Green candidate vote nearly triples party registration in 48th congressional special election; Bea Tiritilli finishes fourth

GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Contacts:
Cres Vellucci, State Press Office, 916-996-1970,
Beth Moore Haines, GPCA Spokesperson, 530-277-0610,
Sara Amir (Los Angeles) 310-270-7106,
Susan King (San Francisco) 415-823-5524,

SANTA ANA (December 7, 2005) – A high school teacher – making opposition to the war in Iraq and social justice the focus of her campaign – collected nearly triple the percentage of Green Party registered voters in the 48th Congressional District Special Election here Tuesday.

Bea Tiritilli, who was fourth behind the two major party candidates and an ultra-conservative, shut-down-the-borders American Independent Party candidate, earned about 1.3 percent of the vote in the District, where just .5 percent of voters are registered Green. Tiritilli finished ahead of Libertarian Bruce Cohen in conservative Orange County. Cohen had just .9 percent of the vote. Republican John Campbell won with 44.7 percent, followed by Democrat Steve Young, 28 percent and AI's Jim Gilchrist, 25.1 percent.

"My campaign was a success. I gave voters an opportunity to choose an alternative voice to represent their views, we registered many new Green voters and I did receive more votes than I expected in this extremely conservative district," said Tiritilli. And, while her platform largely focused on ending the war, developing an intelligent energy policy, and forming sane immigration laws which don't scapegoat immigrants for all of society's ailments, Tiritilli said she also received support from conservative voters.

"Over and over again during this campaign, I spoke with voters from various parties who didn't believe their philosophies were represented by the other candidates," Tiritilli said. "Some anti-war Republicans were surprised to learn how closely my views mirror their own. Many people have the impression the Green Party is only about the environment. They don't realize we're much deeper than that. Others have the misconception that being socially liberal equates with being fiscally liberal.

"There was a time in this country when being a conservative meant you were fiscally restrained and wanted to minimize government intrusion into private lives. Perhaps that is why many old-school Republicans are able to find common ground with me," added Tiritilli, who said her campaign focused, in part, on "fiscal responsibility, ending our national debt, and giving local governments greater control over law-making and promotion of individual liberties—issues upon people from a wide cross-section of society can agree."

Sixty-seven Greens hold office in California. Tiritilli is the third California Green to run in a Special Election in 2005. In April, Aimee Allison finished fourth of eight candidates vying for an empty Oakland City Council spot, and Pat Driscoll was eighth of 12 candidates in a 5th District election.

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The Green Party of California
http://www.cagreens.org
P.O. Box 2828, Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
gpca@greens.org