Press Release
DeRosa for CT Secretary of the State

THE PRIMARY FACTS

DEAR VOTER: My name is Mike DeRosa and I am running for the office of CT Sec. Of The State in the 2010 election on the Green Party line. Unfortunately because of the decisions of those who are hosting and controlling today’s event at the Hartford Public Library I am being stopped from any meaningful participation in today’s candidate forum for CT Sec. Of The State. While I understand that this event is being held for those running in the Democratic and Republican primaries I would like you to be aware of some of the inconvenient facts about primaries in CT:

1.Minor parties in CT, like the Green Party of CT, are not allowed to participate in CT ‘s 2010 state sponsored and state paid for political primary. In 2010, according to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News, minor parties in 26 states in the U.S. have candidates running in state paid for primaries. CT is one of the few states that ban minor parties from participating in state sponsored and paid for primaries.

2.Under the recently passed CT campaign finance law qualified Democrats and Republicans can get huge monetary grants to pay for their primary campaigns for CT SOTS ($124,000 to $375,000). Minor parties are banned under this law from even applying for these grants. The state of CT is in essence promoting and financing the free speech of major party candidates while simultaneously reducing the free speech rights of minor party candidates.

3.If I want to get a full $750,000 grant as the CT SOTS Green Party candidate for the general election in 2010 under the CT Campaign finance law I have to raise $75,000 in small donations and collect over 208,000 validated signatures (over 375,000 raw signatures). How many signatures do my Republican and Democratic opponents have to raise? The answer is zero signatures! My major party opponents also have to raise $75,000 in small donations to qualify for a $750,000 grant from the state but they can save their lawn signs (for example) bought with money given to them by the CT campaign finance primary grants and reuse them in the general election.

4.As your next CT Sec. Of The State I will vigorously address these inequalities with constitutional action and legislation and I will continue to work with the U.S. Federal Judiciary to gain equal rights and equal political opportunity for third parties(we recently won a federal lawsuit that declared the CT Campaign finance law unconstitutional). I will also promote the tool box of democracy which includes: Proportional Representation for minor parties (Full Representation), Instant Runoff Voting (ranked choice voting) , open debates , and other reforms that protect the constitutionally protected equal political opportunity of third parties and independent candidacies. As your CT SOTS I will make every effort to guarantee that every vote counts, including write-in and provisional ballots, and I will support real campaign finance reform modeled after the successful campaign finance laws operating in Arizona and Maine that do not violate the Green Party’s 1st and 14th amendment rights.

Thanks for your time and interest, Mike DeRosa

CT Green Candidate for Sec Of The State; www.ctgreenparty.org ; 1(888)877-8607 More Choices, More Voices! Vote Clean, Vote Green!

Paid for by S. Michael DeRosa, 48 Village Dr. Wethersfield CT 06109; Approved by S. Michael DeRosa This document is protected by the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution