[Marxism] News from the US Socialist Party electoral campaign

["Ruthless Critic of All that Exists" <ok.president+marxml@xxxxxxxxx>]

 >
 > 1ST FEDERAL ELECTIONS COMMISSION REPORT SUBMITTED BY
 > SOCIALIST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TODAY
 >
 >
 > Spring Hill, Florida, Thursday, April 17, 2008:

 > Brian Moore, Socialist Party USA presidential
 > nominee, today filed, via surface mail, the
 > campaign's first financial report, postmarked on
 > time, with the Federal Elections Commission, for the
 > period ending March 31, 2008.
 >
 >
 >
 >  Receipts totaled  $9,516.20, and total
 > disbursements totaled $6,356.95.  The campaign has a
 > balance of, cash on hand at close of the reporting
 > period, of $3,159.25.
 >
 >
 >
 > 62 contributions from 42 people comprised the total
 > amount of receipts received by the Socialist
 > candidate.  The 42 contributors come from 12 states,
 > with Florida, Illinois and the state of Washington
 > leading the way.
 >
 >
 >
 > Moore hopes to raise a minimum of $5,000 from each
 > of 20 states in order to gain matching funds from
 > the federal government once that is achieved.
 >
 >
 >
 > The Moore/Alexander '08 ticket hopes to gain ballot
 > access in 20 states for the November, 2008 election.
 >  They have qualified in the state of Vermont under
 > the Liberty Union Party.  The ticket hopes to
 > qualify in other states under both the Socialist
 > Party name and through Independent or other minor
 > party status.
 >
 >
 >
 > Moore said the campaign has "already collected
 > enough signatures in New Jersey to gain ballot
 > access" and expects to complete submitting its
 > qualification papers and necessary number of
 > electors in the states of Florida, Colorado,
 > Louisiana and Tennessee by the end of April.  Some
 > additional states the campaign has targeted,
 > expecting to collect the necessary signatures for
 > ballot access, are Rhode Island, Delaware,
 > Wisconsin, Minnesota, Utah, Iowa and Washington.
 >
 >
 >
 > The campaign is also taking a hard look at Kansas
 > and Nebraska for possible attempts to gain ballot
 > access.  Expected states to qualify in, New Mexico
 > and Hawaii, had their deadlines pass April 1 and
 > April 4th without success.  Moore said Hawaii only
 > required 663 signatures but the expense of one or
 > two petitioners to travel that far and be housed for
 > three or four days would have cost the campaign
 > about $4,000 or $5,000, which would have bankrupted
 > the campaign.
 >
 >
 >
 > Moore has a lawsuit pending against the state of
 > Ohio to overturn the state's prohibition of not
 > allowing unregistered Ohio residents or out-of-state
 > petitioners to collect the necessary signatures.  A
 > decision from the courts is expected in the next two
 > to four weeks.  However, even it the Socialists win
 > a legal victory, Ohio requires 5,000 minimum
 > signatures, meaning the campaign will have to
 > collect 7,000 signatures to hedge against errors or
 > illegible signatures.
 >
 >
 >
 > Presidential ballot access is difficult for third
 > party candidates, especially in states like Georgia,
 > Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Arizona, Indiana,
 > Michigan, Pennsylvania and California, where the
 > signature requirements are from 22,000 up to 158,000
 > registered voters.  Candidates and their campaigns
 > usually have to collect 30% more than the minimum
 > just to avoid the petitions being thrown out due to
 > incorrect addresses, illegible information and
 > incomplete signatures or circulator data.
 >
 >
 >
 > Ironically, the three states that the two final
 > Democratic candidates and expected Republican
 > nominee come from have some of the more difficult
 > signature requirements (Arizona (McCain) - 21,500;
 > Illinois (Obama) 25,000; and New York (Clinton)
 > 15,000.
 >
 >
 >
 > Compounding the difficulty, said Moore, is that the
 > Democratic Party has "aggressively challenged minor
 > party signatures, filed lawsuits against Independent
 > candidates or minor parties over any small
 > irregularities, and made every effort to exclude
 > additional parties from participating for fear of
 > splitting its own Democratic vote."  Moore calls the
 > democratic party "hooligans, spoilers and
 > undemocratic despots!"  The socialist candidate
 > likes to remind Democrats that Bill Clinton  would
 > never have been president if it wasn't for third
 > party candidate Ross Perot.
 >
 >
 >
 > The Socialist Party is also making an aggressive
 > effort to register officially as "Write-In"
 > candidates in most of the states where they don't
 > expect to gain ballot access.
 >
 >
 >
 > The Socialist Party, in its heyday, under the
 > leadership of Eugene V. Debs, gained over 900,000
 > votes in 1912 and 1920, for 9% and 6% of the vote.
 > Following 1920, the party took a deep plunge in
 > popularity because of the unfair labeling by the
 > "Red Scare," and the Espionage and Sedition Acts
 > applied in the 1920's in  response to the
 > Socialists' antiwar efforts during WWI.  Then
 > McCarthyism and the Stalin Era in the late 40's and
 > 50's, and the Cold War further unfairly damaged the
 > party and gave it a nasty image.  Its membership
 > declined over the 20th century from over 100,000
 > members to about 3,000 members presently nationwide.
 >
 >
 >
 > The Socialist Party gained approximately 10,000
 > votes in the 2004 presidential election.  Moore, an
 > anti-Iraq war activist also, said part of his
 > campaign is to reinstil Americans' appreciation of
 > the rich heritage of the Socialist Party and what it
 > has done positively for this country.  The
 > Socialists were some of the "first advocates of
 > woman's suffrage, child labor laws, social security,
 > the 40-hour work week, collective bargaining,
 > unemployment insurance and Medicare," Moore stated.

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