GPUS: HR1’s “Poison Pill” to Crush Alternative Parties Requires Amending — or the Bill Must Fail

This is a press release from the Green Party US; the original, more information, and a petition are online at:  www.gp.org/hr1_poison_pill_to_crush_alternative_parties_requires_amending_or_the_bill_must_fail  There has been a lot of reporting about the anti-democratic and anti-1st Amendment policies Republicans have been pushing in various states but little is said about what the Democratic Party does to silence its left wing and leftist third parties.

“While HR1 is sold as a way to get money out of politics and to protect voters, it contains a ‘poison pill’ for democracy and opposition parties like the Green Party” said Green Party National Co-Chair Tony Ndege [of the NCGP]. “How can they call this bill ‘For The People’ when they are silencing alternative parties at a time when more people than ever are demanding more political choice?”

“The Green Party stands opposed to this bait-and-switch legislation that claims to improve access to voting while actually dismantling everyone's right to organize electorally against the parties of War and Wall Street,” said Green Party National Co-Chair Gloria Mattera. “In recent presidential elections, Greens have been the only candidates to participate in the primary matching funds program. HR1 must be amended to stop this attack on presidential campaign matching funds that Green candidates have relied on for almost a decade — or the bill must fail.”

The Green Party is calling attention to other problematic provisions in HR1, which will:

• Abolish the general election campaign block grants parties may access by winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election 
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• Replace those general election block grants (where candidates receive one lump sum for all campaign expenses) with matching funds through Election Day — a step backwards for public campaign finance reform. Qualifying for general election matching funds will depend on meeting the new primary matching funds criteria designed to squeeze out alternative parties and independent candidates
  
  
• Eliminate the limits on donations and expenditures candidates can receive and make
  
  
• Inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to candidates from $5000 to $100 million, an astonishing increase of 1999900%

“Instead of trying to fool American voters and eliminating minor party voices, the Green Party calls for real reforms to democratize elections,” said Ndege, listing:

• The Fair Representation Act, introduced in 2018 and 2019, which would establish multi-seat, proportional representation for Congress by ranked-choice voting
  
  
• Individual state governments enacting RCV for their presidential general elections
  
  
• Fully-public campaign finance for every federal, state and local office through the Clean Money/Clean Elections model

If HR1 is not amended, the Green Party will release an online, grassroots lobbying effort for communities to tell their representatives in Congress to vote “no” during the full House vote this week [This press release was originally published March 1st but HR1 has been in the news again recently and the NCGP brought it up again June 17th:  www.facebook.com/groups/ncgreenparty/permalink/10158273528278105/ ].