Mel's Responds to Sestak Challenge

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

On August 9, shortly before State offices in Harrisburg closed, Joe Sestak, Democratic Party candidate for US Senate in PA, filed a formal challenge to my election petitions for that same office. This was not unexpected and given the absurd requirements that third-party candidates must meet to attain ballot status, his challenge will likely be successful and I will lose my already state-certified ballot status for that position.

Let me be very frank about this action. Joe Sestak is a moral and political coward, who is unwilling to let the voters of PA decide for themselves which candidates they support based on their political platforms and positions. By using technicalities to keep 3rd party candidates off the ballot, he demonstrates his continued support for the corrupt and undemocratic system that so many voters have learned to distrust and in which they have no faith. 

A candidate for office who is unwilling to face his opponents in the open market of political ideas becomes exposed as a fraud in his willingness to subvert democracy solely to maintain the entrenched powers.

Joe Sestak shows all of us that we are not only fighting a corrupt economic system that rewards the rich and punishes workers, but a similarly corrupt political system that serves at the will of those who have bankrupted our nation, forced millions into long-term if not permanent employment, wages endless wars that only benefit the corporate powers, and now seeks to decrease much of our social safety net at a time when we are most in need of increases instead. 

My candidacy for US Senate is a clear departure from the politics of old, a clear challenge to the system that has failed most of our citizens, and a clear choice that voters should be allowed to make in a democratic society.

I call on Joe Sestak to immediately withdraw his challenge to my candidacy for the US Senate and to demonstrate his willingness to debate our ideas openly in front of the voters of PA. I welcome such a challenge and he should do likewise.

Anything less means he knows that his positions cannot stand in open debate and also shows the voters that he is on the sides of corporate power and against restoring power to the people of the State of PA. 

- Mel Packer, Green Party candidate for US Senate in PA.