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"Law & Order" actor promoting bi-partisan candidates, Internet vote
"Law & Order" star Sam Waterston plays a prosecutor on TV, but offscreen he has a new role as pitchman for Unity08 - a grass-roots drive to run a bipartisan presidential ticket in two years with candidates chosen by a national primary on the Internet."I've been waiting for an idea like this for a long time. ... A nonpartisan process of nominating a presidential and vice presidential candidate ... taking money out of the race," Waterston said yesterday in a telephone press conference announcing his support. The 66-year-old Yale University-educated star of "The Killing Fields" said he is not a candidate for office and that the movement is not supporting anyone at this time. The group, whose backers include ex-Jimmy Carter aide Hamilton Jordan, former Gerald Ford adviser Doug Bailey and ex-AOL chief Steve Case, is still working out procedures for qualifying candidates, who will be required to run in bipartisan pairs. Under the plan, registered voters could cast ballots online in a nationwide primary to pick the ticket. Then volunteers would petition states to get the Unity08 candidates on ballots for the 2008 election, the group's Web site says. "Through Unity08, for the first time we are going to throw out the back-room deals," Waterston says in a video posted on the site. "You'll vote. You'll decide. Not the consultants and spin doctors. Not the special interests. Not the lobbyists." Posted by: Dar 2006-12-07 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=174186 |