Dear S/R,Your Winter 1997 issue contains an article about the Peace and Freedom Party, by Casey Peters. There is a minor factual error with the statement, "California P&F survived to run the century's first Mexican-American candidate for Governor, Ricardo Romo, in 1970."
There were many Mexican-American candidates for Governor in the 20th century before 1970. Ezequiel deBaca was elected Governor of New Mexico in 1916; Octaviano Larrazolo was elected Governor of New Mexico in 1918, defeating Felix Garcia; there were numerous Mexican-American gubernatorial candidates in New Mexico in other years. Also, in Colorado in 1966, Levi Martinez ran for Governor on the New Hispano ticket, receiving 2.5% of the vote.
Peters also wrote about the New Alliance Party, liberally sprinkling those paragraphs with "cryptofascist," "cult," "Newmanoid." I object. It is not helpful for a publication which encourages independent political action to attack any organization which has done so much to make successful independent political action possible. The New Alliance Party has won lawsuits which have substantially improved ballot access for third party and independent candidates in Alabama, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas. It has also won lawsuits which help third party candidates be included in debates and on mock election ballots in public schools. It also persuaded the Maryland Attorney General to rule that third party Presidential candidates need 10,000 signatures instead of 75,000.
The only other third party on the left which has won this many ballot access lawsuits in U.S. history is the Socialist Workers Party.
It is rude and counterproductive for Synthesis/Regeneration to have run Peters' remarks unedited. Furthermore, an objective history of the Peace & Freedom Party which discussed the New Alliance Party certainly should have included the detail that Lenora Fulani won the Peace & Freedom Party's Presidential primary both times she entered it, in 1988 and again in 1992.
—Richard Winger, Editor,
Ballot Access News, P.O. Box 470296, San Francisco, CA 94147