[BwayDems] Zead Ramadan is Suppressing Participation in the Democratic Process

[Paula Diamond Roman]

We don't don't have all the information yet, but we have enough to tell you of one of the most loathsome actions inthe history  of politics in our community.



Zead Ramadan,wealthy businessman and candidate for City Councilmember in the 7th Council District, has subpoenaed scores of petition witnesses, most of them minority women, to appear in State Supreme Court this Tuesday. From Broadway Democrats, we are (so far) aware of nine people who have been subpoenaed. All are African-American women, eight from Grant Houses, one from Cathedral Parkway Towers.


Why is Ramadan doing this? Officially, it is part of a proceeding to invalidate Mark Levine's petitions and throw him off the ballot. But Mark filed over 8,000 signatures, and you only need 450 to qualify.  This is clearly an attempt by a rich man to make Mark spend his resources on frivolous legal challenges. But much, much worse, it's an effort to harass and intimidate Mark's petition carriers, many of whom are women, most of whom are minorities, and all of whom have far less money than the nasty, desperate candidate who is so outrageously hauling them into court. Ramadan is doing this in the year when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, the year when the Republicans are trying to suppress minority voters across the country, and as the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is upon us.


Mark Levine will move on Monday to quash these outrageous subpoenas.

What can we do?
	* First, call on Zead Ramadan to withdraw from the race, as he has shown by this action that he is unfit to represent us.
	* Second, call on Bill Lynch, whose campaign services Ramadan has hired, to quit his campaign. This is not the kind of politics Bill has fought for all of his life!
	* Third, call on Congressman Charlie Rangel, with his close relationships to the people of Grant Houses and Cathedral Parkway Towers and to Bill Lynch, to condemn Ramadan's attempts to harass his constituents whose only "crime" is that they freely participated in the political process.
Additional suggestions and expressions of outrage are welcome,
Curtis Arluck & Paula Diamond-Roman
districtleaders at broadwaydemocrats.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://eight.pairlist.net/mailman/private/bwdupdates/attachments/20130727/4f03802b/attachment.html>