September 23, Hancock, NY-- Mark Dunau, the Green Party candidate in the 24th Congressional District, will walk over 120 miles in the 11 counties that make up the 24th CD. Dunau's goal is to make the citizens of these counties aware that they exist as a voting block in this newly created Congressional District: No newspaper has printed a complete map of the 24th CD.
Dunau is the only candidate in the race for Congress in the 24th CD that does not support the Bush Administrationšs economic, trade, and environmental policies. Dunau is also the only candidate that opposes the Bush Administrationšs assaults on civil liberties, and its threatened war with Iraq. The other candidates in the race are Sherwood Boehlert, Republican, David Walrath, Conservative, Rebecca West, Right to Life. There is no Democratic candidate.
Dunau will walk the 11 counties of the 24th CD in five sections over five Fridays and Saturdays beginning in Geneva in Ontario County on September 27, and ending in Rome in Oneida County on October 26.
His schedule is as follows:
Ontario, Seneca, Cayuga Counties; September 27 & 28-- Dunau walks route 20 from Geneva to Auburn, 29 miles.
Tompkins & Cortland County; October 4-- Dunau walks route 13 from Dryden to Cortland, 10 miles. Tioga, Broome, and Chenango Counties;
October 11 & 12-- Dunau walks routes 79 and 206 from Richford to Greene, 25 miles.
Otsego and Herkimer Counties; October 18 & 19-- Dunau walks routes 28 and 167 from Cooperstown to Little Falls, 33 miles,
Oneida County; October 25 & 26-- Dunau walks the Revolutionary Trail from Utica to Rome, 16 miles, and Route 46 from Rome to Oneida, 15 miles.
The 24th CD was recently created in Albany to give the Republican Party an easy win in the General Election. Most media people believe the real "election" happened when incumbent Boehlert narrowly defeated Conservative candidate Walrath in the Republican Primary. Dunau is walking 120 miles through the 24th CD in the hope that while the election is "over", that the media will at least give the 24th CD and his candidacy enough attention that the General Election may be used to gauge the support in the 24th CD for the Bush Administrationšs policies concerning the economy, trade and war with Iraq. As David Rossi of the Binghamton Press & Sun recently wrote, Dunau's lack of campaign dollars give his candidacy and "excellent ideas" little chance for success unless the media points out that he exists on the ballot line.
Dunau is running on a platform that includes 18 Acts he promises to sponsor if elected to Congress. These Acts can be reviewed in their entirety at Dunau's web site, www.ruralparty.com In particular, Dunau emphasizes protecting the self-employed. Dunau describes the self-employed as the highest taxed, most regulatory burdened, least protected Americans. They make up the backbone of rural economies like the 24th Congressional District, yet neither Republicans nor Democrats address their needs or their issues. Dunau believes that the survival of the self-employed is the key to prosperous rural economies, and that many ecological issues can only be solved by protecting the self-employed. For instance, over 90% of farmers are self-employed.
Dunau believes that the right to be one's own boss is as fundamental to democracy as freedom of speech and the right to privacy. If elected to Congress, he has promised to sponsor the Self-Employed Survival Act. This Act would reduce the Self-Employment Tax to 7.65%, prevent anti-trust law from being applied to the self-employed, and require the federal government to study the effect of mandated regulations on self-employed producers before such regulations become law.
Dunau has also proposed Acts that would prohibit the import of food grown with Chemicals banned in the USA, would withdraw the United States from the NAFTA and GATT trade agreements, would protect collective bargaining rights, would limit credit card interest rates to a maximum of 11%, would fortify the United States' nuclear power plants against terrorist attack, would create a voluntary national cancer registry to correlate incidences of cancer with environmental causes, would capitalize renewable energy development, and would protect the nation's food supply by prominently labeling and safety testing genetically engineered food.
Dunau points out that Sherwood Boehlert voted to increase the Self-Employment Tax rate by 50%, voted for NAFTA and GATT, voted with the credit card companies to make bankruptcy harder, voted for the scientifically criticized missile defense shield, and voted for the 1996 Telecommunications Act that is responsible for the elimination of much local radio and television ownership. During the recent Republican Primary, Boehlert fully supported President Bushšs threatened war with Iraq. Dunau also points out that the economy of the Southern Tier and Central New York is worse off now than when Boehlert took office 20 years ago.
24th Congressional District
All towns and cities in ONEIDA COUNTY, HERKIMER COUNTY, CHENANGO COUNTY, CORTLAND COUNTY, CAYUGA COUNTY, SENECA COUNTY. OTSEGO COUNTY; towns of Unidilla, Otego, Butternuts, Morris, Laurens, Pittsfield, New Lisbon, Hartwick, Otsego, Burlingon, Edmeston, Exeter, Plainfield, Richfield, Springfield, part of Cherry Valley, Oneonta; city of Oneonta. BROOME COUNTY; towns of Colesville, Fenton, Chenango, Maine, Barker, Nanticoke, Triangle, Lisle. TIOGA COUNTY; towns of Tioga, Candor, Newark Valley, Berkshire, Richford, part of Owego. TOMPKINS COUNTY; Newfield, Enfield, Ulysses, Lansing, Groton, Dyden, Caroline. ONTARIO COUNTY; town and city of Geneva.
