The Green Party of Connecticut criticized Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz for favoring Democrats and Republicans, while diminishing or ignoring so-called minor party candidates.
"In recent news releases, Bysiewicz's continues to lauded Democrat and Republican candidates and backhandedly implies that 'minor' party candidate races are not competitive," the Green Party states.
Mike DeRosa, the Green Party's candidate to succeed Bysiewicz, said the Secretary of the State should treat all candidates equally. "It is not the Secretary's job to decide or label which parties are competitive and which are non-competitive,'' he said.
Bysiewicz issued a lenghty statement Tuesday refuting the Green Party's critique.
"This office has been releasing numbers on the number of races that are uncontested by major party candidates since the beginning of my term as Secretary of the State in 1999,'' she said through a spokesman.
"We feel this is the most accurate way to gage the interest in running for state office every two years since the Democratic and Republican parties traditionally have been more able to field candidates for all state offices than the minor parties. At this point in time, our office also does not know which minor party candidates will be running for state office in 2010 because the minor party endorsement deadline is not until September 1, 2010. I have always been a strong proponent of ballot access for minor parties in Connecticut, and indeed members of these parties have had considerable success of late getting candidates on the ballot and elected on the municipal level. Green party candidates for First Selectman and Alderman were elected in recent years in both Windham and New Haven. Hartford currently has two city council members, a Registrar of Voters, and members of the Board of Education who were elected from the Working Families Party.
"These are achievements that should be celebrated. I have also strongly supported campaign finance reform that gives fair access to public, clean campaign funds to minor party candidates and have repeatedly called for a legislative fix to our current clean elections law that will pass constitutional muster and be fair to all parties in Connecticut."