From: harelb@MATH.CORNELL.EDU (Harel Barzilai)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.activism
Subject: WHO IS LARRY AGRAN (Demoract) FOR PRESIDENT?
Date: 7 Apr 92 19:00:24 GMT
Article-I.D.: tba.9204071900.AA07135
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB



	"On every issue, Agran is more specific, more consistent, and
	more progressive than Jerry Brown..."
		-- _Village Voice_


 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
	"AGRAN: THE BLACKED-OUT CANDIDATE"

	Letter to the Editor, by Dooley Kiefer, Ithaca, to _Ithaca
	Times_, April 2, 1992 edition.
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

How many Tompkins County voters have heard of Larry Agran? He's been
campaigning for the presidency since August 1991 -- the second
Democrat to announce his candidacy. He's on the ballot in New York
State, and got more votes in New Hampshire than Jerry Brown. So why
havn't we heard of him?

	[Note: Agran did *not* get more votes than Brown in the NH
	*primary* (this may have a tiny bit to do with the media
	black-out overviewed below). Agran DID *poll* ahead of Brown
	in NH (original results by available by email), this I know
	for a fact, and not far behind Harkin; it is *after* this
	strong 	showing by Agran, the mainstream nooz refused to
	include Agran in any of the natioanlly broadcast debates -HB]

The national media havce shut him out as though he doesn't exist.

    "With Catch-22 logic, Agran has been told by news media executives
    that he has not mearned the rights to media exposure because,
    among other things, he has not received enough media exposure,"

according to the _Columbia Journalism Review_. As the _Village Voice_
puts it,

    "Perhaps Larry Agran doesn't pass the media celebrity test:
    there's nothign zany about him, he's not a realist, has no ties to
    S&Ls, doesn't appear to cheat on his wife. But Agran, a former
    major of Irvine, California (America's largest master-planned
    city, population 110,000), A Harvard law honors grad, ex-staffer
    of the California legislature, published author, urban reformer,
    environmentalist and foreign policy sophisicate, does make his
    fellow Democrats looks like ignoramuses by comparison. And -- an
    astonishing feat -- he won office as a liberal Democrat in a city
    with a two and a half to one Republican edge."

Before the New Hampshire primary Agran had a full-time staff of 51,
had qualified for the ballot or caucuses in 27 states, and had raised
$200,000 from donors in 37 states -- well on his way to federal
matching funds (which require a minimum of $5000 from small donations
in each of 20 states). His comments were well-received by voters at
candidate forums (when he was allowed to speak) -- for example, last
Saturday in Buffalo -- but have been purges from national news
accounts.

	[NOTE: The New York Times in essence declared Agran the winner
	of a candidates' forum in D.C. when it stated:

	    "dozens of mayors meeting here today seemed to agree on
	    one thing: the single candidate who truly understands
	    urban needs is Larry Agran."

	"MAYORS APPEAR UNMOVED BY THE MAJOR CANDIDATES. [subtitle:]
	Enthusiasm for an Obscure Contender with a $25 Billion Plan"
	By Richard L. Berke. New York Times, Jan. 24, 1992. -- HB]

According o the _Village Voice_, the president of NBC News told Agran
it was "the consensus of our news judgment" that he not be included in
their debate, and although MacNeil/Lehrer covered his announcemnet
last year, by January 22 of this year it was their judgment not to
invite him to their TV debate.

	[NOTE: this is all the more astounding when one notes that the
	above-mentioned poll, with Agran's 4% ahead of "major
	candidate" Brown (3%) and not far behind Harkin (7%), was in a
	January 25 poll by American Research Group -- and MacNeil/L
	had ample time to change it's mind before the Jan 31st debate,
	yet Agran was *still* exluded, as not a "significant" candidate]

And the League of Women Voters, much to their shame, also closed him
out, citing as one of their criteria "recognition by the national medi
aas candidate meriting media attention" 

    [NOTE: more circular logic. Worse, in a letter to League
    supporters by Susan Lederman, the chair of the League's Education
    Fund, Kederman solicited a contribution of $300 or more to
    underwrite the cost of the debate.  In her letter, Ms. Lederman
    wrote:

	Primary debates are really the most important debates of any
	election cycle because they allow voters to get to know their
	parties' candidates ... GIVE LESSER KNOWN CANDIDATES a chance
	to be heard ... and get citizens excited about the issues that
	will be decided by their final votes next November.

    As Agran has noted "This .. act of exclusion is not only an act of
    hypocrisy, but also suggests that the League used fraudulent means
    to raise funds from its supporters across America." --HB]

I would think the media would welcome an intelligent, informed and
able candidate. I have heard Agran in a New Hampshire debate and once
on NAtional Public Radio, and head his letter to the New Yoirk Times
(which actually cropped him from their September 8 group photo of the
candidates at a tri-state Iowa party unity dinner!(*)) as well as his
article in the February 12 In These Times.

Agran supports nationwide single-payer health insurance for us all; he
proposes to cut the military budget by 50 poercent and spend that
peace divident on education and re-training, public safety,
environmental protection, rebuilding our cities and town and
energy-efficient transportation.

As the _Village Voice_ puts it, "On every issue, Agran is more specific,
more consistent, and more progressive than Jerry Brown... He'd send
$15 billion per year to schools, and supports vastly increased AIDS
research, treatment on demand for alcohol and drug dependency, sterile
needles for addicts and free condoms for teens. He proposes an
additional one percent tax on the *assets* of the wealthiest one per
cent fo the popoulation, a move that might generate $30 billion to $50
billion a year."

The Agran campaign can be reached at (714)250-7340, or one can leave
a message at (800)727-9425. Donations to "Agran for President" can be
sent to P.O. Box 159, Irvine, CA 92650. At this point, Agran is on the
ballot in at least 30 states, but with no national media coverage, has
to limit his New York Appearances to the largest metropolitan areas,
so we won't see him in the middle of upstate.

Still, I hope Tompkins country Democrats, with their well-know
indepenedence and feistiness, will be moved to vote for Agran on
April 7.

-- Dooley Kiefer, Ithaca

------------------------------------------------------------------
(*)RE: Photo cropping: In Agran's words, from an In These Times:
------------------------------------------------------------------

        All I asked -- and indeed all I expected -- from the party and the
national media was a chance to present my platform to the American voters.
But the media's response ranged largely from apathy to derision.

        Still, some took note.  I was invited along with Paul Tsongas to
address the Tri-State Democrats Unity Dinner in Sioux City, Iowa.  (At the
time, we were the only declared candidates.)  The hosts also invited
potential candidates Tom Harkin a nd Bill Clinton to speak.  All four
speakers were treated as equals.  My speech was broadcast on C-SPAN with
the others, and I was included in the group photo of the candidates.

        But if you asked the national media, I wasn't even there.  The New
York Times published a version of the group photo in which I had been
cropped out.  (As Casey Stengel used to say, "You can look it up."  The
national edition, Sunday, September 8, 1991, p. 16.  I'm standing just off
to the right, where the other candidates are gesturing.)  The extensive
article on the event quoted the other three speakers at length -- two of
whom were not even declared candidates at that point.  The Times deigned
only to mention my presence with one sentence near the end of the report,
calling me a "dark horse" candidate.

	--HB
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