Jill Stein Announces Campaign For Mass. Governor

BOSTON/State House - Declaring Monday February 8th the day "we start to take control of our commonwealth our common health and our common future " Green-Rainbow Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein announced she would run for Governor of Massachusetts this year at a rally on the State House steps. Surrounded by supporters holding signs Stein named some of the pressing issues on which she would focus during the campaign. "Crumbling schools unjust and racially biased CORI and drug laws regressive taxes crushing costs of war climate threats to our economy and the list goes on." She noted "...all of these fall most hard on the low income and communities of color across the commonwealth." This is Stein's second foray into the governor's race having campaigned for that office in 2002. Since then she also has run locally for state representative in 2004 and statewide in 2006 for Secretary of the Commonwealth. Currently she serves as a member of Town Meeting in Lexington. Dave England a Stein supporter and a tax preparer from Brookline expressed disappointment in Democrats and Republicans who he said "seem to regard the environment as an optional issue they can deal with in good times but as soon as bad comes like the financial crisis that we're in now they abandon it entirely." He said he sees many people buried in debt and at risk of losing their jobs and added he believes a Stein campaign will help focus attention on economic sustainability and green jobs. OMB Audio: Inrterview with Dave England Feb 8 2010 Following her campaign announcement Stein spoke with reporters who asked about her election strategies. In the aftermath of Republican Scott Brown's successful bid for the U.S. Senate and his strong showing in middle class suburban areas of the state both Democrats and third parties are trying to figure out how to appeal to this demographic. Stein didn't reveal any specific tactics saying only that she would "spend her time all over the Commonwealth." "I think people are searching for answers " she said. "I think we're at a time of great change right now. I think the old paradigms aren't exactly holding up...and voters are ready and anxious to be engaged by real solutions and a real honest discussion of what's going on and how we can fix it." This is the third time since 2000 the MA Green-Rainbow Party has sponsored a candidate for governor. In 2006 Grace Ross of Worcester convinced organizers to allow her to participate in several televised debates but received just under 2% of the statewide vote. Now the director of the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending Ross reportedly has filed to run as a Democrat in the primary against incumbent Governor Deval Patrick. [Update: Yesterday Grace Ross confirmed via voicemail that she is in fact running for governor in the Democratic Party primary.] OMB Audio: Jill Stein Announcement of Campaign for MA governor Web Resources http://www.jillstein.org/ Bookmark/Search this post with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Newsvine Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati