id=storybody>  <div></div>  <div>R. David Lewis ran as a Republican for Arkansas Supreme Court 20 years ago. He lost. Now he’s running for state land commissioner on the Green Party ticket. </div>  <div>“I am a good friend of Jim Lendall’s and I am doing this to help him,” said Lewis, 62, of Little Rock. </div>  <div>&nbsp;</div>  <div>Lendall is the former Democratic state representative from Mabelvale running for governor as a Green. He was among those who successfully sued the state in federal court to get the Green Party certified as a party in Arkansas. That meant the Green Party could nominate candidates for state and county offices. </div>  <div>Lewis was one of five, in addition to Lendall, who volunteered to run as Greens for statewide office.
 Each offered different reasons to run. Some want to help establish the Green Party; others are doing it for principles. </div>  <div>Lewis said having more Green Party candidates on the ballot will help the party grow and increase the likelihood that any of them, including Lendall, will receive more than 3 percent of the vote. </div>  <div>Under Arkansas law, if a third party’s gubernatorial candidate wins at least 3 percent of the votes cast for governor in the general election Nov. 7 of this year, that party won’t have to gather signatures again to get on the ballot next election. Instead, the Green Party would be automatically certified to put its candidates on the ballot in 2008. Here are sketches of the other Green candidates. </div>  <div>LAND COMMISSIONER Lewis said he joined the Green Party in June because “they stand for the right things” such as “environmentalism” and “constitutional rights.” </div>  <div>What does that have to do with the land commissioner’s
 office, which is charged with collecting delinquent property taxes ? </div>  <div>Lewis cited a U. S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that said the Arkansas land commissioner’s office should have done more to try to notify a homeowner that his house would be sold because he didn’t pay the property tax that was overdue. </div>  <div>Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox, 46, a Democrat, is seeking his second four-year term. He’s a former property tax collector for Faulkner County. </div>  <div>Lewis said people are entitled to notice before their land is taken and due process requires the best notice under the circumstances. People should be served with notice or notice should be posted on their property before their land is taken, he said. </div>  <div>Wilcox said notification is the most important function of his office. He said his office “has stepped up that process of notifying people, but sometimes people can’t be notified” because they moved elsewhere and didn’t leave
 an address or notify others where they could be reached. </div>  <div>SECRETARY OF STATE Green Party candidate Ralph “Marty” Scully of Mountain Home has two opponents: Democratic incumbent Charlie Daniels of Bryant and Republican candidate Jim Lagrone of Bryant. Scully is a 59-year-old retired truck line worker who moved from the Chicago area to Arkansas five years ago to retire. He said he left the Democratic Party recently to join the Green Party because “it has really gotten to the point where there isn’t a lot of difference between” the Democratic and Republican parties. </div>  <div>He pointed to the Green Party’s stance for gay marriage and for national health insurance, its willingness to look overseas to find ways to improve the education system, and its opposition to the war in Iraq. </div>  <div>This is his first race for public office. </div>  <div>“I just want to make sure elections are nonpartisan and fair and review contracts to make sure the [secretary of
 state’s ] office is run as efficiently and smoothly as possible,” Scully said. </div>  <div>He said he doesn’t have any specific changes that he wants to make in the office. Daniels, 66, is seeking his second four-year term as the secretary of state. He was the state’s land commissioner from 1985-2003. Lagrone, 49, is a former president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. </div>  <div>ATTORNEY GENERAL Green party attorney general candidate Rebekah Kennedy, 27, a lawyer in Fort Smith, said the state spends too much time and money fighting court battles over the constitutionality of state laws. She complained that the state contested the Green Party lawsuit despite the fact that in 1996 a federal court decision at Little Rock in another case ruled unconstitutional the requirement that third parties receive signatures of a number of registered voters equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election. The state stood by that law despite the local
 federal court ruling. The 3 percent requirement for signatures meant the Green Party needed to gather about 24, 000. </div>  <div>Last month, the same federal judge ruled that bar was too high and ordered the Green Party certified after it turned in 18, 000 signatures. </div>  <div>Kennedy said the attorney general should be more involved on the front end of the legislative process, and do more vetting of bills before they’re passed. </div>  <div>There is nothing requiring legislators to listen to any advice the attorney general may give about bills. Attorney general opinions are advisory and do not have the authority, for example, of a judge’s ruling in a court case. </div>  <div>Kennedy joined the Green Party in the summer of 2001 after becoming frustrated with the Democratic Party’s choice of candidates. </div>  <div>“You can see more and more that they’re not nominating the candidate that holds the values that most Democrats want to vote for,” she said. “They nominate
 candidates they claim are electable, and they’re not even getting elected.” </div>  <div>Kennedy said she was talking about Democrats in general on the national level, not in Arkansas where Democrats hold the overwhelming majority of state and county offices. </div>  <div>She said that in their efforts to court conservative voters, Democratic and Republican politicians fail to represent the segment of the electorate that favors “progressive” measures, such as allowing marijuana sales for medical use. The Democratic candidate is state Rep. Dustin McDaniel, DJonesboro, and the GOP nominee is former state Sen. Gunner DeLay, R-Fort Smith. </div>  <div>AUDITOR Green Party candidate Michael Bolzenius of Little Rock is challenging state Auditor Jim Wood, a Democrat from North Little Rock. Bolzenius is a 27-year-old classified advertising salesman at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “We want to win, but we want at least 3 percent of the vote to get on the 2008 ballot with
 candidates,” said Bolzenius, who attends the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. </div>  <div>Four years ago, he ran as a Green Party candidate in a losing bid for a Texas legislative seat in which he received 3 percent of the votes cast, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office. </div>  <div>He said he’s running for auditor to “bring a good work ethic [to the job ] and do a honest day’s work” in the position. He said he’s not suggesting that Wood doesn’t do that now. </div>  <div>The state auditor writes checks to pay bills for the state. </div>  <div>Wood, who has been the state’s auditor since 2003, is seeking a second four-year term. The 58-year-old served in the Arkansas Senate from 1979 to 1988 and Arkansas House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. </div>  <div>TREASURER Brock Carpenter, Green Party candidate for treasurer, is 21 and a senior at Hendrix College in Conway. He said he’s running for treasurer because the Greens needed candidates, not
 necessarily because he thought he would make the best treasurer. “Nobody that goes into that office can make a lot of changes. They can only do what Congress authorizes them to do,” he said, acknowledging that he meant the Arkansas Legislature, not the U. S. Congress. </div>  <div>He’s running against former state Rep. Martha Shoffner, DNewport, and Republican Chris Morris, a staff member for Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee. </div>  <div>Carpenter said he’s been disappointed in the two-party system, and in Democrats in particular, since the party fought in 2004 to remove Ralph Nader’s name from the Arkansas ballot as a presidential candidate. </div>  <div>“I’ve been pretty passionate about... third parties in general,” Carpenter said. </div>  <div>If he doesn’t win, he’s thinking of joining the Peace Corps after graduation next year. Information for this article was contributed by Daniel Nasaw, Laura Kellams and Seth Blomeley of the Arkansas
 Democrat-Gazette.</div></DIV><p>&#32;
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