LPNY HomeLibertarian Party of NY -- Press Release -- Libertarian and Green Party Presidential Candidates Arrested
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Brian Sullivan
Ithaca Libertarians for Badnarik
415 North Albany Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
(607) 277-5085
bsulliv1@twcny.rr.com

Libertarian and Green Party Presidential Candidates Arrested

Ithaca, NY October 9, 2004 - Ithaca Libertarians watched the "Blognarik" campaign web log late into the night for updates on the arrest of their presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. Badnarik, along with Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, was arrested while committing civil disobedience to protest his exclusion from the presidential debate held Friday night, October 8, at Washington University in St. Louis. The debate was closed to alternative candidates, and despite the fact that Badnarik is on the ballot in Missouri and 47 other states, a police line prevented him and other third-party candidates from participating in the so-called "town hall style" debate. The debate had just begun when the two presidential candidates purposely crossed a police barricade and were handcuffed and arrested.

The Libertarian Party is also protesting the upcoming Democrat/Republican debate in Arizona. When Badnarik was arrested, he was carrying an Order to Show Cause, with which he intended to serve the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). The complaint alleges that certain provisions of the Arizona Constitution are being violated since state resources are being used to stage the debate. The Arizona Constitution prohibits making grants or donations to any individual, association, or corporation. Earlier on Friday, Libertarians attempted to serve these same papers at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the CPD - but were held back from the CPD office by security guards.

Michael Badnarik and David Cobb appeared in Ithaca on October 6 at Cornell University at the Mock Election Third Party Debate.

The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party, polling at 3% nationally in a recent Rasmussen poll. More than 600 Libertarians now serve in public office at the local, state, and federal level, and the party expects to run more than 1,000 candidates for office nationwide in the November election. The Libertarian Party is committed to America's heritage of freedom, which values individual liberty and personal responsibility, a free- market economy of abundance and prosperity, and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade.

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