In the photo above, from John Anthony La Pietra's Facebook page 4 the people, you can see his billboard when he ran for county clerk. Now the Green Party of Michigan member is runing for Attorney General.
John Anthony La Pietra
Attorney General
For the People
386 Boyer Court * Marshall, MI 49068
jalp5dai@att.net
Facebook: jalp4thePeople
For Immediate Release
=====================
July 9, 2014
La Pietra Kicks Off Campaign for Attorney General
With "Opinion For the People" on Informed Primary Voting
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John Anthony La Pietra, the Green Party of Michigan's 2014 nominee
for Attorney General, has posted a chart of alternative candidates who
will be on the November 4 general-election ballot to help inform
Michigan citizens who want to vote strategically in the August 5 primary.
The chart is available via on John's campaign Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/jalp4thePeople
and referenced in a 1-page PDF document on his blog:
https://jalp5dai.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/opinion4tp-140709-informed-voting.pdf
The latter is the first of what John plans as a series of "Opinions
For the People", talking about ways he would make the position of
Attorney General serve the people of Michigan.
As John posted last month, in announcing his nomination:
When the Attorney General or someone on his staff
appears in court "for the people", that phrase
should mean just what it says. For the people.
Not for entrenched interests in government
institutions -- or for the moneyed interests
controlling them. For the people.
The new opinion post notes that "46% of voters polled by Gallup
last month identified themselves as neither Republicans nor Democrats [.
. .] the percentage has been going up over the past ten years, and might
top 50% soon."
Add in "voters who see themselves as Democrats or Republicans but
who also want to consider voting strategically", says John, and you have
a majority that could use the general-election candidate information "to
help us decide what votes would be in our own best interests."
For that majority, John created a chart in PDF format, which he has
posted on his blog:
http://jalp5dai.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/22/
The chart is a first attempt at a task the Bureau of Elections has
so far failed to do -- telling Michigan voters not only about candidates
on the primary ballot, but also candidates who have already qualified
for the general election.
The Bureau set up a Webpage in March to do this, and has known
since mid-May about some of the candidates who will be on the November
ballot. Still, it has not used the page to let the public know about
any of those nominees yet.
Michigan courts have recognized that the primaries are "primarily
party functions”. But, adds John, as long as primaries are run as
publicly-funded elections, they should be run For the People. The
courts have also recognized "the right of qualified voters, regardless
of their political persuasion, to cast their votes effectively" as a
right "basic to effective political expression and merit[ing] strong
constitutional protection."
Michigan courts have declared that primaries are "primarily party
functions”. But the courts also recognize "the right of qualified
voters, regardless of their political persuasion, to cast their votes
effectively" as a right "basic to effective political expression and
merit[ing] strong constitutional protection" under the state mandate to
"preserve the purity of elections".
John concludes that, as long as primaries are run as
publicly-funded elections, they should be run for the people.
So he has combined information from the Websites of GPMI and other
alternative parties on the ballot in Michigan, as well as the
campaign-finance filings of candidates of those parties and others
running as independents (with "No Party Affiliation"). He invites
anyone with updated information to contact him.
For more information about John's campaign -- and his future
"Opinions" and proposals to make sure the job of Attorney General gets
done the most effective way *For the People* -- contact him via phone,
e-mail, or USPS mail, or visit his campaign Facebook page:
John Anthony La Pietra -- Attorney General For the People
386 Boyer Court
Marshall, MI 49068
phone: 269-781-9478
e-mail: jalp5dai@att.net
Facebook: jalp4thePeople
For more information on the Green Party of Michigan, its Ten Key
Values, its platform, and its other candidates, contact:
Green Party of Michigan
PO Box 504
Warren, MI 48090-0504
http://www.MIGreenParty.org
Facebook: migreens
Twitter: @migreenparty
313-815-2025
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prepared and distributed (with donated labor) by
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John Anthony La Pietra
Attorney General
For the People
386 Boyer Court
Marshall, MI 49068
phone: 269-781-9478
jalp5dai@att.net
Facebook: jalp4thePeople