New Broom Coalition

For Immediate Release
5/06/2008

Nashville, TN: The Green Party of Tennessee has nominated Chris Lugo
as their candidate for US Senate in Tennessee this year at their
state nominating convention in Nashville held Saturday. Lugo said
that he was excited to be representing the most progressive political
party in the state of Tennessee, "The Green Party is the most
progressive party in the state, and I am glad to be representing them
as a candidate for federal office. My views about the environment,
the war, health care and education are highly compatible with the ten
key values of the Green Party. I hope to represent them well as a
candidate and to promote the cause of peace through my campaign."

Lugo had originally been seeking the Democratic nomination in January
and was the first to register with the state, but then dropped out of
the Democratic nominating process in March, citing strong differences
in basic values, "Originally I had considered running as a Democrat.
There was no one running because the Governor had scared off all of
the front-runners and I felt like this was a good opportunity to
promote the peace issue, which I have been advocating for since the
spring of 2002. But after actively campaigning as a Democrat for
several months I got the sense that the Democrats and myself were not
on the same page. I wish the Democrats well and I hope that they
come up with a clear anti-war policy this year."

The Green Party has had a long history as an advocate for peace and
justice and has issued numerous releases opposing the war in Iraq as
well as US intervention in Afghanistan and has condemned the
detention of prisoners of war at Guantanamo Bay and has spoken out
clearly against torture, "The Green Party is really the conscience of
this country. They have been working for peace and against war for a
long time now. The Democrats voted for the war in Iraq and have
voted for every funding appropriation that has come to the Senate
since that day."

The US Senate is currently considering extending funding for the war
in Iraq with another appropriation of $178 billion dollars for the
ongoing occupation of Iraq, "The democrats are dragging their feet on
this one and they have been so disappointing since they came to power
in 2006. I am glad that they are calling for a troop withdrawal as
part of their proposal, but the fact is they are going to vote for
spending for billions more for the war. This is the Democrats bait
and switch and it isn't the first time they have called for troop
withdrawals sometime down the road while voting to spend billions
more for war right now."

The Green Party has also been the strong party on environmental
issues for over twenty five years, having brought the issues of
global warming, public transportation, alternative energy, the oil
crisis, the food crisis, corporate agribusiness and species
extinction to the public's attention long before being Green was
considered fashionable. "Nowadays we have Green Drinks and Green
commerce and Carbon credits and people are taking global warming
seriously. It looks like everyone is going Green and we have been
doing it for over twenty-five years. We are the Green Party and the
public is going to need the collective wisdom that this party has
developed from its twenty five year commitment to environmental
sustainability."

Lugo favors weaning the public off of oil and moving toward a
sustainable energy infrastructure. "If you look at my platform you
will see that I have been talking about alternatives to oil since I
began this campaign. It is clear that the current oil crisis is
being driven by tensions in the Middle east and investment
speculation in energy commodities. I support legislation to require
that big oil begin to invest in sustainable energy. The billions of
dollars that are currently being driven into the pockets of investors
needs to go into research and development to find alternatives to oil
and coal."

The Green Party of Tennessee, which held its nominating convention in
Nashville on Saturday, also endorsed John Miglietta, an Associate
Professor of Political Science at Tennessee State University, as
their candidate for the Fifth Congressional District. Miglietta, who
is an officer with the Green Party of Middle Tennessee, will be
challenging Jim Cooper for the House Seat, which covers most of
Davidson County and the surrounding area. "I am happy to have John as
a running mate and will be actively campaigning with him when I am in
the middle Tennessee area. I also hope to debate the candidates for
US Senate who are running this year, including Libertarian candidate
Daniel Lewis, Republican incumbent Lamar Alexander and other
candidates on the ballot. I believe the voters deserve the
opportunity to hear from all the voices in the US Senate race this
year and hope the press and civic organizations will allow the
opportunity for democracy to be practiced as it was intended."

Chris Lugo will be on the ballot on November 4th, 2008 in the US
Senate general election in Tennessee. For more information please
visit www.chris4senate.us.