Will Challenge Major Parties on Peace, Budget Priorities, Single Payer Health

The Green Party of NY State has officially nominated Ian Murphy as its candidate for May 24 special Congressional election in the 26th District. The Green Party said it wanted to provide an alternative to the anti-worker, pro-war, pro-corporate, anti-environmental agenda of the Democrats and Republicans.

"Ian Murphy has been portrayed by the media as the nation's most famous prank caller, but his call to Gov. Walker was done to point out how entwined the Democrats and Republicans are with the corporate elite," said state party co-chair Peter LaVenia. Murphy is the editor of the Beast, a satirical website based in Buffalo.

Murphy, the Buffalo Beast journalist, made national headlines by posing as right-wing billionaire David Koch and prank-calling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during the middle of the recent effort to eliminate collective bargaining rights of public workers. Posing as Koch, Murphy discussed tactics with Walker about how to trick Democrats in returning to the state. Walker, a leader in the bipartisan nationwide assault on public workers, is one of many politicians such as Governor Cuomo who is financed by Koch, a major funder of the Tea Party movement. (Video follows.)

"The Green Party wants to slash the military budget and bring our troops home, starting with Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama wants the largest military budget ever and is now dragging the US into another war in Libya. The Greens want a Green New Deal, one that responds to this Great Recession with a program of full employment through public jobs and investments in education, mass transit and renewable energy. Rather than the insurance mandate bailout program passed by the Democrats, the Greens want to make health care a right and slash costs while improving quality that an expanded and improved Medicare for All program. We want to curtail climate change, not destroy upstate community through hydrofracking for natural gas," explained LaVenia.

"Ian's call, and his campaign, reject the imperialism of our Democrat-Republican duopoly and our corporate oligarchy, whether in Wisconsin, New York, or in the Arab world. We consider the austerity measures being pushed by President Obama and Congress to be as illegitimate as the war the President has started in Libya. Ian is the only candidate in the race for the 26th that will articulate these values, and that is why we nominated him," stated party co-chair Howie Hawkins.