Unity08
Unity08 is an American political group that aims to offer an alternative to the Democratic Party and Republican Party presidential tickets for the 2008 U.S. presidential election through a secure online vote. [1] Founded in 2006, the group has gained attention from various media outlets, with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter dubbing the group's efforts as a kind of open source politics. [2]
History
The group was initially founded as a non-profit organization by several political figures, including former Maine governor Angus King and former presidential aides Doug Bailey, Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon. [1] In an interview that aired on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in May 2006, Unity08's founders said that the group was formed in response to the polarization between the Republican and Democratic political parties. The group cited a poll it commissioned from Princeton Survey Research and claimed that 82 percent of Americans think that the two major political parties are unable to address the country's problems and that 73 percent of Americans are in favor of alternatives to the two parties. [3]
The group's status as a non-profit organization came into question when they asked the Federal Election Commission if the group could defer registering as a political action committee until after its candidates for the 2008 presidential election are named. A draft released by the commission in July 2006 concluded that "Unity 08 must register as a policy committee and therefore is subject to the reporting requirements and limitations and prohibitions". [4] In October 2006, the commission voted on the matter and declared that the group must register as a political action committee. [5]
Goals
The group's primary goal is to create a presidential ticket where the Presidential candidate and the Vice-Presidential candidate are not both from the same major political party. They plan to achieve this through an online political convention. [3] The group claims that it does not intend to create a third political party, but that it does aim to make the other political parties adopt aspects of its centrist agenda. Co-founder Doug Bailey claims "What we are trying to do is to create a forum for people who are in the middle who have been left out of politics."[1]
Potential Candidates
While Unity '08 hasn't officially courted any specific candidates, actor Sam Waterston ("Law and Order"), a member of the Unity '08 Advisory Council, acknowledged in an April 25, 2007 interview on washingtonpost.com's "PostTalk" show that Unity '08 would need an appealing candidate at its center to succeed. This was in response to speculation that Unity '08 is pursuing either New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and/or Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel[6]. [1].
Criticism
Campaign watchdog groups such as The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 have criticized the group's initial classification as a non-profit organization, "because Unity 08 makes clear that it's [sic] principal purpose is to influence the 2008 presidential election". [4]
The group has also come under criticism by political commentators such as David Harsanyi of The Denver Post, who contends that the Unity08 ticket will serve as a "spoiler" for one party's ticket, siphoning off enough votes from one candidate and delivering the election to the other (while failing to win the election itself). Harsanyi points to the third party tickets of Ross Perot in 1992 and Ralph Nader in 2000 that may have delivered those elections to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. [7]
Liberal bloggers have also expressed frustration with Unity08 because they contend that the group promotes "establishment" centrist or center-right politicians in the molds of Joe Lieberman and Michael Bloomberg while at the same time doing little to promote the progressive values it would seemingly represent. Chris Bowers of MyDD, a blog that has long denounced Unity08, called the group's supporters "rich, center-right, "non-partisan" donors who trash progressives and never criticize conservatives in power," and claimed that the movement has no grassroots support.[8]
References
- ^ a b c VandeHei, Jim (2006-05-31). "From the Internet to the White House". The Washington Post. p. A04. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Alter, Jonathan (2006-06-05). "A New Open-Source Politics". Newsweek. Retrieved 2006-10-21.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "Online NewsHour: Unity Party Eyes 2008 election". Retrieved 2006-10-20.
- ^ a b Ackley, Kate (2006-07-16). "Roll Call: FEC Counsel Skeptical of Unity08 Request". Campaign Legal Center. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Legal Center Weekly Report: October 5, 2006". Campaign Legal Center. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/25/AR2007042502379.html
- ^ Harsanyi, David. "Unity08 should stick to Kumbaya". The Denver Post. Retrieved 2006-10-21.
- ^ Bowers, Chris. "Unity08 has no grassroots support at all". MyDD. Retrieved 2006-12-04.
External links
- Unity '08 Homepage
The Unity Wiki(Dead as of June 28, 2007)- Campaigns Wikia on the Unity Movement
- Mayor Michael Bloomberg's official homepage