Pasadena Mayor Challenges Democrat for
Congress
What is the former Mayor of
stodgy old Pasadena doing running as a Green candidate for Congress?
"Challenging the Democrats and the Democrat incumbent to do something about the
Bush administration, not vote with it most of the time," ex-Mayor Bill Paparian says.
Paparian, a long time Green, notes that the Green party funded challenges to the
2004 election when democrats folded up their

Mayoral Inauguration in 1995 (receiving the traditional top hat and
key) |
tents -- challenges that uncovered
actual wrongdoing in places like Ohio.
But what about the treehugger image?
"Anybody who knows me knows I like a good cigar, and I am no vegetarian, "
Paparian said. "But I don't think anyone thinks it's a good idea to loot the
environment for personal profit, or ignore the serious implications of global
warming. In that respect, most people already know the Green position and agree
with it to one extent or another."
Perhaps it is not a surprise after all -- in an era when Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger creates a Green California website and a Texas Oilman turned
President announces we are addicted to oil, when GM announces its Green vehicle
fleet in national TV ads without any government prompting, and the waiting
list for electric hybrid cars -- any hybrid -- can be months long.
But will all this green-feeling turn into votes for an unlikely Green candidate?

1996 Rose Parade riding in a 1948
Chrysler Town and County Convertible.
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"Of course it will, " said Paparian. "People are ready to stand up to this
administration, something Greens have been doing all along."
"Most people don't realize that Greens have also been on the forefront of
holding this President accountable for this disastrous war, for the erosion of
civil rights through the Patriot Act, and now this illegal domestic spying."
Paparian says he is running because "Schiff has let his constituents down. He
has voted with the administration so many times that there is even a serious
Democrat challenger in the primary."
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