Green party candidate for governor offers voters alternative

October 13, 2006 - Many voters are turned off by the negative campaign tactics of the two major party candidates for governor. But there is another alternative. ABC7's Paul Meincke has more on the Green party candidate, Rich Whitney. Posted on 10-13-2006- www.abclocal.com

Green party candidate for governor offers voters alternative

Attorney challenging Topinka, Blagojevich

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=4658734

 By Paul Meincke

October 13, 2006 - Many voters are turned off by the negative campaign tactics of the two major party candidates for governor. But there is another alternative. ABC7's Paul Meincke has more on the Green party candidate, Rich Whitney.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=4658734#

Third party candidates often register as nothing more than a blip on the radar screen. But Green party candidate Rich Whitney fancies himself as a David against two Goliaths who are busy pounding each other. As one school of thought would have it, the harder the Goliaths pound, the bigger David becomes.

His name recognition is not high. His campaign doesn't have much money, but Rich Whitney says he is feeling a groundswell of support.

"Look at what the other two candidates are spending their millions on -- attacking each other trying to decide which one is more like George Ryan. I'm out of that fray," said Rich Whitney, Green party candidate for governor.

Rich Whitney is a Carbondale attorney, a political activist who has twice run unsuccessfully as a Green party candidate for state rep in southern Illinois, but his vote totals have put his party on the ballot.

"I'm the only candidate running on behalf of House Bill 750 -- are you familiar with that?" said Whitney.

House Bill 750 would shift the tax burden away from property and on to income. He is against gambling, calls our presence in Iraq illegal and immoral, and supports the open carry of firearms -- provided the gun owner passes requisite tests.

"He has the luxury of being the candidate who can say what he thinks," said Tom Serafin, political consultant.

Political consultant Tom Serafin thinks that Whitney may wind up with 7 percent of the vote -- impressive for a third party candidate -- and potentially unsettling for an incumbent governor.

"What he's doing is elevating his candidacy at the expense of the incompetence of two other candidacies," Serafin said.

"What I want to impress on people: I'm not just a protest candidate. We have serious positions on all the issues," said Whitney.

Whitney says he would put an end to pay-to-play. State contractors couldn't give campaign contributions, and if you give to someone who gets elected, you couldn't get a contract.

He is not predicting he'll win but says anything is possible.

"Everyday we get more hits on our web site, Whitneyforgov.org," said Whitney, plugging his site.

Whitney says he has never hugged a tree but believes that sound environmental policy is smart economics. He is indeed free to say what he thinks without fear of political consultants or pollsters or opponents asking "What is he thinking?"

What's most significant is that if Whitney gets more than five percent of the vote, the Green party will be able to establish itself on the statewide ballot in the future.