FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Columbus,Ohio-The secretary of state’s office notified Green Party candidates Bob Fitrakis and Anita Rios that they have successfully been certified to appear on the November 2006 statewide general election ballot in the race for Governor/Lt Governor. The Fitrakis/Rios team will appear as Independent candidates on the November ballot.

The Ohio Green Party voted to endorse Bob Fitrakis and Anita Rios for Governor/Lt. Governor during their convention last February. Bob Fitrakis is an attorney, an award winning journalist and a professor of political science. He earned his law degree at the Ohio State University Moritz School of Law and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Anita Rios is a longtime union activist and community organizer with a background in mental health. Anita is the former chair of the Green Party National Committee. She grew up one of eight children to parents who were Mexican American migrant farm workers.

The Fitrakis/Rios team promises to form a rainbow coalition of Greens by creating an alliance of the Green Party faithful with independent progressive people of color. The Green Party offers a true alternative to the corporate influenced two party system. Fitrakis and Rios will serve the PEOPLE of Ohio through their “people first” agenda:

*Zero Tolerance for Corruption (accepts NO Money from Corporate Interests)
*New Job Growth in “Green” Industries and through Fair Trade
*Universal Health Care for All Ohioans (supports SPANOhio’s Ballot Initiative)
*Development of Alternative Energy Industries and Mass Transportation
*Fair, Transparent & Verifiable Elections
*Bring Our National Guard Home from Overseas NOW!
"Our unprecedented grassroots effort sends a clear signal to both major parties that people are fed up with the bipartisan collusion of the two major parties and their kowtowing to corporate interests.

Both parties allow our jobs to be shipped to China and other repressive regimes that torture and deny human rights, while at the same time remaining silent on our own illegitimate Bush regime that practices torture, conducts warrantless searches, and continues to wage immoral and illegal war in Iraq."