GREEN GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES IN MAINE AND
MASSACHUSETTS CHALLENGE DEMOCRATS & REPUBLICANS
BY RUNNING 'CLEAN ELECTION' CAMPAIGNS

*** Maine candidate Jonathan Carter announces the conclusion to the most
intensive signature collection effort in the history of Maine politics
*** Greens say Democrats and Republicans are still addicted to the 'Enron
Fix': big corporate checks

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party candidates for governor in Maine and
Massachusetts are challenging their big-money Democratic and Republican
competition with intense door-to-door campaigns in accord with recently
enacted "Clean Elections" reforms in those states. "Even after passing the
minimal reforms of the
McCain-Feingold bill, Democrats and Republicans are still addicted to big
corporate campaign checks," said Tom Sevigny, a Connecticut Green Activist
and member of the party's national Steering Committee. "They're already
looking for loopholes in the new law. Greens reject that kind of influence,
and we support democratic reforms like public funding of election
campaigns."

While Jonathan Carter of Maine and Jill Stein of Massachusetts are running
their campaigns according to the new Clean Elections rules, the Democratic
and Republican candidates in those states continue to accept the kind of
corporate lobbyists' money that has compromised and corrupted politics and
public policy. "Americans are disgusted and outraged at the hijacking of
democracy by corporate money," said Stuart Shaw, spokesperson for New Jersey
Clean Money United and a member of the Green Party of New Jersey (Bergen
County). "The Enron collapse revealed the extent to which these lobbies have
purchased favor from both the Clinton and Bush Administrations and from both
Democrats and Republicans in Congress. It is exactly this situation we are
facing in New Jersey which has resulted in a financial crisis, a service
crisis, and a environmental crisis. We are gearing up so that New Jersey
citizens can join us to get rid of the Enron donor-donee system."

MAINE: Jonathan Carter, the Green candidate for governor of Maine, has
collected the 2000 signatures from 10,000 voters registered in the Green
Party. He must now collect 2500 $5 contributions to the Maine Clean
Elections Fund from individual registered voters in the state, in order to
qualify for public financing. The
signature drive involved hundreds of volunteers working throughout the
state, re-organizing lists and researching addresses, and traveling miles to
the doors of many voters. "This historic signature collection was
accomplished by a door-to-door effort carried out by citizens of all
political stripes. This was truly a 'We the People' effort," said Carter.
Maine's new law also requires that candidates who qualify for Clean
Elections funding must not accept donations from any outside entity,
ensuring that the candidate owes no allegiance to lobbies seeking favors and
influence. Before qualifying, a candidate may accept no more than
$100 from any individual and no money from PACs, special interests, or
businesses. The Carter campaign has already begun the next challenge of
raising the required citizens' contributions. "The importance of Clean
Elections in returning our government to the people cannot be overstated,"
said Carter. "While other
candidates have chosen the power base of special interests, the Carter
campaign's power base will be the citizens of this great state. We will work
hard to gain their trust and support."

Green Party 2
MASSACHUSETTS: In the other Clean Money campaign, Massachusetts
gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein is encouraged by Carter's effort in
Maine. "This is a real boost to us to see Carter qualify," said Stein. "The
timing, however, couldn't be better for launching the credible alternative
we offer to politics as usual. With a crisis in health care and housing, an
unraveling environment, and economic hard times for so many, people are
catching on that the reign of big money politics as usual has not served us
well. Jonathan Carter's qualifying will energize our efforts even more. We
hope to be following close behind him." Stein is a medical doctor who lives
in Lexington with her two children and her husband, a surgeon at New England
Medical Center in Boston. Attracted to the Greens by the 2000 Nader
campaign, she says her gubernatorial run allows her to campaign for
important solutions to critical problems, solutions such as single-payer
universal health care, a major goal of the Green Party.

MORE INFORMATION
The Green Party of the United States
http://gpus.org
http://www.greenpartyus.org
Jonathan Carter campaign for Governor of Maine
http://www.cartergov.com
Johanna Hill, Press Secretary, 207-522-1067,
johanna@cartergov.com
Tom Fusco, Campaign Manager, 207-729-8104,
tom@cartergov.com
Jill Stein campaign for Governor of Massachusetts
http://www.jillwill.org
http://www.jillforgov.org
Andrew Hinkle, Press Secretary, 617-628-7493,
andrew@jillwill.org

Green Party gubernatorial candidates in 2002
Index: http://www.greens.org/elections
Alaska: Desa Jacbosson
California: Peter Miguel Camejo
http://www.votecamejo.org
Iowa: Jay Robinson
http://jay_l_robinson.blogspot.com
Maine: Jonathan Carter
http://www.cartergov.com
Massachusetts: Jill Stein
http://www.jillforgov.org
Michigan: Douglas Campbell
http://www.migreenguv.org
Minnesota: Ken Pentel
New Mexico: David Bacon
Pennsylvania: Michael Morrill
http://www.michaelmorrill.org
Texas: Rahul Mahajan
Wisconsin: Jim Young
http://www.young4governor.org