Green Party candidate for governor Laura Wells was arrested this evening while attempting to attend a debate between gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown. The debate was held at Dominican University in San Rafael.
By Luke Thomas
October 12, 2010
Green Party candidate for California governor, Laura Wells, was arrested this evening and prevented from attending the final debate between gubernatorial hopefuls Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown.
Wells, who possessed a valid ticket for the debate held at Dominican University in San Rafael, was protesting her exclusion from the debate. She was told she could not attend or participate in the debate because she is a Green Party candidate, according to Wells spokesperson Marnie Glickman.
“Republicans and Democrats will go to any lengths, even arresting candidates, to keep the truth from California voters,” Wells said following her release. “There are solutions, but voters aren’t being allowed to hear from independent candidates. Meg and Jerry will spend tens of millions of dollars in advertising but still won’t address the problems plaguing us. The debate is a fraud. Limiting it to Whitman and Brown is not just anti-green, it is anti-democratic and anti-republican.”
Wells isn’t the first third-party candidate to be excluded from election debates. Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate, Matt Gonzalez, were excluded from the 2008 presidential debates.
Update
Wells has updated her blog. She says she was arrested “for allegedly trespassing on private property.”
“The real crime is what’s happening to California,” Wells added. “The perpetrators of this crime include the Democratic and Republican parties who keep trading off the governorship, and the Dominican University, for closing the doors to real dialogue and debate.”
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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October 16, 2010 at 11:31 am
Also, this is an unusually spirited demonstration—very hard to pull off these days—with precise focus and goal. Big up to Bay Area Greens for organizing it and getting as much press as they have.
Laura deserved the press she wasn’t getting before getting arrested, for proposing reform of Prop 13, and a state bank. What could be more overdue, given the state the State of California is in?
October 16, 2010 at 10:46 am
Arkansas included the Green Party’s gubernatorial candidate in last week’s debate, on the 13th, http://www.ballot-access.org/2010/10/13/arkansas-holds-3-party-gubernatorial-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-812685.
Democracy Now reported Laura’s arrest: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/14/green_party_candidate_excluded_from_california.
October 15, 2010 at 3:28 pm
If this happened in a left-wing democracy like Venezuela or Bolivia, the corporate media would be screaming bloody murder. But here, it’s just fine to rig the system in favor of the corporate duopoly, and then arrest opposition candidates when they protest.
October 14, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Be glad you aren’t a opposition candidate or reporter in Nicaragua! At least Laura is still breathing!
October 14, 2010 at 11:24 am
So this is what democracy looks like~
Go Laura!
October 13, 2010 at 5:36 pm
For emphasis,
This is happening all the way down to the level of supervisor candidacies and both parties are condoning that only the wealthiest should be heard and even then, before hand picked assemblies.
It’s some nasty shit, boys and girls.
Bay Guardian? Only today got around to interviewing the Republican candidate for Pelosi’s seat in congress and the guy is much more Progressive than she. That’s John Dennis.
And, where are the ‘memos’ from Krissy and Terry about their runs against Pelosi?
Go Giants!
h.
October 13, 2010 at 11:45 am
I wonder what our troops fighting overseas would think of this: Gubernatorial candidate arrested for exercising her right to a gubernatorial debate with Democratic and Republican candidates?
Constitutional Amendments Violated:
Freedom of Speech – Violated.
Freedom of Assembly – Violated.
Search and Seizure – Violated.
Citizenship Rights – Violated.
Power to the State and People – Violated.
I am disgusted, but am proud of Laura Wells for practicing her civil rights and standing up to oppression. I am proud to be one of many millions to follow her in any way I can.
October 13, 2010 at 11:36 am
This picture, if “allowed” to be seen worldwide, would drop the mouths of our soliders who are fighting for their country, which I dare to say that they are not fighting for their country – their country has been taken over by Corporate America – funded and controlled by corporations overseas.
This patriot who chose to run for the Office of the Governor of California has been put in jail by both the Republican and Democratic parties, and by outsourced security forces!!!!!
“You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”
– Abbie Hoffman
– Abbie Hoffman, Steal This Movie
October 13, 2010 at 9:09 am
Private Security made ‘Citizen’s Arrest’?
Did you know that over 5,000 people are licensed to carry firearms in CCSF and only one citizen has such a permit? We’re just a few moves from a total police state where all opposition ends up in cuffs. It’s simple. Private security working for the Democrats or Republicans order the local cops to make the bust on ‘private property’. There’s a reason they don’t have these debates in a public space. It’s to keep out third party people like Laura Wells.
And, myself. Sounds silly but it’s true. Same thing went down at the SFYD D-6 forum. They held it in a private space, brought in rent-a-cop security to keep out all but approved candidates and audience and had an on-duty SFPD officer there to follow up on the ‘Citizen’s Arrest’ by the rent-a-cops.
I simply gave up trying to attend any of the events. They can put you in jail for attending something as seemingly innocuous as a League of Women Voters event (yes, the LWV excludes too).
Yeah, I can’t get a lawyer to take the case. Ya gotta admit, jailing candidates is new for the Bay Area.
And yet, we have reason to rejoice.
Go Giants!
h.
October 13, 2010 at 8:22 am
Carla Marinucci in a small sidelight at the Chronicle reports that Medea Benjamin was once arrested trying to enter a debate– as if this is no big deal difference (this being the Bay Area).
The usual mob in the comments section is showing some surprising sympathy for Wells.
The comment there by mikeofelctown, “Go (away) Green! A vote for Green is a vote for Rushpublican Amurukuh,” is being thumbed down by almost two out of three.
October 13, 2010 at 1:41 am
But were other excluded candidates handcuffed and led away like criminals?
The gloves are coming off.
I admire Wells, but she erred by imagining that the debate is of any significance because Republicans and Democrats and their for-show debates are completely out of touch with average people.
The system is broken and we must break with it.
When the “good” Democrats and Republicans take the stage in San Francisco, I will not forget this image. This is the face of corporate power determined to have its way.