The Daily Orange coverage of Congressional race leaves out Green Party candidate

I am disappointed The Daily Orange neglected to mention Green Party Congressional Candidate Ursula Rozum in Monday’s cover story about Syracuse University students’ efforts to get the vote out.

This journalistic error is all the more tragic considering one of my colleagues, Ethan Bodnaruk, penned a letter to the editor about six days ago calling out The D.O.’s lack of coverage of the College Greens and other means of “rebelling” other than voting Republican.

According to the graphic The D.O. included in the article, 8 percent of city residents polled would vote for Rozum, yet The D.O. neglected to mention her party affiliation and include her in the 8 percent slice!

This is quite surprising considering her potential to be a spoiler, which is probably the “hottest” issue for most of the local media when it comes to this campaign. The closeness of this race and the attention Rozum is generating are making this one of the most watched races in the country!

It saddens me that The D.O. is perpetuating the exclusionary logic that limits public debate to the two parties — never mind that most voting-aged Americans aren’t even registered with one of the major parties. If anyone is concerned that Rozum will spoil the race for Maffei, he or she should call for instant runoff elections, which are the way the majority of the world conducts its elections. Such an approach would be far more democratic, but sadly the rigid, corporate two-party system would not allow alternative parties to get their foot in the door.

Additionally, it seems like the students involved in the College Republicans and College Democrats clubs just seem interested in career advancement and blindly following the party leadership, rather than thinking critically about how the leadership of these parties act and the positions they take.

This is not exactly a reflection of the kind of critical thinking a campus should be promoting. As Bodnaruk stated in his letter, “The Green Party has a clear platform and explicit values: grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom, social justice, decentralization and a focus on both economic and environmental sustainability.”  I urge The D.O. and greater campus community to familiarize themselves with the Rozum campaign and “never stop questioning,” as Albert Einstein once said.

Andrew Greco

Graduate Student in Environmental Studies

State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry