Green Party Release on Tainted Guv Candidates

<>Contacts:

Ruth Weill, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party, 414-562-6097 or 414-350-2107, spokespersons@wisconsingreenparty.org

Bob Poeschl, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party, 920 312-0529, spokespersons@wisconsingreenparty.org

Jim Doyle, Scott Walker, Mark Green too Tainted to Lead to Clean Government, say Wisconsin Greens

Governor rejects special session on campaign finance reform

Jim Doyle, who has been charged with being influenced by contributions from Indian tribes, Adelman Travel executives, and those who urged the Public Service Commission's approval of the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, recently decided against calling a special legislative session on campaign finance reform.

“People want clean government,” said Ruth Weill, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party. “Although our Wisconsin government is now known for its corruption, none of the current candidates, Jim Doyle, Scott Walker, nor Mark Green, will be able to lead the way to clean government. All three have received large donations from special interests, and all three have been charged with allowing those donations to influence their political decisions.”

The Wisconsin Green Party advocates for public financing of campaigns, and public airtime for candidates. Wisconsin Green Party candidates do not accept money from PAC’s.

“It is clear that money is corrupting our system. Therefore, we need to reform our election system to eliminate corrupting influences,” said Weill.

A recent nationwide Associated Press/IPSOS poll showed that 88% of those polled felt that political corruption is a very or somewhat serious problem. A poll conducted by the St. Norbert College Survey Center for Wisconsin Public Radio stated that political corruption is one of the most common answers people gave when asked to identify the most important problem facing the state of Wisconsin.

“It must be hard for someone like Mark Green, who rose up through the Wisconsin legislative ranks at the same time as the caucus scandals got their start, to show leadership in bringing clean government to our state,” said Bob Poeschl, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party.

Mark Green has taken money with connections to Tom DeLay, who was indicted for corruption. The three Republican and Democratic candidates for governor, Scott Walker, Mark Green, and Jim Doyle, have accepted nearly $23,000 since 2003 from Illinois contributors who have been convicted or indicted of extortion, fraud, bribery or other crimes, or who are connected to state and federal criminal investigations, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has found. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, a Republican candidate for governor, recently returned $325 in campaign contributions to executives of a company that won a $250,000 no-bid county contract.

“We need a candidate for the 2006 governor’s race that stands for clean government,” said Tony Palmeri, a Wisconsin Green who ran for Assembly in 2004. “So far, the field is empty.”

The Wisconsin Green Party is affiliated with the Green Party of the United States, and stands on the four pillars of Social & Economic Justice, Grassroots Democracy, Nonviolence, and Ecological Wisdom. For more information, visit http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org . The Green Party of the United States' website is http://www.gp.org .