By Godfrey, He's Not A Green

Anthony Molinaro

Robert Ortt

Anthony Nemi

It's Not Easy Being Green: (ed. note:) Every candidate on the Green Party line that is on the ballot in Niagara this November is a registered member of another party. Yet the Green party is officially opposed to the practice of fusion candidates, that is of a member of another party appearing on the Green party line. In each case a member of a major party hijacked the tiny Green party line, where often there are only two or three registered voters in a district. These candidates seek the few votes of a party that is, in most cases, entirely alien to their own core principles and, if truth be told, the core values of the majority of the modern electorate. Faux Green candidates appearing on the ballot November 5: County legislator candidates: Christopher Srock (D), Jason Zona (D), Anthony J. Nemi (R), Anthony P. Molinaro (D); Niagara Falls City Council Candidate, Vincent Sandonato (R); North Tonawanda Mayor, Robert Ortt (R); North Tonawanda Alder At Large, Robert J. Clark (R ); and Town of Niagara Councilman Charles F. Teixeira (D)

Jason Zona

Mayor Jason West

Myor Jim Sullivan

Mayor David Doonan

Green party candidates have not won any major elected office and indeed few elections. In New York State, Greens serve as mayors of three cities: Mayor David Doonan of Greenwich (pop 1,766) Mayor Jim Sullivan of Victory (pop 601) and Mayor Jason West of New Paltz (pop 7,034). Statewide five more Greens serve, three on small municipalities' councils and two are school board members.

Last month, by virtue of being a registered Green Party member, I received a political piece in the mail from my Niagara County Legislator, (10th District) David Godfrey, a Republican, seeking my write-in vote for him in the Green party primary.

I did not receive anything from his opponent, Christopher Srock, a Democrat who, in fact, won the Green party primary, and has the line this November.

The 10th district, encompassing Wilson, Newfane and parts of Cambria, is largely rural and agricultural, and I found it odd that Godfrey would be seeking to represent a political party that would, according to its official New York State platform, "Require that all animals in captivity, including farm animals, be given a certain amount of outdoor space within which they can move freely and mingle with other animals for at least two hours each day."

Other positions of the Green party are, to put it mildly, in extreme opposition to those of Republicans like Godfrey.

The Green party's New York State platform includes a ban on highway billboards, a ban on programs to kill birds at airports, "Taxing properties and income generating enterprises owned by elite non-profits such as religious institutions and foundations", closing all overseas military bases, disbanding NATO and all other "aggressive military alliances", banning U.S. arms exports, and abolishing the CIA.

"Full implementation of affirmative action programs in both public and private sectors of the economy."

"The right of workers and their communities to seize the assets of runaway corporations through eminent domain or direct action."

"Establishing of a 'maximum wage' at a level no higher than 10 times the minimum wage."

And my favorite: "Ending poverty now by doubling public assistance grants to 130% of the poverty line and, in the longer run, replace the welfare bureaucracy with a Basic Income Grant (BIG) to every citizen automatically, to give low income people a guaranteed minimum income above the poverty line."

Perhaps it's a trifle unfair to pick on Legislator Godfrey, who in his cover letter listed memberships on both the Judge and Police Executive Conference of Niagara County and something called the Sheriff's "Do-The-Right-Thing" Committee, since it's the pragmatic decision of most politicians to seek as many party lines as possible regardless of their positions, and he is far from alone in doing this.

Besides Godfrey, other candidates who would perhaps not likely admit to supporting much of the Green Party's platform, yet who appear, along with other lines, on the Green line this November are:

County legislator candidates: Christopher Srock (D), Jason Zona (D), Anthony J. Nemi (R), and Anthony P. Molinaro (D); Niagara Falls City Council Candidate, Vincent Sandonato (R); North Tonawanda Mayor, Robert Ortt (R); North Tonawanda Alder At Large, Robert J. Clark (R ); and Town of Niagara Councilman Charles F. Teixeira (D)

What can be assumed regarding the principles of those who so overtly straddle issues of importance to the rest of us, for pure political advantage?

(Writer James Hufnagel recently switched his party affiliation to the Green party after having been a lifelong Democrat in protest of the support of Barack Obama and Andrew Cuomo for fracking.)