Green Party activist says he will run for Congress in 2002 election

Marc Haggerty was the untold story of this year's Eighth District Congressional race.\nThe scraggly-haired songwriter ran as a write-in candidate for the Green Party.\nCampaigning only in Monroe County and shunning media attention, he kept a low profile.\n"I only campaigned for the last month because I had to work, and I couldn't afford to take time off," he said. "I need to support myself just like everyone else."\nRefusing to even have his picture taken for the local newspapers, Haggerty relied mostly on word of mouth. To build up support, he made the rounds at activist meetings and rallies.\n"I attended any meeting with a Green Party angle, like I-69 or sweatshops," he said. "We reached hundreds of people."\nWhen all the ballots were counted, he had 269 votes.\nBut, hoping to mount a more visible campaign, the Green Party already has its sights set on 2002. Local activist Jeff Melton has declared his candidacy -- two years before the election.\nGenerally, Congressional candidates give it six months before they even start fund-raising.\n"I am announcing my candidacy to the public now to dramatize the lengths to which a third-party candidate must go to run a serious campaign in Indiana," he said. "This state has among the most restrictive ballot access laws in the nation."\nMany local Green Party activists are still bitter about a failed petition drive to get their presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, on the state ballot. By a mid-July deadline, they needed 31,000 signatures and came up a few thousand short.\n"When John Anderson came along in 1980, states have made it harder for independent third-party candidates to get on the ballot," said graduate student Peter Drake, the Monroe County coordinator of the Nader campaign. "In some states, you simply had to have $25. But we needed 31,000 signatures."\nDespite the obstacles, Melton hopes to launch a full-fledged campaign. He intends to stump "as much as possible" throughout the entire district, which stretches to the Kentucky border. While he said he knows he has no shot of winning, he hopes to bring his set of issues to the fore.\n"When I moved to Bloomington, we were represented by Frank McCloskey who took meritorious stands on many issues," he said. "Then we got John Hostettler in 1994. He's earned close to a zero rating from environmental groups, opposes the minimum wage and never met a giveaway to the rich that he didn't like."\nThough Nader was not on the ballot, he had a strong showing in Monroe County -- receiving 2,885 votes, or 7.1 percent of the presidential votes. Nader only won three percent nationwide.\n Melton believes many Eighth District voters are fed up with "the lack of choice" between the two major parties. He cited Hostettler's fallen Democratic challenger, Paul Perry, who towed the conservative line on issues like gun control and abortion.\n "He mirrored his Republican opponent on so many stands," Melton said. "I am tired of people having to choose between two candidates who don't really represent their needs or interests. So was his Democratic base, apparently."\nPerry lost in 11 of the district's 13 counties, including Vanderburgh -- the most populous and reliably Democratic county. While Hostettler's margin of victory was a slim 21 votes, most observers agree that a Democrat has to carry Vanderburgh going away to win in the Eighth District. \nIf elected, Melton pledges to protect the environment, fight for worker's rights and social justice, and work to abolish the death penalty. A North Carolina native, the part-time college lecturer has been immersed in progressive activism since he first protested nuclear weapons as a college student.