The Green Party’s Nancy Wade may not have beaten incumbent Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) this past November. But she did something most independent and opposition parties are unable to – she cracked the 5% vote threshold. Now, instead of being required to collect tens of thousands of valid signatures to be on the ballot, whoever the Green’s nominate in IL’s 5th Congressional District will only need a couple hundred. Nancy Wade says she intends to be that nominee.
The Green Party Congressional hopeful didn't wait long to make her first announcement. In a recent email to supporters, the Green’s Wade wrote, ‘Because of your support we have a tremendous opportunity to build an even more powerful Wade In Congress for 2014'. That also happens to be the candidate’s web address – WadeInCongress.org.
Just this past November, Wade received over 15,000 votes in her campaign to unseat Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley. That amounted to almost 6% of the overall General Election vote. And while that might not sound like an avalanche of support, it opens the door for the Green Party in Chicago’s north side and north suburbs. Parties that finish with more than 5% of the vote, which Wade did in 2012, are eligible to receive government assistance – the same help Democrats and Republicans have created and used for decades to shut independents and third parties out of the electoral system.
“I want to run again in 2014 to challenge the corporate-bought incumbent,” Wade told supporters recently, “He, along with the leaders of his party, is preparing to cave to demands that the vital safety net of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid be unnecessarily weakened, allowing millions of us to fall through. He is preparing to acquiesce to this Great Betrayal. We must fight to keep these greatest protections of the New Deal.”
It’s no surprise Nancy Wade is gearing up for a rematch against Rep. Quigley. She’s definitely a fighter. That’s apparent from her history of social and political activism dating back to the 1970’s. Building on feminist ideals being fought for at the time, Wade also began fighting for social and economic rights. In 1992, she began working on the neighborhood level from her own community and the Horner Park West Neighborhood Association in Chicago.
The Green candidate’s website explains, ‘Now, with a lifetime of activist experience, Nancy Wade is running for Congress in the 5th congressional district in Illinois. Wade seeks to give the voters of the 5th District a progressive champion to fight for real solutions to the challenges we face. She believes that in our current economic, social, and environmental crisis we must all be Super Citizens and answer the call to do everything we can to correct the course our government is taking.’
For more information on Nancy Wade and her campaign for Congress in 2014, visit her website at WadeInCongress.org.
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