If only all the coverage of this campaign were this easy: roll out of bed just in time to grab my laptop, walk into Karen’s office, turn on the tube, and catch the candidate’s live appearance on one of the local morning television shows. Especially since the heat index is predicted to climb above 100 degrees again today. Ah, Minnesota, at least we have weather.
At 8:08 AM, sandwiched between a brief horse-race blurb about the Senate election (incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone leads by 3% according to the most recent Saint Paul Pioneer Press poll) and a piece on harvesting Eurasian Milfoil on the lakes in Minneapolis, Ken Pentel appeared live at the KMSP news desk, looking quite dapper in a dark suit. More importantly, he looked electable.
The first question posed to Pentel dealt with what it meant for the Greens to have major party status in the state. As a major party, the Greens enjoy ballot line access and public funding (US$250,000 after the primary), but no guarantee of a seat in the debates. All of this will raise the visibility of the party’s ideas: how we’re going to live sustainably, how we’re going to clean up the electoral system, and a chance to vote what you believe in instead of what you’re afraid of.
Pentel went into as much depth as possible in a 3 minute morning news segment about instant runoff voting (IRV). “Right now, a lot of people are told ‘don’t waste your vote’ or ‘don’t be a spoiler,’” Pentel explained. “The ranking system allows people to vote exactly how they feel, ranking their first choice, second choice, third choice, as many as they want. If their first choice doesn’t win, their second choice can be applied, their third choice can be applied.” IRV is used, as Pentel pointed out, to elect the president of Ireland, the Austrailian parliament, and in San Francisco city elections.
Predictably, Pentel was asked about playing the spoiler role (even though he had just explained how IRV would alleviate any such perceived problem). “The Green Party offers a well defined electoral choice separate from the other parties,” stated Pentel. “Every party is responsible for their own votes. Al Gore actually did win that election; it was the Supreme Court that decided who won in that situation.”
Oh, if only that were the last time the spoiler question would be asked during this campaign.
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