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Run Ralph. Don't Run Ralph. Run Someone Else.
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| Contributor | User 13 |
| Last Edited | User 13 Mar 21, 2004 04:44pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Thursday, March 11, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Hartford City Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton Sheff is running for her first statewide office this weekend--chairwoman of the Connecticut Green Party. But if the party decides to back Ralph Nader for president, Horton Sheff can't even say whether she would accept the job she is seeking.
"I would have some serious soul-searching to do about my relationship with the Green Party," Horton Sheff says.
By plunging into the 2004 presidential election as an independent candidate, Nader has stoked the ire of Democratic Party leaders across the country. Nader's decision is also sparking much debate within the Connecticut Green Party as it heads into a statewide convention March 13 and a vote on whether to endorse his candidacy.
Horton Sheff does not believe the Green Party should field any candidate for president. That position puts her into one of three philosophical camps within the Connecticut organization. The Greens should join with other progressives in making the ouster of George W. Bush a priority, she says.
"I think there is a perception that the Green Party assisted the Republican Party in stealing the [2000] election. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant, because perception in politics rules," she says.
Not one to mute her opinions, Horton Sheff has been quite vocal in criticizing Nader for doing too little to engage people of color. The two politicians even got into a back-and-forth on the national stage: Horton Sheff told the Nation magazine that Nader's appeal was not broad enough to reach her community. Nader responded on CNN Crossfire that he was fighting for civil rights when she was "in short pants." Sheff, not incidentally, has led the fight for school integration in Connecticut for more than a decade; the "Sheff" in the landmark desegragation Sheff v. O'Neill is her son, Milo.
A second group of activists--which includes Charlie Pillsbury, a longtime New Haven peace activist who ran for Congress two years ago--believes the Green Party sh |
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