STEIN RAPS GALVIN FOR"16 MINUTES OF DODGING"

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 5th, 2006
Contact: Jill Stein, 617-852-4727

STEIN RAPS GALVIN FOR "16 MINUTES OF DODGING" - CITES PROBLEMS WITH LOBBYING AND VOTING RIGHTS

In response to the 16-minute closed debate on Friday between incumbent Secretary of State William Galvin and challenger Jill Stein, Stein issued the following statement:

The already inadequate nature of the 16 minute debate was not helped by Secretary Galvin's refusal to grapple with the real issues we are facing. After waiting 8 months to see him appear in a public forum, I felt we were treated to little more than 16 minutes of dodging and distraction. Two key points should be noted:

Lobbyist influence: In response to our observation that the state controls on lobbyists have failed miserably and that the legislative agenda is being manipulated to do favors for the well-connected, the Secretary replied that "we've had vigorous enforcement of the lobbying laws . . we've brought over 150 enforcement actions against lobbyists to make sure that their reports are filed, and are thorough and complete." The Secretary does not seem to recognize that lobbyist influence is a critical problem not being solved by the filing of paperwork. It deserves the utmost effort of the Secretary, both in alerting the public to the harm it does and in the proposal of legislative remedies. Under Secretary Galvin's watch lobbyists for Big Dig contractors, health insurance companies, and electric utilities manipulated the legislative agenda and imposed billions in costs and fees on the working people of Massachusetts. The "enforcement actions" with regard to filings - while a necessary part of the bureaucratic process - are in no way adequate to the depth of the problem. The Secretary has failed to indicate that he sees any urgency in getting influence-peddling under control. But this is at the top of the list of the problems I intend to address.

Voting Rights: When I commented that "Voting rights violations have gone far beyond simply having foreign language ballots..." Secretary Galvin interrupted me and said "You've made an accusation that's not true. What are those additional violations?" I had time to point out only one - the thousands of postcards discouraging mainly Latino voters in Lawrence from voting. I find it astonishing that Secretary Galvin seems unaware of the variety of other violations that are mentioned in the several lawsuits the U.S. Department of Justice filed under his watch. The problems cited include lack of bilingual poll workers, inadequate pre-election information, lack of information on Election Department websites, voter discouragement by rude treatment, and preventing assistants from helping Latino voters. If the Secretary is really unaware of these problems, then that explains his lack of interest in talking about what needs to be done to solve them. As Secretary I will not only acknowledge the problems, but will work to solve them - and I won't wait to be sued by the Department of Justice.