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Green Party of
New Jersey |
| Courier-Post September 7, 2001 By KIM MULFORD |
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HARRISON
Jerry Coleman, the Green Party candidate governor, appealed to the Gloucester County Minority Coalition Thursday night for support. Before outlining his platform, the former Democrat complained he has been shut out of public debates with Republican Bret Schundler and Democrat Jim McGreevey. "While all of them want to get the minority vote, they refuse to debate the minority candidate," he said. The 11-year-old coalition invited Coleman to attend its monthly meeting here at Gloucester County Library. About 25 members attended. The coalition is screening candidates as it prepares to make an endorsement in the Nov. 6 election. Coleman, a two-term Rahway councilman, is from the same party that supported consumer advocate Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential bid. Coleman, a 53-year-old Lawrenceville resident, is president of an accounting company. Government is controlled by corporations rather than by people, said Coleman, who accepts donations only from individuals, not businesses. Among the platforms he discussed: •He wants to reduce property taxes by relying on income taxes for revenue. •He wants to force corporations to clean up polluted properties before selling them. •He opposes proposed legislation for a sports arena in Newark. (The proposal died in the Assembly on Thursday.) •He believes the state should assist Camden, but not take over the financially strapped city. The son of a Virginia police officer, Coleman said racial profiling and consent searches should stop. "That's happened to me several times, even as a city councilman," he said. Coleman wants to establish police citizen review boards and make police officers take cultural diversity training. John Seymour, 47, of East Greenwich, attended the meeting so he could learn about the candidate. It's "grossly unfair" that Coleman has been shut out of the public arena because he didn't raise enough money to receive matching funds from the state, the Philadelphia teacher said. "I agree with a lot of what he's saying," Seymour said. " In this day and time, it's important for the people to completely run the government." |
