Elections

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The Hidden Candidate

South Carolina Voters Chose Between Inexperience and Disgrace

Is There Another Way?

By Gregg Jocoy
South Carolina Green Party
Radio Host, Small Business Owner

Yahoo News asked South Carolina voters to share whom they’re supporting in Tuesday’s U.S. House election — Mark Sanford or Elizabeth Colbert Busch, or if they’re abstaining. Here’s one voter’s perspective.

FIRST PERSON | Whenever I try to say Mark Sanford on our radio show, I wind up saying “Fred Sanford” instead. My co-host, Daisy Deadhead responds “I’m coming to meet you Elizabeth!” and it cracks me up like nobody’s business.

There are two reasons. The Democrat he’s running against is named Elizabeth-Colbert Busch. The other is that, like Fred Sanford’s “heart attacks”, Mark Sanford’s tears over his affair seemed fake to me.

I also have serious reservations about Colbert Busch.

As Donna Dewitt, past president of the SC AFL-CIO and Colbert-Busch supporter, wrote on her Facebook wall, “Terribly disappointing that a smart woman is “proud to live in a right to work state.”

Voters in the 1st District have another choice. The only veteran in the race, the only candidate on Social Security and Medicare, the candidate with the longest time in public service, is a candidate you may have never heard about. He’s served on the James Island Public Service District Commission for close to 30 years, re-elected every four years, even serving as chair.

He wants to stop an expensive, environmentally damaging Interstate Highway through the district. He wants to end the wars. He wants to end corporate bail outs, and improve the nation’s economy by redirecting money to programs which produce jobs and peace.

I think I hear a few of you saying “OK. I’m sold. What’s his name?”

Eugene Platt is his name. The 74-year-old is the nominee of South Carolina’s Green Party.

Now that voting is underway you may ask yourself how you can learn more. One way would be to tune in to our radio show on Wednesday when we will interview Platt live. Hear what he has to say. Visit http://occupythemicrophone.blogspot.com/ at 5 p.m.

Gregg Jocoy lives in Simpsonville, South Carolina.

Link: http://voices.yahoo.com/the-hidden-candidate-south-carolina-voters-chose-between-12126520.html

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South Carolina Green Party thanks Eugene Platt

South Carolina Green Party

The Steering Committee of the South Carolina Green Party thanks Eugene Platt for his good work and strong effort in running as the Green nominee in the 1st Congressional District special election.

The media and a large part of the public have been distracted by the celebrity and notoriety of the two major party candidates.  Eugene Platt stood as a public servant, a native Charlestonian, and a responsible, thoughtful progressive.

Eugene discussed national health care, a non-interventionist foreign policy, the sanctity of labor rights, and the importance of spending on social services rather than expensive and wasteful military programs.  If it was not for Eugene’s contributions, this campaign would have been entirely content-free and personality driven.

The public is better served by a diversity of voices and viewpoints representing all parts of the political spectrum.   The Charleston Patch did a disservice to the people of South Carolina, when they reduce political debate to an empty, content-free show.   The Working Families Party misled thousands of pro-union voters into supporting an anti-union candidate. This blind commitment to horserace politics does not serve the public interest.

We commend the League of Women Voters and the NAACP for holding nonpartisan, inclusive events that encouraged discussion and promoted democracy.

Eugene Platt was able to give progressives a reason to vote, to organize and to join the Green Party.  After Colbert-Busch’s outrageous statement that she was “proud” of South Carolina’s deplorable anti-union reputation, we were proud to offer a humane alternative in Eugene that workers and progressives could endorse.  The campaign has been a success in these terms.

Campaign Links

Eugene Platt for Congress: http://www.voteplatt.com

Eugene Platt for Congress on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eugene-Platt-for-Congress/14190535917

Green Party

Green Party of the United States: http://gp.org

South Carolina Green Party: http://scgreenparty.org

South Carolina Green Party on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthCarolinaGreenParty

Eugene Platt, Jill Stein, South Carolina Special Election

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Eugene Platt Campaign Tweets Responses To SC1 Debate Questions, Deplores Exclusion

Eugene Platt worked around his exclusion from the only debate to be held in the SC1 special election by live-tweeting responses.   Using the SC Green Party’s Twitter feed, he communicated brief and direct answers to the media.

On health care:

On deepening Charleston Harbor:

On immigration:

and

On abortion and reproductive rights:

On marriage equality:

On election finance reform:

On higher education:

and K-12:

On fixing the budget:

It’s ironic that in defending Patch’s decision to exclude Platt, debate organizer Shawn Drury quoted an article from an organization founded by Ralph Nader.
The article attacks the biased and corporate-controlled Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). But Drury misunderstood the article to justify his own biased decision.

Article: Two-party debates A Corporate-Funded, Party-Created Commission Decides Who Debates — and Who Stays Home
Link: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2008/09/18/3057/two-party-debates

After the 1992 performance of Ross Perot, the CPD was set up by the Republican and Democratic Parties with a board of directors made up primarily of committed partisans from each, specifically to take total control of the debates, choosing the locations, rules, moderators, and participating candidates.

The two major parties would rather not compete with ideas, but with partisan branding. Every year, public dissatisfaction with our politics grows worse. Every year, the guardians of political debate narrow the discussion even more.

Numerous comments have been made by concerned voters on articles relating to Platt’s exclusion, in effect calling for fairness and inclusion and calling the debate a farce, full of predictable stock responses and gotcha moments.

What else would have been discussed in the debate? With Eugene Platt in the debate we would have heard about the wasteful and dangerous federal subsidies of the MOX reactor in the Savannah River Site. We would have heard Platt advocate a non-interventionist foreign policy. We would have heard a genuine sustainable environmental point of view.

Check out http://voteplatt.com/issues/

VOTE PLATT MAY 7, 2013.

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South Carolina Green Party: Include Platt in Debate

South Carolina Green PartyFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
To: South Carolina Media
South Carolina Green Party:  Include Platt in Debate
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Charleston, SC; Columbia, SC

CONTACT
Eugene Platt, Nominee for 1st Congressional District
Scott West, Co-Chair, SC Green Party, 347-581-0230

South Carolina Green Party:  Include Platt in Debate
Eugene Platt should be included in the Monday April 29, 2013 debate for the May 7 special congressional election.

Eugene Platt is a public servant of long standing, having been reelected to the James Island Public Service District every four years since 1994.

Eugene Platt ran as the Democratic Party nominee in the 1st Congressional District during the 1992 election.

The public is better served by a diversity of voices and viewpoints representing all parts of the political spectrum.

Many polls do not include candidates who are not members of the two major parties. Public Policy Polling mentioned Eugene Platt in the April 24 poll, after previous polling data suggested a tie in the race between Sanford and Colbert-Busch.  Now that apolitical drama has created an advantage for Colbert-Busch, The Citadel has acted to exclude Eugene Platt from the scheduled Monday debate.

This commitment to horse race politics does not serve the public interest. The local media and local institutions like the Patch and the AARP do a terrible disservice to the people of South Carolina, when they reduce political debate to an empty, content-free show.

Without Eugene Platt, the most that will come from the Citadel debate is a series of “gotcha” moments.

With Platt, the debate will be compelled to widen the scope of debate and seriously discuss such issues as

* Health Care:  Eugene Platt is a long-time supporter of universal health care.  If the goal is to sustainably provide health care for all Americans, only a single-payer national insurance plan will work.  Both the unfettered-market approach favored by the Republican and the mandated insurance favored by the Democrat will leave millions uninsured and fail to control costs.

* War:  Eugene Platt is in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy.  The United States made a serious mistake in invading Iraq in 2003 in a manipulated search for non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. Opposition to the 2003 Iraq war is a litmus test for future action against military adventures.

* Illegal Immigration and the Economy:  South Carolina, America, and nearby countries need local economic control and development.  This meant increased power to labor unions in the workplace to control conditions, profits and benefits, and the decentralization of development.  Strengthening local labor markets abroad through decentralized development will lessen the dislocation of economic migrants across borders.

* Political Openness: Eugene Platt is the embodiment of effective local politicians who do not fit inside the mainstream. If we cannot incorporate common-sense progressive proposals into the political debate, our society is the poorer for it, mistakes will be made, and opportunities missed.

About the Green Party
The Green Party of the United States has participated in local and congressional elections since the 1980s, notably in the Presidential election to 2000, when nominee Ralph Nader received 2.3% of the national vote.  For more information visit: http://gp.org.

The South Carolina Green Party nominee Tom Clements of Columbia received 121,472 votes or 9.25% of the total in the 2010 U.S. Senate election running against a Democrat and a Republican.  For more information, visit http://scgreenparty.org.

Campaign Links
Eugene Platt for Congress:  http://www.voteplatt.com
Eugene Platt for Congress on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eugene-Platt-for-Congress/14190535917

Green Party Links
Green Party of the United States:  http://gp.org
South Carolina Green Party:  http://scgreenparty.org
South Carolina Green Party on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/SouthCarolinaGreenParty

Eugene Platt, Jill Stein, South Carolina Special Election

News Analysis: Green in SC Congressional race vs Colbert sister, disgraced ex-Governor
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News Analysis: Green in SC Congressional race vs Colbert sister, disgraced ex-Governor

The libertarian news site Whiteout Press runs a very favorable article on the Eugene Platt campaign for Congress.

Get ready for the most television-driven Congressional race of 2013. In one month, voters will go to the polls in the South Carolina Special Election featuring a disgraced former Governor against an unknown, inexperienced sister of a popular Comedy Central host. But there is a third option – the Green Party’s Eugene Platt. And he’s serious, experienced and credible.

A native of Charleston, Eugene Platt is a retired Federal Civil Service employee. He’s also the son of a South Carolina Naval shipyard worker and a veteran US Army paratrooper. He’s nobody’s push-over. And unlike his two opponents in next month’s Special Election to replace newly-appointed US Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Platt has spent the last 20 years serving his local community as an elected member of the James Island Public Service District Commission. In fact, he’s the Green Party’s only elected official in the state.

It’s safe to say that public service is a life-long passion of Eugene Platt. His sincerity and honesty comes shining through with little doubt. Strangely, that’s yet another characteristic that his two opponents seem to be lacking. Through their powerful friends in the corporate media, the Democrats’ Elizabeth Colbert Busch and the Republicans’ Mark Sanford have already taken their fight to New York – to a playing field of celebrities and lifestyles that Platt and the rest of the 1st district are rarely welcomed or invited.

Read more: http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/q22013/green-in-sc-congressional-race-vs-colbert-sister-disgraced-ex-go/