In Maryland, Kevin Zeese Takes On The Power Brokers
Michael Butler
October 10, 2005
The most credible case to come along in many years for a non-major-party candidacy in a U.S. Senate election is standing right now in Maryland, "The Free State."
Kevin Zeese, the outspoken Director of the campaign at DemocracyRising.US for a responsible end to the American occupation in Iraq, national leader in the movement to impeach George Bush, recognized authority on drug policy, public health issues and election reform, former Press Secretary to the 2004 Presidential Campaign of Ralph Nader, is gathering all the voices of the Unrepresented Majority to claim a place on Capitol Hill.
His "fusion campaign" linking members of the Green Party, Populist Party, and Libertarian Party is unique in Maryland history. These are, of course, a diverse lot; but Zeese offers a cross-ideological stance that upholds the core values of each group. He is an opponent of the Patriot Act, and an advocate for the basic freedoms that "unleash the creativity, entrepreneurship and greatness of Americans" championed by the Libertarians. His entire career has supported the calls for economic justice, closing tax loopholes, an end to corporate welfare and fairness for working families carried forward by Populists.
And he presents the ten key principles of the Green Party as "a common sense outline of where the country needs to go."
Zeese is the uniter who has drawn these three movements under one wing, together with Democrats, Republicans, and non-aligned voters—the fastest-growing constituency in Maryland politics—to stake a common purpose. They all share a determination to be heard, to have a place at the table, to have a voice in the mainstream debate; and the combined power of their efforts, if translated to public office in November 2006, holds a thunderous promise.
"I've worked for 30 years as an advocate for positive change," Zeese asserts, "ending the war on drugs, ensuring our votes are counted on machines with a paper record, protecting civil liberties and seeking peace. And one lesson I've learned is that you can have the facts on your side, have common sense on your side, have justice on your side—even have a majority of Americans on your side--—and still our elected representatives will ignore you and put special interests first."
Right now, as Zeese points out, the U.S. war in Iraq is "a defining issue of our times." But while polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans favor an immediate withdrawal of some or all U.S. troops, both Democrats and Republicans in Washington are unwilling to publicly discuss the realities of an American exit from Iraq. As far back as January 2005, polls began to show that a majority of citizens agreed the U.S. invasion was a "mistake," not worth the cost either in lives or in dollars, and in fact was having a harmful effect on combating terrorism. But the small, growing number of elected officials who share that view have had a difficult struggle attempting to force a resolution or bring the issue before their colleagues for general consideration. The manipulation of parliamentary procedure to deny rational discourse is so extreme that "they can't even get a room," Zeese charges.
Even without the presence of Zeese bringing his wild-card Independent campaign to challenge the entrenched incumbency of the two-party system, the Maryland Senate race is expected to draw national attention. Retiring five-term Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes has left a wide-open field that so far has drawn a raucous crowd of half a dozen contenders vying for the nomination in his place. On the Republican side, Lt. Governor Michael Steele—the party's highest-ranking elected African-American—is the clear front-runner.
Still an undeclared candidate, Steele has already drawn controversy for a fundraiser featuring Karl Rove, and is at the center of a scandal implicating Democratic operatives digging illegally into his credit report. Although Maryland—the home of RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman—has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold, the Dems' strength (and enrollment) has declined in recent years, while the GOP has been in ascendancy. Nationally-driven support for Steele's rising star is expected to give him a campaign budget of up to 17 million dollars, with allies such as California Governor Schwarzenegger stumping on his behalf.
Civil rights leader Kweisi Mfume, distinguished former head of the NAACP, five-term U.S. Congressman from Baltimore, leader of the Congressional Black Caucus from 1992-1994, was the first to declare his candidacy for the Democratic nod. Stressing the need to raise the visibility of the problem of poverty and the concerns of the disadvantaged, Mfume also took up the banner of the anti-war movement. There are "two voices in the Democratic Party" he declared, making it plain that he will not echo the silence of leaders whose failure to assert strong opposition to the war has made them culpable for its continuation.
Greeted with stony indifference by the party faithful for a full month after his dedication, Mfume's bid took a plunge in April when Baltimore-area Congressman Ben Cardin announced his intention to seek the spot. One day later, uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct during Mfume's term at NAACP surfaced in the Baltimore press, taking front-page status. Mfume's fundraising has gone from negligible to almost nil. Press coverage has dried up; and one reporter called him "the invisible candidate."
More than a year in advance of the election, Maryland state officeholders and Democratic party leaders have been lining up by the dozen to give Cardin their public endorsement. More than a year before the primaries, his fundraising topped one million dollars.
As a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Cardin's influence over tax legislation has made him an attractive recipient of donations from banking, finance and real estate lobbies, the largest single category of his supporters. Well-known political commentator Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, noted that Cardin is "the biggest percentage recipient of corporate PAC money of any national Democrat in Maryland." Lichtman launched his own campaign for the Senate seat in September, sharply criticizing Cardin's record and philosophy.
Portraying himself after the example of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, Lich tman went down the list of "what is wrong in Washington," tallying the shortcomings of the Bush administration and Republicans in general, but leaving no doubt that plenty of problems have been caused, exacerbated, or ignored by Ben Cardin during almost 20 years in Congress. "Too many Democrats have...forfeited our destiny," Lichtman accused. Cardin has contributed to "a politics...where money is more important than the needs of the people." Cardin is associated with the worst excesses of the Patriot Act; and his toe-the-line support for American intervention in Iraq has embroiled the nation in a "needless, deceptive war."
Lichtman warned the Democratic establishment that their tactic of appointing Ben Cardin the de facto heir to Paul Sarbanes was "a recipe for a Republican Senator in 2006." But Cardin is the likely Democratic favorite. In his eighth House term, with powerful committee memberships and with leadership positions such as the Steering Committee of the House Democratic Caucus, Cardin aims to be a standard-bearer for the party's centrist aspirations.
If things go true to form in Maryland during next year's primaries, both major parties will anoint professional political insiders who can be expected to uphold the continuing maintenance of business-as-usual: a government owned and operated by wealthy interests, for the benefit of wealthy interests; a government of the people, contrary to the will of the people.
But on both sides of the aisle, there will be challengers mobilizing the grassroots, speaking out and raising the issues of civil liberties, gay rights, fiscal responsibility, economic justice, racial inequality, alternative energy, protecting the environment, excessive corporate influence and moral values that will not be represented by their party's chosen. The nominees will then have to woo the supporters of their defeated primary opponents in the general election to come. With Kevin Zeese calling on Marylanders to chart "a new political course...a new direction for politics in America," voters will be asked to decide whether the two parties really hold an incontestable, inherited right to the offices of the Senate.
A "big tent" is wonderful, and a party that welcomes diversity is something to celebrate. But if a party takes your vote and gives you nothing in return for your support? If you know that the country is headed in the wrong direction, but party leadership will not embrace the best interests of the nation?
In Maryland, there will be a clear alternative, and a credible candidate who will stand up for the unrepresented electorate on both sides. Kevin Zeese will be standing up for those who were washed away from their rooftops by Hurricane Katrina, the victims of policies administered by two parties who have (wittingly or unwittingly) conspired to let the interests of an elite few masquerade as national interest. The misplaced budget priorities, decades of neglecting infrastructure maintenance and upgrading, the failure to serve the people's needs in New Orleans was brought on by a party that stands for oppression and corruption, masked by a holier-than-thou mentality they use to justify transgressing the rights of their fellow citizens; and by a party that aids and abets oppression and corruption with equal damage to truth, masked by well-meaning, warm-hearted platitudes that they do not fully live up to.
More than any other single factor, the outcome of this race may depend on the votes of African-Americans, who constitute one-third of the Maryland electorate—forty percent in the Democratic primary. Republicans hope to present them with the attractive image of a successful black candidate who advocates passionately for parental involvement in education, delivers inspiring speeches cut from the cloth of Abraham Lincoln, and puts a friendly face on their message of triumphant conservatism. But Democrats are treading a rocky path.
Unlike Steele, Mfume speaks not to the promise of elite attainment, but to the kind of gritty victory over everyday adversity that lifts audiences to their feet. He touches a groundswell that cannot be denied. But to this point, he has been distinctly snubbed by the party machine; and there have even been mutterings that he should melt away. Not likely; Mfume announced his candidacy with a decisive emphasis: "I can't be bought, I won't be intimidated, and I don't know how to quit." Things are not so simple as a strict color line, of course. Other African-American leaders in Maryland have held back their endorsement, waiting to see which way the political winds are blowing; and they acknowledge there's more than racial politics at work. But if Mfume is cast aside without respect, leaving perceptions of mistreatment that offend his supporters—or if the eventual nominee fails to speak convincingly to their interests—Democrats risk alienating a substantial portion of their own base.
Zeese will offer them a third way. From his earliest days as a lawyer working to correct the misguided direction of the nation's failed war on drugs, including a position on Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's Mayor's Working Group on Drug Policy Reform, Zeese has been involved with efforts to protect Americans from the unjust effects of laws that take a disproportionate toll on the poor and disadvantaged. Like Mfume, he has been active at the forefront of movements to restore and fulfill the dream of an America built on egalitarian principles—marching with the Journey For Justice, for example, on behalf of 43 mostly black residents of Tulia, Texas caught up in a fabricated drug sting; and bringing attention to the death of Esequiel Hernandez, a high school student herding goats who was killed by U.S. Marines on the Mexican border. Zeese has been President, Founder, or helped to develop more than a dozen organizations defending the rights of all Americans, including Common Sense For Drug Policy, the Harm Reduction Coalition, TrueVoteMD and VoteTrustUSA.
Other candidates, too, will have something to say to the issues of race and class. Lichtman, for example, was an analyst for the Civil Rights Commission who published controversial findings showing that the theft of Florida's electoral votes in the 2000 Presidential election was not enabled by the participation of Ralph Nader or any other third-party candidate, but was accomplished by systematic and pervasive disenfranchisement of African-American voters.
But if Ben Cardin succeeds to win the Democratic nomination, this race may well shape up to look like John Kerry versus the Peace Movement deja vu.
Voters may be asked—again—to support a party whose chief virtue is that "we're not the other guy," when the guy they present does not offer any path except deepening the crisis at hand. Voters may be asked—again—to support a party that does not represent their true interests, a party that has helped to create all the current crises that we have inherited, a party that has shown no moral leadership or capacity to govern even when it has held the reins of power.
Voters may be asked—again—to take a leap of faith when they have little to gain, and little to lose by the victory or defeat of either side.
While Ben Cardin runs to get elected on John Kerry's coattails, Michael Steele doesn't have to run—he's just riding in George Bush's vest pocket. But Kevin Zeese is asking Americans to join him in helping to take back the government that is rightfully theirs, and put an end to an unjust war.
To find out more about Kevin Zeese's Unity Campaign for the U.S. Senate, to volunteer or donate, go to http://www.kevinzeese.com.
Michael Butler was a media spokesperson for the Presidential campaign of Ralph Nader in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota during Autumn 2004.
10.7.05 Michael Butler All rights reserved.
michael.butler@synthesisinstitute.net
Kevin Zeese, the outspoken Director of the campaign at DemocracyRising.US for a responsible end to the American occupation in Iraq, national leader in the movement to impeach George Bush, recognized authority on drug policy, public health issues and election reform, former Press Secretary to the 2004 Presidential Campaign of Ralph Nader, is gathering all the voices of the Unrepresented Majority to claim a place on Capitol Hill.
His "fusion campaign" linking members of the Green Party, Populist Party, and Libertarian Party is unique in Maryland history. These are, of course, a diverse lot; but Zeese offers a cross-ideological stance that upholds the core values of each group. He is an opponent of the Patriot Act, and an advocate for the basic freedoms that "unleash the creativity, entrepreneurship and greatness of Americans" championed by the Libertarians. His entire career has supported the calls for economic justice, closing tax loopholes, an end to corporate welfare and fairness for working families carried forward by Populists.
And he presents the ten key principles of the Green Party as "a common sense outline of where the country needs to go."
Zeese is the uniter who has drawn these three movements under one wing, together with Democrats, Republicans, and non-aligned voters—the fastest-growing constituency in Maryland politics—to stake a common purpose. They all share a determination to be heard, to have a place at the table, to have a voice in the mainstream debate; and the combined power of their efforts, if translated to public office in November 2006, holds a thunderous promise.
"I've worked for 30 years as an advocate for positive change," Zeese asserts, "ending the war on drugs, ensuring our votes are counted on machines with a paper record, protecting civil liberties and seeking peace. And one lesson I've learned is that you can have the facts on your side, have common sense on your side, have justice on your side—even have a majority of Americans on your side--—and still our elected representatives will ignore you and put special interests first."
Right now, as Zeese points out, the U.S. war in Iraq is "a defining issue of our times." But while polls have consistently shown that a majority of Americans favor an immediate withdrawal of some or all U.S. troops, both Democrats and Republicans in Washington are unwilling to publicly discuss the realities of an American exit from Iraq. As far back as January 2005, polls began to show that a majority of citizens agreed the U.S. invasion was a "mistake," not worth the cost either in lives or in dollars, and in fact was having a harmful effect on combating terrorism. But the small, growing number of elected officials who share that view have had a difficult struggle attempting to force a resolution or bring the issue before their colleagues for general consideration. The manipulation of parliamentary procedure to deny rational discourse is so extreme that "they can't even get a room," Zeese charges.
Even without the presence of Zeese bringing his wild-card Independent campaign to challenge the entrenched incumbency of the two-party system, the Maryland Senate race is expected to draw national attention. Retiring five-term Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes has left a wide-open field that so far has drawn a raucous crowd of half a dozen contenders vying for the nomination in his place. On the Republican side, Lt. Governor Michael Steele—the party's highest-ranking elected African-American—is the clear front-runner.
Still an undeclared candidate, Steele has already drawn controversy for a fundraiser featuring Karl Rove, and is at the center of a scandal implicating Democratic operatives digging illegally into his credit report. Although Maryland—the home of RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman—has traditionally been a Democratic stronghold, the Dems' strength (and enrollment) has declined in recent years, while the GOP has been in ascendancy. Nationally-driven support for Steele's rising star is expected to give him a campaign budget of up to 17 million dollars, with allies such as California Governor Schwarzenegger stumping on his behalf.
Civil rights leader Kweisi Mfume, distinguished former head of the NAACP, five-term U.S. Congressman from Baltimore, leader of the Congressional Black Caucus from 1992-1994, was the first to declare his candidacy for the Democratic nod. Stressing the need to raise the visibility of the problem of poverty and the concerns of the disadvantaged, Mfume also took up the banner of the anti-war movement. There are "two voices in the Democratic Party" he declared, making it plain that he will not echo the silence of leaders whose failure to assert strong opposition to the war has made them culpable for its continuation.
Greeted with stony indifference by the party faithful for a full month after his dedication, Mfume's bid took a plunge in April when Baltimore-area Congressman Ben Cardin announced his intention to seek the spot. One day later, uncorroborated allegations of sexual misconduct during Mfume's term at NAACP surfaced in the Baltimore press, taking front-page status. Mfume's fundraising has gone from negligible to almost nil. Press coverage has dried up; and one reporter called him "the invisible candidate."
More than a year in advance of the election, Maryland state officeholders and Democratic party leaders have been lining up by the dozen to give Cardin their public endorsement. More than a year before the primaries, his fundraising topped one million dollars.
As a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Cardin's influence over tax legislation has made him an attractive recipient of donations from banking, finance and real estate lobbies, the largest single category of his supporters. Well-known political commentator Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University, noted that Cardin is "the biggest percentage recipient of corporate PAC money of any national Democrat in Maryland." Lichtman launched his own campaign for the Senate seat in September, sharply criticizing Cardin's record and philosophy.
Portraying himself after the example of Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, Lich tman went down the list of "what is wrong in Washington," tallying the shortcomings of the Bush administration and Republicans in general, but leaving no doubt that plenty of problems have been caused, exacerbated, or ignored by Ben Cardin during almost 20 years in Congress. "Too many Democrats have...forfeited our destiny," Lichtman accused. Cardin has contributed to "a politics...where money is more important than the needs of the people." Cardin is associated with the worst excesses of the Patriot Act; and his toe-the-line support for American intervention in Iraq has embroiled the nation in a "needless, deceptive war."
Lichtman warned the Democratic establishment that their tactic of appointing Ben Cardin the de facto heir to Paul Sarbanes was "a recipe for a Republican Senator in 2006." But Cardin is the likely Democratic favorite. In his eighth House term, with powerful committee memberships and with leadership positions such as the Steering Committee of the House Democratic Caucus, Cardin aims to be a standard-bearer for the party's centrist aspirations.
If things go true to form in Maryland during next year's primaries, both major parties will anoint professional political insiders who can be expected to uphold the continuing maintenance of business-as-usual: a government owned and operated by wealthy interests, for the benefit of wealthy interests; a government of the people, contrary to the will of the people.
But on both sides of the aisle, there will be challengers mobilizing the grassroots, speaking out and raising the issues of civil liberties, gay rights, fiscal responsibility, economic justice, racial inequality, alternative energy, protecting the environment, excessive corporate influence and moral values that will not be represented by their party's chosen. The nominees will then have to woo the supporters of their defeated primary opponents in the general election to come. With Kevin Zeese calling on Marylanders to chart "a new political course...a new direction for politics in America," voters will be asked to decide whether the two parties really hold an incontestable, inherited right to the offices of the Senate.
A "big tent" is wonderful, and a party that welcomes diversity is something to celebrate. But if a party takes your vote and gives you nothing in return for your support? If you know that the country is headed in the wrong direction, but party leadership will not embrace the best interests of the nation?
In Maryland, there will be a clear alternative, and a credible candidate who will stand up for the unrepresented electorate on both sides. Kevin Zeese will be standing up for those who were washed away from their rooftops by Hurricane Katrina, the victims of policies administered by two parties who have (wittingly or unwittingly) conspired to let the interests of an elite few masquerade as national interest. The misplaced budget priorities, decades of neglecting infrastructure maintenance and upgrading, the failure to serve the people's needs in New Orleans was brought on by a party that stands for oppression and corruption, masked by a holier-than-thou mentality they use to justify transgressing the rights of their fellow citizens; and by a party that aids and abets oppression and corruption with equal damage to truth, masked by well-meaning, warm-hearted platitudes that they do not fully live up to.
More than any other single factor, the outcome of this race may depend on the votes of African-Americans, who constitute one-third of the Maryland electorate—forty percent in the Democratic primary. Republicans hope to present them with the attractive image of a successful black candidate who advocates passionately for parental involvement in education, delivers inspiring speeches cut from the cloth of Abraham Lincoln, and puts a friendly face on their message of triumphant conservatism. But Democrats are treading a rocky path.
Unlike Steele, Mfume speaks not to the promise of elite attainment, but to the kind of gritty victory over everyday adversity that lifts audiences to their feet. He touches a groundswell that cannot be denied. But to this point, he has been distinctly snubbed by the party machine; and there have even been mutterings that he should melt away. Not likely; Mfume announced his candidacy with a decisive emphasis: "I can't be bought, I won't be intimidated, and I don't know how to quit." Things are not so simple as a strict color line, of course. Other African-American leaders in Maryland have held back their endorsement, waiting to see which way the political winds are blowing; and they acknowledge there's more than racial politics at work. But if Mfume is cast aside without respect, leaving perceptions of mistreatment that offend his supporters—or if the eventual nominee fails to speak convincingly to their interests—Democrats risk alienating a substantial portion of their own base.
Zeese will offer them a third way. From his earliest days as a lawyer working to correct the misguided direction of the nation's failed war on drugs, including a position on Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's Mayor's Working Group on Drug Policy Reform, Zeese has been involved with efforts to protect Americans from the unjust effects of laws that take a disproportionate toll on the poor and disadvantaged. Like Mfume, he has been active at the forefront of movements to restore and fulfill the dream of an America built on egalitarian principles—marching with the Journey For Justice, for example, on behalf of 43 mostly black residents of Tulia, Texas caught up in a fabricated drug sting; and bringing attention to the death of Esequiel Hernandez, a high school student herding goats who was killed by U.S. Marines on the Mexican border. Zeese has been President, Founder, or helped to develop more than a dozen organizations defending the rights of all Americans, including Common Sense For Drug Policy, the Harm Reduction Coalition, TrueVoteMD and VoteTrustUSA.
Other candidates, too, will have something to say to the issues of race and class. Lichtman, for example, was an analyst for the Civil Rights Commission who published controversial findings showing that the theft of Florida's electoral votes in the 2000 Presidential election was not enabled by the participation of Ralph Nader or any other third-party candidate, but was accomplished by systematic and pervasive disenfranchisement of African-American voters.
But if Ben Cardin succeeds to win the Democratic nomination, this race may well shape up to look like John Kerry versus the Peace Movement deja vu.
Voters may be asked—again—to support a party whose chief virtue is that "we're not the other guy," when the guy they present does not offer any path except deepening the crisis at hand. Voters may be asked—again—to support a party that does not represent their true interests, a party that has helped to create all the current crises that we have inherited, a party that has shown no moral leadership or capacity to govern even when it has held the reins of power.
Voters may be asked—again—to take a leap of faith when they have little to gain, and little to lose by the victory or defeat of either side.
While Ben Cardin runs to get elected on John Kerry's coattails, Michael Steele doesn't have to run—he's just riding in George Bush's vest pocket. But Kevin Zeese is asking Americans to join him in helping to take back the government that is rightfully theirs, and put an end to an unjust war.
To find out more about Kevin Zeese's Unity Campaign for the U.S. Senate, to volunteer or donate, go to http://www.kevinzeese.com.
Michael Butler was a media spokesperson for the Presidential campaign of Ralph Nader in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota during Autumn 2004.
10.7.05 Michael Butler All rights reserved.
michael.butler@synthesisinstitute.net
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