When Green means Republican red

Lovely. Now my Green Party is gaining its own version of the DLC.

With lawmakers' continued failure to pass instant runoff voting, the Republicans have realized they can let some of their partisans defect to the Greens to siphon votes from the Democrats. Arizona seems to be the center of this scam, now that the Greens have finally been given ballot access in that state.

In one of the most important state legislative races, the Green candidate was actually a Republican until 4 days before she filed to run! In another district, a prospective candidate switched from Republican to Green on the same day he filed.

This is more than merely irritating. It's an outright case of fraud. And it's possibly criminal.

For now, Greens in Arizona see through this con game. Several candidates running as Greens are being opposed by the state's Green Party because the candidates are running on a right-wing platform that sounds ripped straight from the fusty pages of the GOP. Some of the candidates in question won't even meet with Green leaders.

For Republicans to run as Greens would be like Democrats running under the misnamed Constitution Party.

If Arizona is like Kentucky, it would mean election rules state candidates have to follow the platforms of their parties. It would also mean this rule is not enforced. But for one party to run phony candidates under another party's line just to act as a spoiler seems to me to be a far sleazier affront than merely not following your party's platform.

(Source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/10/11/20081011greenparty1011.html)