Green Party, Democrats form alliance to back Farrell

HARTFORD, Conn. --With polls showing a tight matchup in this year's 4th Congressional District race, the Green Party is withdrawing its candidate and throwing support to Democrat Diane Farrell.

"We decided to have a strategic alliance with the Democratic Party because we believed this was the quickest way to achieve peace in the Middle East," said John Sieh, treasurer for Richard Duffee, the Green Party's 4th District candidate.

Connecticut district, has called on President Bush to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. She has also urged Congress to set benchmarks for the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

Shays has supported the war. But in August, he said the U.S. should consider setting a timeline for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

The race is a rematch of the 2004 contest, which Shays won with 52 percent of the vote to Farrell's 48 percent. Shays won by about 14,000 votes.

In the recent Courant/UConn poll, Shays and Farrell are running even with other. Poll results, released by The Hartford Courant Monday night, has each candidate with 43 percent support among likely voters with the war in Iraq as the driving issue.

According to the poll, unaffiliated voters are shifting toward Farrell, who has erased a 16-point deficit in the last three weeks. The Courant/UConn poll surveyed 805 voters Oct. 16-22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The Green Party believes it can deliver about 1,300 votes from the 4th District. Statewide, there are approximately 2,000 registered Green Party members and about 1,000 mostly unaffiliated voters who support Green Party candidates in elections.

Duffee and Farrell made the announcement Monday at a news conference in Norwalk.

"Our decision is a vote of confidence in Diane Farrell's seriousness about putting some brakes on Bush's imperial presidency and at least returning us to the rule of law," said Duffee, a former law professor.

Farrell said she welcomed the endorsement.

"We share a common belief that the Bush administration has led us astray especially as it pertains to the war in Iraq, energy policy, education and environmental issues," she said.

Sieh said Farrell's campaign approached the Green Party about three weeks ago. Both sides have been negotiating since. On Saturday, 4th District Green Party members met with Farrell, held a convention and decided to notify the secretary of the state to black out Duffee's name on the Nov. 7 ballot. The deadline for such a request is Tuesday, Sieh said.

Michael Sohn, Shays' campaign manager, questioned why Farrell would meet privately with the Greens so soon before Election Day and after 11 public debates. He said Shays would never have done such a thing.

"The 4th District deserves better than a candidate who supposedly makes concessions at a secret meeting and accepts the endorsement of an extreme left organization," Sohn said. "This really underscores her extreme left wing views."

Aside from the war in Iraq, Sieh said the Green Party likes Farrell's position on the environment, including her support for biodiesel fuel and mass transit. In return for Greens' support, Farrell has agreed to post Green Party issues on her campaign Web site and to support the party's participation in future debates.

Duffee, 57, is a poet and writer who also has worked as an environmental lawyer and a high school science teacher. He has participated in two of 11 debates.

Sieh called the alliance with the Democrats "an historical event" and said it will ultimately empower the Greens and improve voters' perceptions of the minor party.

"We are not spoilers. We want to let the press and the country know that we are modern 21st century politicians," he said. "We're way beyond egos. We're about issues and getting them done."