Nader and Gonzalez to Hold News Conference and Rally in Madison, Wisconsin, Friday September 5
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 at 12:00:00 AM
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Driscoll, 202-360-3273, chris@votenader.org (national);
Justin Richardson, 608-215-1342, justin@votenader.org (local)
NADER AND GONZALEZ TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE AND RALLY IN MADISON, WISCONSIN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
On Friday, September 5, at 7 p.m., Ralph Nader and his VP running mate, Matt Gonzalez, will host a news conference at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wis. Following the news conference, at 7:30 p.m., Mr. Nader and Mr. Gonzalez will hold a rally at the same location. In addition to speeches by Mr. Nader and Mr. Gonzalez, special guest David Rovics, "the musical voice of the progressive movement," will perform at the rally. The theatre is located at: 216 State St., Madison, Wis., 53703. For more information, call Justin Richardson at 608-215-1342, or email: events@votenader.org.
Wisconsin residents confront a growing list of crisis-level difficulties that include a tanking economy, increasing environmental pollution and a health care system broken beyond repair. The latest Census Bureau figures reveal a falling median household income and a rise in the poverty rate from 8.8 to 12 percent between 2000 and 2007--and that does not reflect the impact of the current economic downturn.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, as of 2004, Wisconsin was among the 10 states whose total employment was hardest hit by NAFTA-related job losses, with a net loss of 25,403 jobs. Nader/Gonzalez would withdraw and renegotiate NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
On August 19 the Environmental Protection Agency designated six counties -- Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Dane, Columbia and Brown -- as violating federal standards for fine-particle pollution. Coal-fired power plants (along with automobiles) are a primary source of fine-particle pollution. As of 2005, 54 percent of Wisconsin electric utility power came from coal, according to Wisconsin State Energy Statistics.
"Wisconsin faces a triple crisis in health care: the skyrocketing cost of health insurance, increasing numbers of uninsured, and a severe deficit in the state's Medicaid program," warns the Wisconsin Council of Churches on its health care web page. The council adds that "employers now spend an average of 15 percent of payroll for employees' health care premiums, and health care costs are rising 9 percent per year, which hurts wages, profits, job creation and new investment in Wisconsin. Over a half million Wisconsinites - fully 10 percent of our population have no health insurance coverage at some point during the year. Lack of insurance is a significant factor in premature death and bankruptcy."
While Obama and McCain offer health care plans that would enrich private insurance companies at the expense of tax payers, the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign favors a Canadian-style public health insurance system with private delivery and free choice of hospital and doctor.
The Nader/Gonzalez team would fix Wisconsin's drastic air pollution problem and create many new jobs with its crash program to switch the nation to a non-nuclear, non-fossil-fuel, solar-based economy—which is "off the table" for Obama/McCain. Enormous improvements in proven energy efficiencies from consumer, home and building technologies can become the norm if Washington overcomes the energy companies' lobbies that do not want to see their sales diminish.
Also "off the table" for Obama/McCain but on the table for Nader/Gonzalez is a "Marshall Plan" to rebuild and repair the nation's crumbling schools, clinics, roads, bridges and other vital public infrastructure, with funds coming from cutting the bloated, wasteful military budget that devours 50 percent of the federal government's operating expenditures.
Mr. Nader and Mr. Gonzalez will address these and many other critical issues the major party candidates have taken "off the table" that the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has put on the table, including:
- a comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
- a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
- a carbon tax to deter global warming;
- an end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars; and,
- more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the corporations."
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About Matt Gonzalez
Matt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco's fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
The Nader/Gonzalez independent presidential candidacy will be on the ballot in 45 states, is polling at 5-6 percent nationally, and a new Time/CNN poll shows Ralph Nader polling 8 percent in New Mexico, 7 percent in Colorado, 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6 percent in Nevada -- all key battleground states.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org.
