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Pennsylvania Green Party Announces Candidates

Attention: News Editor
For Immediate Release
Contact:
I.K. Samways, 412-215-9161
Katrina Brabham, 412-323-9577

GREEN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA
http://www.gpofpa.org

Green Party Nominates Packer for U.S. Senate
Bortz to run for Congress
D'Agostino, Giordano, Farrington and Sweeney for State Rep.

Monroeville, PA - On Sunday, Feb. 21, 2010, the Green Party of Pennsylvania approved nominations for six candidates to compete in the November general election. Long-time peace activist Mel Packer will be at the top of the ticket as the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate.

Packer works as a Physician Assistant in an emergency room in Pittsburgh. Prior to becoming a PA, he was a Teamster and helped organize Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a rank-and-file union democracy movement. Packer was recently on the board of the Thomas Merton Center, a nationally-known peace and social justice center.

In a speech to convention-goers Saturday night, Packer referred to the country's economic condition by saying, "As a nation, we must rise to new personal and collective heights; understand that this battle is not just an economic battle, but a moral battle to save the soul of this nation. We must take on the Goliaths that stalk our land, plunder our economic wealth, pillage our communities and soil, and recognize that they only have power because we give them power."

The Green Party also approved the nomination of Ed Bortz of Pittsburgh to run against Rep. Mike Doyle in the race for U.S. House of Representatives, 14th District. The Green Party has challenged Doyle twice before with Titus North, who received one of the highest percentages for a third party candidate in Pennsylvania history.

Bortz distinguished Green Party candidates from the rest of the field by saying, "The Green Party offers a non-corporate clean break from the dirty money-dominated 'politics as usual.' Greens propose funding for education not Wall Street bailouts. Greens propose sanity in foreign policy, bringing all of our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and redirecting the bloated war budget toward universal healthcare, human and environmental needs. Green Party legislators will send the health insurance and corporate lobbyists packing...and open up the process to the stakeholders that have been locked out...the voters."

Four candidates have declared for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Dr. Rex D'Agostino will run in the 183rd District, which covers parts of Lehigh and Northampton Counties. Roy Farrington of Clinton County will vie for the 76th District while Jay Sweeney, a longtime activist, former Green Party officer and expert on the Marcellus Shale, will run in the 111th District in the far northeast of the state. Also seeking a PA House seat is Hugh Giordano of Philadelphia, in the 194th District largely contained within that city. He will be running for the open seat recently left vacant by Kathy Manderino's retirement.

"We're very excited about the upcoming campaign season," said new GPPA Chair I.K. Samways of Pittsburgh. "Our slate of candidates is very impressive and all are passionate about challenging the two-party orthodoxy with which voters are increasingly expressing their displeasure. Their geographic diversity speaks volumes about how far and wide our message is already propagating throughout the Commonwealth."

The Green Party of Pennsylvania is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. The Green Party of Pennsylvania stands for grassroots democracy, sustainable economics, nonviolence, and ecology.

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