Well, it was pointed out here that Gloria La Riva has appeared on the
California ballot numerous times when she was running for various posts.
Not being a Californian I am not sure of this, but I think she is prone
to appear on the ballot on the Green Party ballot line. I am not sure
that is the correct thing to do. She is a member of the Party for
Socialism and Liberation. In that capacity she is running to facilitate
the PSL's efforts at agitation and propaganda. The PSL also advocates
independent political action by the working class. Now, if you look at a
ballot and see a name under the Green Party line then just what party do
you assume the candidate is a part of? Which party do you assume that
the candidate is promoting? Yes, I know that getting on the ballot under
the line of your own party is difficult, but I see that as an
opportunity for propaganda too. I have circulated such petitions for
ballot status myself and I know that to a lot of petitioners it is a
chore and the activity is all around getting as many signatures as
possible in the allotted time. Personally, I remember that is we get on
the ballot we are not going to be elected anyway and if the whole
purpose of getting on the ballot is for propaganda purposes then it
makes sense to take advantage of any opportunities to disseminate
propaganda even if it slows down signature collection. That is why when
petitioning if someone wanted to talk I would stop and talk instead of
just getting rid of the person so that I could go on to the next
signature. There is often a lot of room to explain what the candidate is
all about. Here in West Virginia there is the Mountain Party. That was
founded in the 1990s when Denise Giardina ran for governor. She actually
ran as an independent and her main platform plank - in fact, nearly the
whole platform - was to oppose mountaintop removal. The trouble is that
when filing if she had filed as an independent her ballot line would
have existed for that election alone and if she wanted to run again it
would mean petitioning all over again so she founded the Mountain Party.
It consisted of her and her supporters, but state law stated that if a
candidate for governor got at least, I think, two percent of the vote
then the ballot line would remain until a candidate on that ballot line
failed to get that percentage. Denise quit running for governor, but she
specifically said that anyone could have the ballot line so that anyone
who wanted to offer an alternative to the Republicrats could file under
that party and get on the ballot. In practice the Green Party took it
over such that now the Green Party in West Virginia is the Mountain
Party. The PSL is not active in West Virginia, but I suppose that if
they were they would run Gloria as a Mountain Party candidate. But how
would people identify Gloria La Riva? She would be identified with the
Mountain party and, of course, the Green Party people would be upset at
her. Anyway, when I asked you if you would consider Gloria La Riva I did
so only because she is the only best candidate that I see right now. It
is still early, though, and I expect that others will be announcing and
I will prefer someone else. As for learning more about her, you can
google her for one thing. But let me say something about how I choose
the articles I post here. I read the radical left press on line and when
I am doing so if an article strikes me whether I agree with it or not I
go ahead and post it here. As you have probably noticed I usually read
the entire issue of The Militant, not always, but when one of the
articles appears here that means that I just read it. I don't always
have the time to read the whole thing. I read others of the radical
press too, so that means that as time passes I am likely to post more
articles about Gloria's candidacy and others too as they come along.
On 9/22/2015 11:59 PM, Bob Hachey wrote:
Hi Roger,
Gloria La Riva was indeed not on the Massachusetts ballot. I will endeavor
to learn more about her and do know that I could write her in.
However, I do feel very closely aligned with the Green Party.
Bob
