POLITICS ASIDE: MCCLOSKEY, A LIFELONG DEMOCRAT, URGES PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR PAPARIAN FOR CONGRESS TO END THE WAR AND GET RID OF BUSH
By Kevin Uhrich

Pasadena Weekly, CA
June 15 2006

ALL SYSTEMS GREEN: Congressional candidates Bill Paparian of the
Green Party and Democrat Bob McCloskey.

It may not seem like much, but Bob McCloskey believes his 18 percent
showing in last week’s primary election for the 29th Congressional
District seat currently held by Democrat Adam Schiff was pretty
significant.

In the 29th District, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, Glendale,
Burbank, Alhambra, South Pasadena, Temple City and the 55-year-old
McCloskey’s hometown of Monterey Park, 18 percent translates into
more than 6,000 votes; votes cast by party faithful who have turned
against the well-liked, well-financed and politically entrenched
Schiff, a former federal prosecutor who has been one of the leading
voices in the House of Representatives supporting the war in Iraq
and the president’s war on terror.

When one considers that McCloskey, a longtime union organizer and a
lifelong Democrat, only had three months to raise money, to become
known to the public and to knock on doors, capturing more than 6,000
votes from the popular Schiff was not only a major accomplishment but
validation of McCloskey’s belief that the war is wrong and that Bush
should be impeached.

It is for those reasons that McCloskey is doing the unthinkable:
Turning against his own party member and supporting Green Party
candidate Bill Paparian and his race against Schiff in November’s
general election.

Paparian, a lawyer and former Pasadena City Councilman who registered
as Green in order to run against Schiff on an anti-war, anti-Bush
platform, is hardly surprised by McCloskey’s support.

The two appeared at rallies together throughout the campaign this
spring and shared similar sentiments about the war, Bush and other
hot-button issues. Paparian’s wife, Sona, even ran a club called
Armenian Americans for McCloskey and, in fact, Paparian said he
would have dropped out of the running had McCloskey won last week’s
primary. But that didn’t happen.

Nevertheless, Paparian, who didn’t face an opponent in the primary but
has won what he calls "strategic support" from a handful of prominent
Democrats, among them developer and publisher Danny Bakewell and
actor Ed Begley Jr., said he is "deeply honored" to have McCloskey
backing his campaign.

"I think this is a historic moment. I don’t know of any time in the
past when someone with a long history of active involvement with the
Democratic Party who has reached a point that he is now going to be
supporting a Green, not because I’m a Green but because I have the
same stand on the issues as the progressive Democrats," Paparian said.

"The fact is people recognize that the crisis that confronts us is a
crisis that confronts us as Americans. It crosses party lines and this
isn’t a time to be bound by the strict confidences of the Republican
Party or the Democratic Party or the Green Party or the Peace and
Freedom Party or the Libertarian Party. And as Americans we have
to respond to it. We have to say no to this president. We have say
no to this administration. We have to say no to the perpetual war,
this perpetual war economy."

In a brief post-election interview conducted on Thursday, the same
day that the remains of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were being
ghoulishly displayed on television screens and newspaper front
pages around the country, McCloskey spoke with the Weekly about the
campaign against Schiff and the reasons why he is for the Greens in
the November election.

Pasadena Weekly: What was your feeling about the outcome of the
election? I mean, you had to feel a certain measure of success at
some level.

Bob McCloskey: I think the outcome was good considering we only had
three months to run a campaign and we didn’t spend a whole lot of
money. We did the best we could in trying to reach out to voters. I
think if we had gotten to more households and mailed to more voters,
obviously we would have gotten a bigger response. But I think the 18
percent that I did get is indicative of the frustration and anger with
our current congressman. The problem wasn’t my platform. The problem
wasn’t my positions. The problem was not having the finances to reach
out to more voters and really having more time to go door-to-door
and trying to reach more voters.

So, now you are supporting Bill.

I remain in the Democratic Party and I remain a Democrat, but I
have always had an inside-outside strategy. I support candidates,
progressive Democrats, and I have voted outside the party before. … I
am supporting Bill. I want to help him win. I think the voters in
this district, from what our experience has been going door-to-door,
8 out of 10 voters at the door agree with us that it’s time to pull
the troops out of Iraq, it’s time to hold our president accountable.

… In fact, many people support impeachment.

Well, today is a big event in Iraq. They are showing this image on
television and everywhere else. Is this a good thing for us?

It’s immoral to celebrate the death of any human being, no matter
how despised they are by the public or the media or the Bush
administration. Zarqawi is a creation of our US foreign policy, and
really the only ones you can blame for an increase of terrorist acts
around the world is the Bush-Cheney administration for their continued
one-sided support for the occupation of Palestine, their adventurous
murder in Iraq, their threats against Iran. Now we have journalists
like Seymour Hersch saying an attack on Iran is inevitable and he
would not be surprised if the US staged some terrorist attacks to make
that happen. I think it’s time for us to really address the issue of
terrorism by looking at our foreign policy, ending the occupation of
Iraq, supporting a fair-minded policy in Israel and Palestine …

But you are still adamantly a Democrat, and the party isn’t really
following that line. Wouldn’t you be better off as a Green?

There are many races around the country in which progressive democrats
are running … there are 61 members of Congress right now, members of
the progressive caucus, who are calling for an immediate withdrawal
of the troops. There is a minority of progressive Democrats in the
House who I am fundamentally in agreement with on not only the war
in Iraq but on other issues, like universal health care, putting a
lot more federal dollars into education, expanding Medicare … so
there are some good positions being taken by a minority of Democrats,
and I support them.

It just seems unusual having a Democrat supporting a Green.

I stand on principle. I went into this race trying to bring more
attention to the issue of the war, trying to stop this war. I went
into this race on a platform of clean government and protecting
our civil liberties. I was surprised to see Mr. Schiff receiving
more and more money from defense contractors, more than he’s ever
received, so the problem only gets worse. And in good conscience, I
cannot tacitly support Mr. Schiff by not supporting Bill Paparian. I
support Bill Paparian because I support peace and justice in this
country and the issue of the war, the issue of our civil liberties,
the issue of clean government goes far beyond party affiliation.

So you are going to be campaigning for Bill over the next three or
four months?

Definitely. I will be doing all I can to help Bill. The main thing
is to get out and talk to people door to door.