http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=138
THE ONLINE BEAT
by John Nichols
ELECTION 2002: Challenging "the corporate
state"
11/03/2002 @ 3:34pm
In a state that prides itself on letting corporations off
easy - especially local firms such as the DuPont chemical conglomerate -
candidates for the position of Delaware Attorney General do not typically
talk about throwing corporate criminals in jail. But Vivian Houghton is
not a typical candidate for the top law enforcement job in Delaware - or,
for that matter, most states.
A politically savvy lawyer with a long track record of
high-profile involvement in Delaware debates on issues of concern to
organized labor, women and minorities, Houghton has shaken up the contest
for Attorney General this year by mounting a sophisticated Green Party
campaign that pulls no punches. "If a worker commits a felony, she or
he is jailed. Yet the state routinely makes companies, whose environmental
violations contribute to Delaware's high cancer rate, pay token
fines," says Houghton, who is running against Republican incumbent
Attorney General M. Jane Brady and former U.S. Attorney Carl Schnee, a
Democrat, in the most hotly contested statewide race on Tuesday's Delaware
ballot. "As Attorney General," Houghton promises, "I will
possess the toughness to cancel a company's corporate charter if the
company either commits a gross violation of its charter or repeatedly
violates state regulations."
It is rare to hear talk of pulling corporate charters
coming from politicians in Delaware, a state that maintains deliberately
weak regulations and enforcement practices in order to encourage
corporations and banking institutions to incorporate there. (For instance,
Enron chartered 685 subsidiaries in Delaware.) It is rarer still to hear
talk about corporations contributing to high cancer rates in a state where
the DuPont chemical conglomerate retains immense business and political
power.
But Houghton is not easily intimidated. After all, she
knows her way around Delaware politics. A veteran of dozens of issue-based
campaigns for equal rights for women, civil rights and labor causes, she
has helped run dozens of Democratic campaigns over the years, including
the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign in the state. She quit the
Democrats in 2000 and joined the Greens in time for Ralph Nader's
presidential campaign of that year. "The Green Party represents what
I idealized the Democratic Party to be," says Houghton, citing the
Green platform's commitment to economic and social justice. Houghton was
also attracted by the party's anti-corporate stance.
"Why should corporate criminals be left to wine and
dine each other in the Hotel du Pont's Green Room when in the same city
someone can be photographed and fingerprinted by the police for just
standing on a street corner?" Houghton asks.
Houghton's promise to take on corporate crime in what is
often referred to as "the corporate state" has drawn
enthusiastic support from Nader, who campaigned with Houghton in
Wilmington last month. Comparing Delaware's lax approach to regulating
corporations with Nevada's approach to gambling, Nader said,
"Delaware is known as the 'corporate Reno' of America," he said,
adding that, "The biggest corporations in the world charter in one of
the smallest states." A Green Attorney General in Delaware, Nader
said, could become one of the most important crusaders in the nation for
corporate accountability.
Whether Delaware will get a Green Attorney General is
another question. While Delaware daily newspapers refer to the race
as a three-way contest, Houghton is being outspent 10-1 by her foes. Yet,
according to Green Party national co-chair Ben Manski, "Vivian
Houghton has clearly established herself as a credible and viable
alternative to the candidates of the establishment parties in a state
where a lot of voters are looking for an alternative."
Houghton is one of 540 Green Party candidates - almost
double the number that ran in 2000 - seeking positions up and down the
ballots of states across the country in Tuesday's election. Most of this
year's Green candidates are focusing on the local races where the party
has done best in past elections. (Of the 157 Greens now holding public
office, the overwhelming majority have been elected to local positions on
city councils, county boards, schools boards and commissions.) But a
number of candidates seeking statewide and national positions this year
are being taken seriously. On Friday, Rev. Jackson endorsed AnnDrea
Benson, the Green Party candidate for the 5th Congressional district in
northwest Pennsylvania.
Benson, who is running against Republican U.S. Rep. Phil
English in a contest that features no Democrat, has also collected
endorsements from the United Electrical Workers, the United Steelworkers,
the Boilermakers and other union groups.
It is still uncommon for unions to back Green candidates
in contests featuring Democrats, but Delaware's Houghton has collected
endorsements from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the United
Auto Workers union, which represents 7,000 workers in the state. For union
voters, Houghton has distinguished herself from the Democratic and
Republican contenders with a pledge to aggressively go after companies
that receive tax breaks, land grants and other incentives for job creation
in the state and then fail to follow through on their commitments.
"When a company downsizes or relocates, workers lose their jobs,
period, but the companies, on the other hand, often find ways to
circumvent their job-creation promises," argues Houghton, who has
been telling union members: "Politics today is almost entirely
corporate driven. Let's change this. Let's work in coalition to put more
justice into the criminal justice system."