H/T Jim Cook at Irregular Times:
Scott Moore at progressive advocacy group Our Oregon has a series of articles about Americans Elect. There are five articles in the series at this time; I don’t know if more are coming. As you can see from the titles, the tone of the articles is hostile towards Americans Elect.
Americans Elect: The Truth Behind the Corporate Scheme to Swipe the 2012 Election
Americans Elect, Part II: A Shell Game Designed to Block Real Democratic Participation
Americans Elect, Part III: Who’s Behind The Astroturf Organization?
Americans Elect Part IV: Paying Big Money for Signatures (Note from Paulie: not to the street level petitioners)
Americans Elect, Part V: What Do a Handful of Hedge Fund Millionaires Want?
Oops – I just realized you probably meant OO, not AE by “this organization.”
They are quite openly pro-Democrat; that is no secret.
From looking at who runs this organization, they seem to be pro-Democratic Party in an indirect way.
How so?
The Mercury, and The Stranger in Seattle that the Mercucry spawned from, are sturdy supporters of the Democratic Party and long time opponents of third party and independent politics.
So is the group Our Oregon.
From looking at who runs this organization, they seem to be pro-Democratic Party in an indirect way. And I think it’s worth noting that the author used to be an editor and writer at the Portland Mercucry. The Mercury, and The Stranger in Seattle that the Mercucry spawned from, are sturdy supporters of the Democratic Party and long time opponents of third party and independent politics.
The Our Oregon series is not balanced.
It’s clearly not balanced. That is apparent just from reading the titles of the articles, and I made note of it in the IPR story. Our Oregon is a group with an agenda, and they are not shy about stating that.
I still think it’s worth reading so as to know what the objections are.
Unlike Moore, I don’t believe that Americans Elect’s plan is to “spoil” the election for Obama and elect the Republican ticket. I believe that they intend to actually win the election themselves, and have a better chance of doing so than any non-D/Roid ticket since TR in ’12 (or Perot in ’92 prior to dropping out, when he was at 40% in the polls and ahead of Bush and Clinton).
The Our Oregon series is not balanced. Every time a new political party with big resources is formed and attempts to place a presidential nominee on the ballot, that always results in gains for ballot access. Already, Americans Elect is responsible for persuading the Florida Secretary of State not to enforce the new unconstitutional Florida ballot access requirement, that parties not recognized by the FEC should submit 112,000 signatures to get a presidential nominee on the ballot. When Ross Perot formed the Reform Party by a somewhat similar process, that resulted in ballot access barriers in Maine, Arkansas and Ohio falling. The Oregon reporters who worked on this story knew about that point, but chose not to include any of it.