Gusciora seeks Gore delegates for 2008
draft....@gmail.com
By Max Pizarro - July 9, 2007 - 3:03pm
Tags: Reed Gusciora, Al Gore
Assemblyman Reed Gusciora wants former Vice President Al Gore to be
the next president. So he's launching a statewide grassroots movement
to muster the necessary New Jersey delegates to put Gore's name in at
the Democratic National Convention next summer.
Forget about a draft Al Gore movement now. It's too late, Gusciora
contends. Gore supporters, says the veteran progressive legislator,
need to organize and take their cause straight out of the February,
2008, Democratic primary to the convention in Denver.
Coming off a ceremony at Giants stadium last Friday at which Gov. Jon
Corzine signed the Global Warming Response Act, which Gusciora co-
wrote and which global warming guru Gore personally attended, the
Assemblyman said he was pumped up to go statewide with his Go Gore
message.
"I would like to try to find people who are interested," said
Gusciora. "The American psyche has a way of correcting its mistakes.
Gore's ideas were really criticized on global warming when he ran for
president in 2000."
They won't be now, particularly after what Gusciora and 74% of the
voters in New Jersey, according to Quinnipiac University, see as the
train wreck presidency of George W. Bush.
Gusciora said as it stands there are too many problems with the
Democratic candidates who are now running.
Senator Hillary Clinton?
"I just can't get around her war vote and her lack of remorse over
it," said the Assemblyman. "I would support her if she were the
nominee."
But reluctantly.
And the same goes for Sen. Barack Obama, whom Gusciora sees as
inexperienced, and Sen. John Edwards, whom the Assemblyman can't see,
frankly.
Gusciora said he couldn't claim to have any connection to the Gore
machinery and what other grassroots groups are doing beyond the State
of New Jersey. He's planning to work the phones in the coming weeks to
find support here.
The state Division of Elections won't put someone's name in a slogan
without his or her consent. But there are ways around it. Ronald
Reagan didn't enter the New Jersey primary against Ford in 1976, so
his supporters filed delegates under slogan "Former California
Governor."
Also in 1976, an uncommitted slate that won most delegate seats in the
Democratic primary. The slate, headed by Sen. Harrison Williams and
AFL-CIO Pres. Charles Marciante, was for Hubert Humphrey or Jerry
Brown. Gov. Brendan Byrne headed Jimmy Carter's slate.