Anti-war candidate crashes debate

David Sole WW photo: Cheryl LaBash

David Sole crashed the “Republicrats-only” debate at the Detroit Economic Club on Oct. 18 while his supporters demonstrated outside. Sole, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate on the Stop the War Slate, had filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding his exclusion from the event.

Before the official debate began, Sole joined 500 people at the luncheon. After devouring some chocolate cake, he then jumped onstage with microphone in hand and addressed the stunned audience: “I’m the only anti-war candidate! Why am I excluded from this debate? What is the Economic Club afraid of?”

Sole was promptly set upon by security goons and escorted from the venue as he continued to shout his anti-war message. An ABC local TV affiliate broadcast the scene with Sole at the start of its coverage of the debate.

While the corporate-controlled media continue to boycott news of Sole’s election campaign, the Michigan Citizen, a progressive weekly African American community newspaper, officially endorsed his candidacy in its editorial which read:

“Voters owe it to themselves, their children and ancestors to NOT vote a straight Democratic ticket this Nov. 7 election. The first name to skip over is Debbie Stabenow. She has no right to take the seat as senator from Michigan. She sits as the senator for banking, finance and the George Bush war machine. But she does not represent the working person, whether poor or middle class. When Congress pushed to reward the banking community and the credit card companies with a stricter bankruptcy law, she was right there to reward the creditors and do in the consumer. Thanks to her vote in the Senate, everyone struggling with rising bills, stagnant wages and additional taxes and fees is in deep trouble and with the sometimes needed remedy of bankruptcy all but out of reach. That vote was no isolated incident. She voted for the war in Iraq, a war draining billions from public needs—health care, education, decent housing, environmental justice and worker protections. Death over domestic needs, that’s how Debbie voted and continues to vote.

“Go directly to the Green Party portion of the ballot and cast your vote for David Sole for Senate, a longtime activist for peace and justice. Your vote will send the world a message. You may not be on the winning side in November, but you surely will be on the winning side of history. David Sole for Senate.”

Two other Stop the War Slate candidates took part in debates with their opponents on Oct. 18. Kristen Hamel, Green Party candidate for state representative in Detroit’s 1st District, challenged the Republican incumbent and Democratic candidate at a forum sponsored by the Grosse Pointe League of Women Voters.

In her opening remarks Hamel said: “The state legislature needs to enact immediate emergency measures to turn things around for working and poor families. Let’s start with a moratorium on utility shutoffs, evictions, foreclosures, plant closings and layoffs. Let’s make Michigan attractive to workers with jobs at living wages, rebuilding our cities and towns, with free medical care; let’s offer equally funded top-notch public education and affordable housing. Let’s start to put the people’s needs first. How do we pay for this?

“Our legislature needs to become a leading voice for demanding back Michigan’s share of the Pentagon military budget, over $15 billion a year. We need to demand the U.S. out of Iraq and bring the troops home now. It’s time to stop the war and tax the corporations and use this money to fund jobs and human needs here at home.”

‘Stop racism & anti-gay bashing’

In East Lansing, Michigan State University trustee candidate Lauren Elizabeth Spencer of the Green Party anti-war slate forced her opponents to take an affirmative stand on the issue of defending domestic-partner benefits for lesbian and gay university employees.

Spencer, an MSU sophomore and the youngest candidate, also spoke on the importance of including gender identity and expression in the campus civil-rights code, an issue which only the incumbents seemed to have knowledge of. Tying in the issue of war, Spencer told the audience, “Michigan’s share of the cost of the Iraq war, over $8 billion, could fund over 425,000 full-time four-year college scholarships in Michigan.”

David Sole issued a press advisory on Oct. 20 on the death of 28-year-old Michael J. Sandy, a gay Black man, who died after suffering a brutal anti-gay, racist attack by multiple white assailants in Brooklyn, N.Y. Sole said: “The Foley-gate story dominated broadcast news coverage and headlines in the days prior to this unprovoked attack. [S]ensational and bigoted campaigning ... encourages murderous attacks and hate crimes like the one that took the life of Mr. Sandy, the day after his 29th birthday.

“Both the Democratic and Republican parties use racist and/or gay-bashing tactics or fail to vigorously condemn them. In 1988, the Reagan/Bush Sr. campaign ran the notoriously racist Willie Horton ad campaign. The phony ‘family values’ campaigning against equal marriage rights for lesbians and gay men in the 2004 elections undermined ‘domestic partner’ benefits for workers and inserted discrimination in state constitutions, even here in Michigan.”

Sole continued: “Racist and anti-LGBT attacks are happening here in Michigan, too. The most publicized recent attacks just in the Detroit area include the robbery and beating of a transgender woman, and shooting of a gay man in July 2006. On Jan. 10, 2006, 31-year-old Salvagio Vonatti of Windsor, Canada, was shot in the head outside a club in Detroit. According to the Windsor Star newspaper, in 2004 Michigan ranked third in the United States for hate crimes. Out of 556 cases, 73 were attacks based on anti-LGBT bigotry. I call on Debbie Stabenow and Mike Bouchard, and all candidates, to publicly and forcefully condemn racist and anti-LGBT bashing.”

For more information on the Sole for U.S. Senate campaign and all Stop the War Slate and Green Party candidates, visit www.stopthewarslate.org and www.migreens.org, or email [email protected]. Donations can be made payable to Sole for Senate Campaign, 5922 Second Ave., Detroit, MI 48202.