August 20, 2004: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Politics: Congress: Election2004 - Farr: Santa Cruz Sentinel: Since taking office, Rep. Sam Farr has garnered more votes than all of his opponents combined

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Colombia: Special Report: Sam Farr: Sam Farr: Archived Stories: August 20, 2004: Headlines: COS - Colombia: Politics: Congress: Election2004 - Farr: Santa Cruz Sentinel: Since taking office, Rep. Sam Farr has garnered more votes than all of his opponents combined

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-239-147.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.239.147) on Wednesday, August 25, 2004 - 8:42 pm: Edit Post

Since taking office, Rep. Sam Farr has garnered more votes than all of his opponents combined

Since taking office, Rep. Sam Farr has garnered more votes than all of his opponents combined

Since taking office, Rep. Sam Farr has garnered more votes than all of his opponents combined

Political foes join forces to save on rent
By BRIAN SEALS
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

MONTEREY — Since taking office, Rep. Sam Farr has garnered more votes than all of his opponents combined.

This year’s challengers have taken note.

In a novel cooperative effort, five candidates seeking to unseat the Carmel Democrat say they will share campaign office space.

Call it unity in opposition.

The idea came from Republican candidate Mark Risley of Pacific Grove.

Risley is running in part out of frustration with what he calls career politicians, something he considers Farr to be. He said incumbents enter elections with a huge financial advantage.

"This election should not be about who has the most money to buy the seat," Risley said by phone Thursday.

Advertisement

He said the financially disadvantaged contenders could share office space, if not always agreement.

"I’m tired of labels, I’m tired of the Democratic-Republican quarrel going on in Washington," he said.

Certainly, Farr carries the typical incumbent leverage when it comes to raising campaign funds. He had collected $412,761 as of June 30, according to opensecrets.org, with 52 percent of that coming from political action committees. By comparison, Risley raised about $29,000 and the other candidates did not raise enough to file reports.

Farr dismissed the move as a Republican ploy by Risley.

"This is a typical Republican strategy to get people to vote against Democrats," Farr said. "I don’t know why the Green Party or the Peace and Freedom Party would want to do that."

Sharing the campaign office in Monterey will be Green Party candidate Ray Glock-Grueneich of Santa Cruz, Libertarian candidate Joel Smolen of Pebble Beach, Peace and Freedom candidate Joe Williams of Live Oak and independent write-in candidate and political rapper David Munoz of Salinas.

Talk about politics making for strange bedfellows — a socialist Peace and Freedom party sharing space with a free-market Libertarian; a Green party candidate in the same room with a Republican without a security force on hand?

But a person coming by the office to get information on one candidate can find literature on all of them, Williams noted.

The candidates say losing rancor and debating ideas is furthered by the arrangement.

"I think this is a nonpartisan example of parties with different views working together," said Smolen, a biomedical hedge fund manager. "I think that is missing from the national campaign."

The cooperative effort also puts the incumbent on notice, said Williams. He said his goal in running is to somehow move Farr to the left.

"This sends a message to let Farr know he is opposed and lets the electorate know there are alternatives on the ballot," said Williams, an online rare books dealer.

Contact Brian Seals at bseals@santacruzsentinel.com.





When this story was prepared, here was the front page of PCOL magazine:

This Month's Issue: August 2004 This Month's Issue: August 2004
Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and who can come up with the funniest caption for our Current Events Funny?

Exclusive: Director Vasquez speaks out in an op-ed published exclusively on the web by Peace Corps Online saying the Dayton Daily News' portrayal of Peace Corps "doesn't jibe with facts."

In other news, the NPCA makes the case for improving governance and explains the challenges facing the organization, RPCV Bob Shaconis says Peace Corps has been a "sacred cow", RPCV Shaun McNally picks up support for his Aug 10 primary and has a plan to win in Connecticut, and the movie "Open Water" based on the negligent deaths of two RPCVs in Australia opens August 6. Op-ed's by RPCVs: Cops of the World is not a good goal and Peace Corps must emphasize community development.


Read the stories and leave your comments.






Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Colombia; Politics; Congress; Election2004 - Farr

PCOL13662
19

.


Add a Message


This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.
Username:  
Password:
E-mail: